Max Verstappen (6th/Red Bull Racing): “Then you’ve got a massive problem”

Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen had a qualifying session that seemed to be cursed ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix. Normally, the cars get faster as a session progresses. But the Dutchman experienced the opposite phenomenon at the Hungaroring. With every lap, it became harder for him to set a good lap time. As a result, he finished in a disappointing sixth place. His team-mate Isack Hadjar could only manage eighth on the grid.

Car degradation rather than tyre degradation

Max Verstappen said after qualifying: “The weekend has been difficult for us overall so far.” And, with a touch of cynicism, he added: “But when it’s not your tyres that are wearing out, but your car, then you’ve got a massive problem.” Indeed.

Verstappen described the problem: “The car got worse lap by lap. The more laps I did, the harder it became to put a lap together.”

“We need to get this sorted”

And he made it clear: “We need to sort this out by tomorrow. The car isn’t drivable like this. You can see it in the final corner. When I turn in there, the rear of the car is practically non-existent.”

Has he had a problem like this before this year? Verstappen: “We’ve had it a couple of times. But we need to work out what caused it this time. Because it’s always been different problems. That’s why it’s so difficult to get it under control.” Verstappen has also been looking into it himself in search of a solution: “You can see from the data that we’ve lost aero and it’s got worse.”

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Verstappen: “My car was oversteering more and more. I’m pretty good at recognising when there’s a problem or something isn’t quite right. But the car became uncontrollable in some corners and on corner entry.” The car simply wasn’t ‘sticking’ to the track anymore, you could say. One thing is already clear: starting from sixth on the grid, it won’t be an easy Hungarian Grand Prix for Max Verstappen…