Verstappen hopes F1 Hungarian GP will be Red Bull’s ‘worst weekend’

Max Verstappen hopes the Hungarian Grand Prix will turn out to be Red Bull’s “worst” performance of the 2020 Formula 1 season after a woeful qualifying.

Red Bull been tipped to challenge Mercedes for pole position and the victory in Hungary but the team struggled for pace throughout qualifying could only manage the seventh-fastest time, marking his worst Q3 performance since the 2018 Belgian Grand Prix. Teammate Alex Albon fared no better and was eliminated in Q2.

Verstappen ended up 1.4s off the pace of polesitter Lewis Hamilton and was also outqualified by the Racing Point duo and both Ferrari drivers in what was a shock result for Red Bull.

“If we would have understood [the issue] we would have made it better, so something is clearly wrong,” Verstappen explained.

“We’re still looking into it. I don’t think it’s set-up related.

“You push it to the limit but when you get to that limit it becomes a bit tricky and easy to lose the rear, or you understeer wide, but for me lap-to-lap it’s pretty similar.”

Asked if he is worried about Red Bull’s prospects for the upcoming races given the team was expected to perform strongly at the Hungaroring, Verstappen replied: “I haven’t thought that far ahead.

“It’s definitely not looking great but I hope this is going to be our worst weekend.

“We will learn a lot from this and try to rectify a bit of it in the upcoming races.”

And the Dutchman reckons Red Bull will have a difficult battle on its hands to beat the Racing Point pair of Lance Stroll and Sergio Perez, who will both start on the Medium compound, to the podium.

“Last year the Mercedes was pretty fast so it’s pretty normal that you are fast - they did a good job and we did a very bad job,” he said.

“We just need to see what we can do. It’s going to be close I think, of course I’m starting on Softs and some behind me will be on Mediums. It will be quite interesting what we can do on strategy.”