8:00 – Max Verstappen acknowledges that the championship will be a difficult story this year. The Red Bull Racing driver hoped to make a shot at the world title this season, but is already 28 points behind after two races.
On top of that, Verstappen achieved a very disappointing result on Saturday in the qualification for the Grand Prix of Hungary, the third race of the 2020 Formula 1 season. The Dutchman did not go further than seventh, while the Hungaroring on paper must be a good track for Red Bull, due to the many slow corners, and he took his first pole on this track last year. To the question of GPUpdate.net how he assesses his chances for this year, respappen: “It certainly doesn’t look great. But I hope this will be our worst weekend and that we can learn a lot from this. We will of course try to do some right for the upcoming races. “
The fact that the RB16 is an animal that is not easy to tame can be seen in the many moments that Verstappen and his teammate Alexander Albon experience with it. Where the Mercedes does exactly what the driver wants her to do – look back at Lewis Hamilton’s pole lap on Saturday, the car is on track – the Red Bull wants to go its own way. “It has clearly not been the easiest car to drive this year so far,” Verstappen admits frankly in Hungary. “A car is never very easy to drive when you drive it at the limit – there is always a chance of spinning or locking the front wheels, otherwise you are not pushing – but with this car it is obvious that once you are approaching the point where you can experience a moment, the car just suddenly breaks away. And then it is not easy to catch the car. “
Hugely acidic
After Red Bull had a disappointing start on Friday, it was decided to make a big change to the car. Reportedly, the RB16 was even brought all the way back to the specification used during the winter tests. This resulted in the formation continuing to work later than allowed on Friday evening, which should only happen twice per season. Despite the mechanics’ efforts, the car’s performance on Saturday was still far from what we all would like to see. “I just wanted to see if we could solve certain things for the balance,” said Verstappen about the fact that Red Bull had broken the curfew after the Friday training sessions. “I think it has gotten a bit better,” he adds. “But I don’t know whether it has really gotten faster. It is a pity for the mechanics, because they worked all night to get that car ready. For them it is very sour.”
Whether during the preseason, Verstappen already had a premonition that it could be a difficult year? “No, I think there are always things that could be improved, but there was no question of a big problem or something like that,” respappen Verstappen. “There are just little things you can improve on. But during the long break that followed, some teams have probably taken a step forward and we may have gone the wrong way.” As a result, Verstappen and Albon are now stuck with a sulky car. “We just don’t have a good balance through the corner. We are struggling with understeer, oversteer and a lack of grip. We also don’t have enough top speed, and that all together makes the car just slow.” Verstappen was three tenths slower in qualifying on Saturday than a year ago. “Last year we were on pole here so it’s just not right”, Verstappen summarizes the situation. “But after this weekend we’ll just analyze everything again and see what we can do better.”
However, the Hungarian Grand Prix still has to be held on Sunday afternoon. As befits Verstappen, he will give everything to get the most out of the race. Is the podium still feasible from the seventh starting place? “I don’t know,” said Verstappen. “From third place to where I stand, it is quite well together, so anything can happen. Only the Racing Point drivers start on the mediums, so they have an advantage when it comes to the strategy But we are going to see It is of course not ideal to start seventh But yes, maybe it will rain It can of course also cause some chaos There are always some things that can happen. “
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