Verstappen disappointed with his RB19: 'The car felt terrible'

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Verstappen reacts frustrated: 'The car felt terrible' Hungarian Grand Prix
22 July 2023 at 16:59
Last update 22 July 2023 at 17:21
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  • GPblog.com

Max Verstappen did not get pole position for the race in Hungary for the first time since the Miami Grand Prix. The Dutchman fell 0.003 seconds short of beating Lewis Hamilton. During the post-qualifying press conference, Verstappen clearly expressed his frustrations.

Verstappen has difficult weekend in Hungary

"Terrible," begins the man who won last year's Grand Prix at the Hungaroring. "It doesn't matter where you are on the grid. If it doesn't feel good, it doesn't feel good. And the whole qualifying, I've been struggling a lot with all weekend, really. With the shift and balance, I understeered, and you tried to correct it, and it's oversteer, and it was just never in a good window. So I think with the upgrades we brought as well to this weekend, it is extremely disappointing from our side. I mean, we are P2, but looking at how the whole year has been, I didn't expect this to happen"

Red Bull brought five different upgrades to Hungary this weekend, yet Mercedes and McLaren in particular seem to be closer than before. Verstappen, however, argues that this is not because of the new upgrades: "No, just the balance of the car. Because, you know, we've been trying a few things. The upgrade looks good. It's just that we didn't nail the balance of the car. Simple as that."

This weekend was the first time a new qualifying format had to be driven. In Q2, everyone drove on medium tyres and in Q3 everyone was on soft. Verstappen found almost a second between Q2 and Q3, and that is a bigger difference than what the difference between medium and soft tyres should be. "I tried to correct a few things in Q3, but there's only so much you can do. And I thought my first lap wasn't too bad, but it still felt like I was driving on ice with the front axle. It's just very picky," Verstappen concluded.