A black weekend, finished on the podium
In Hungary, for the third time in the last four races, Max Verstappen managed to get on the podium, securing a second-place finish that seemed impossible to even imagine after the enormous difficulties the Austro-English team faced on Friday and Saturday. Verstappen had launched very harsh criticism at the team over the weekend, also supported by his teammate Isack Hadjar, but on Sunday – also thanks to his talent and some favorable circumstances, such as Ferrari’s errors and Oscar Piastri’s retirement – the Dutch phenomenon was able to celebrate his best seasonal race result, on par with what he achieved a month ago in Austria.
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After the race, speaking at a press conference with journalists present in Budapest, Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies tried to sum up the weekend. A difficult task given the sometimes unpredictable ups and downs of the RB22. However, the French manager acknowledged that, despite the podium finish, the car given to Verstappen and Hadjar was far from perfect: “I believe that [this weekend] we never managed to provide Max and Isack with a car with which they could give their best. If I think back to the drivers’ comments in Spa or Austria, they probably said that the car was more or less in line with how it should behave and what it allowed them to do. This was never the case this weekend,” Mekies stated.
Only Norris faster than Verstappen
“The situation was definitely worse on Friday and Saturday than in the race – the Red Bull team principal added – but I must still admit that even during the race probably the car did not give a very positive feeling to the drivers”. Yet, by the numbers, according to Mekies, Verstappen’s second place was not undeserved, quite the opposite.
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“On track it was tough for everyone and I think it’s fair to say that on Sunday only Lando was clearly faster than Max, while [the pace] of everyone else was matched or beaten. I guess this is positive, because it means we have room to improve the current package. We will try to understand why we are so on the limit regarding the setup, performance and the fact that the car is not performing at its best. It has been hard work – certainly for the drivers, but also for the team in these last races – to keep the car in its performance window”.
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