After disappointing home grand Prix double header, Red Bull tipped to challenge Mercedes in this weekend’s Hungarian GP. The Slow and medium speed corners of Hungaroring is best suited for Red Bull, but during Friday Free Practice session both Cars are off the pace compared to their rivals.
Though it’s too early to write-off energy drink team for this weekend’s qualifying and race. Christian Horner and his team needs to get their act together before it gets too late.
FP1
Max finished FP1 in P8 posting a best time of 1:17.435. Alex returned to garage in P13, his fastest time was a 1:17.727. Both Bulls posted a total of 28 laps. Max’s fastest time is 1.432 seconds slower than Lewis Hamiltons P1 time on same Tyre.
Max’s last year pole lap in Hungaroring is 1:14.457 , so still more to come from Red Bull unless RB16 is drastically slower than it’s predecessor.
FP2
During afternoon session, rain and a very wet track meant there was little running during the session for most of drivers. Max managed to set one timed lap, a 1:42.820. Alex didn’t set a timed lap for the final session of Friday.
Drivers Reaction
Max Verstappen
“FP1 was not what we wanted and we have a lot to look into. It’s a shame that it was raining this afternoon for FP2 because we already had a few things to change and we could have had a good comparison to work from. Luckily, we have overnight to look at the data and for sure we will make some changes and try to improve the overall balance for tomorrow. There are strong areas to our car but we still have work to do to match Mercedes.”
“The weather looks like it could be a bit like today for the rest of the weekend and we don’t know how much rain will come yet, but that is the same for everyone. It’s still early days and we haven’t done much running, so there is no point in making any guesses about how the rest of the weekend will look yet.”
Alex Albon
“The weather has been hurting us as we’re trying to understand the car at a new circuit after two weeks at the Red Bull Ring. FP1 wasn’t ideal and then with the downpour we couldn’t exactly try anything for FP2.”
“We’ll have a look through the data from this morning and see what we can do for tomorrow. I think the car is lacking a bit of predictability, not so much in one corner or sector but just little bits everywhere. There have definitely been places where we’ve made improvements, like at R02 compared to R01, but it just hasn’t followed through to here like we would have expected. The weather looks mixed for the weekend but I’d prefer it to be dry so we’re able to learn and make progress.”
