Max Verstappen cut a frustrated figure after Friday practice at the Hungarian Grand Prix, describing his “undriveable” Red Bull RB21 as lacking grip, balance, and any setup solution that works.
The reigning world champion ended the second practice session in a disappointing 14th place, over a second off McLaren’s pace-setting Lando Norris.
While team-mate Yuki Tsunoda showed relatively better form in ninth, Verstappen had no hesitation in labelling his car as "really tough" to drive around the tight and technical Hungaroring.
“Today was very tough, just a really low grip feeling and not really a balance in the car, so it's difficult to say what the exact problem is,” Verstappen said post-session.
“Nothing really works, so this is something that we have to investigate overnight. So far, of course, it's not been our weekend.”
No Clear Fix in Sight
Unlike previous weekends where Red Bull found overnight improvements, Verstappen expressed concern that the root of the issue remains unclear. With McLaren looking particularly strong at the front, the Dutchman admitted the gap to even second place feels out of reach for now.
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“I'm sure we can do better, but today was quite bad, so we need to really understand first where it is, and what is causing us to have such a big problem with the car,” he said.
“McLaren looks really on it, they're flying, but there's a lot to be [found] to be a little bit closer to P2.”
Following the session, Verstappen spent an extended debrief in Red Bull’s trackside engineering base – nicknamed the “treehouse” – alongside team boss Laurent Mekies and Tsunoda, as the team scrambled for answers.
Cockpit Towel Toss Draws Steward Attention
Adding to Verstappen’s frustrating day, he was summoned by the stewards after tossing a towel out of his cockpit during FP2. The cloth had been left in the car by mistake and posed a potential hazard.
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“It's just a towel that you normally wipe your face with when you come back in, so it was still in the car when I went out,” Verstappen explained.
“Instead of it potentially flying in between my feet, which is the dangerous part, I drove offline and I got rid of it in the safest way possible, so I think the stewards understand that.”
Red Bull received a warning for the incident, categorized as an unsafe release.
Tsunoda Sees Glimpses of Progress
Yuki Tsunoda, who is closing in on Verstappen’s car spec but is still missing the latest front wing, offered a slightly more optimistic take.
“I think the balance itself is not the main issue, to be honest,” said the Japanese driver.
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“I think where we're struggling is the grip that I should normally feel, and that's where we're lacking. But at least from our side we changed a lot of things into FP2 and it was a bit of a step from FP1.”
“I'm sure there's something positive that we can take from Max's car and my car as well. So we just combine them and I feel like we have to find something, a core limitation that we're probably missing.”
With both drivers acknowledging fundamental issues, Red Bull faces a steep challenge to turn their weekend around before qualifying on Saturday.
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