Yahoo Autos Red Bull chasing rather than leading now – Verstappen
Max Verstappen fears Red Bull is now chasing other teams rather than setting the pace more often than not, after qualifying third at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Red Bull won all but one of the races in 2023 but has already seen McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari pick up victories on five occasions so far this year, including in four of the past seven rounds. After being kept off the front row by the two McLarens in Budapest on Saturday, Verstappen says he’s enjoying the fights but feels Red Bull often finds itself playing catchup with at least one other team each weekend.
“I love competition, but I would like to be on top of the competition,” Verstappen said. “At the moment, I feel like we are chasing and having a few more difficult weekends, but I don’t back out of a fight. We’re just in a bit of a tricky situation, I guess.
“The whole weekend, I think we have been a little bit behind, and I think that was also the case in qualifying. I tried to make it as close as possible, but unfortunately just not enough. A bit difficult to pinpoint why that is.
“I would have liked a bit more grip, but it’s not there at the moment. P3 is still very close. I just hope that for tomorrow, of course, the car is good in the race, and at least that we can follow them and see what we can do there.
Red Bull introduced an upgrade package at the Hungaroring this weekend, and Verstappen says he can feel an improvement from the new parts, but the end result shows where it stands in the pecking order.
“They work, but we’re still not first, right?” he said. “We need more, it’s as simple as that. I think looking back at my qualifying, I was very happy with the laps, but balance wise, everything is really on the edge. I’m pushing as hard as I can, and then you have little moments here and there.
“I feel like I probably push harder than I did last year, but [having these great lap times is just not coming anymore]. I guess it just means that we are a bit slower, so we have work to do, simple as that.”
Verstappen also explained why he climbed out of his car during the red flag in Q3, rather than joining the queue of cars trying to get out for one final run.
“I didn’t want to drive anymore. I had no tires, they were used, so I was never going to improve. There was no point for me to be in the pit lane waiting.”
