Max Verstappen feels unable to pinpoint possible ways for Red Bull to beat the front-row-starting McLaren cars in Formula 1’s 2024 Hungarian Grand Prix and is therefore wary of “spreading false hope”.
Verstappen ended up third in qualifying at Budapest on Saturday, as Lando Norris surged to a second pole in four races and Oscar Piastri took second place in the other McLaren.
Afterwards, and following his 2023 victory here by 33-seconds over Norris, Verstappen was unable to provide an answer on how Red Bull might topple its orange rival in Sunday’s race.
“Errr… I don’t know at the moment,” Verstappen said before laughing awkwardly in the post-qualifying press conference when asked to consider that.
“But what can I do? We’ll try the very best, try to have a good, stable balance with the car. And if I find that that I can follow them... But I don’t know.
“I mean, honestly, my long runs [in practice] have been ok, but nothing fantastic or special.
“I think it’s better to be realistic than sitting here and spreading false hope, but we’ll see tomorrow. It is what it is.”
Verstappen has had Red Bull’s most significant upgrade of the season so far fitted to his car at Budapest, but was unable to take the new parts designed to boost the RB20 on such high-downforce tracks to a second pole from the last six 2024 events.
Verstappen believes “for sure they work” but was left frustrated at not beating the two McLarens even with his upgraded machine.
“We’re still not first, right?” he added. “So, 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 of course you have little moments here and there.”
As he continued to explain his feelings after qualifying, Verstappen revealed: “I probably push harder than I did last year, it’s just not coming any more – to have these like great laptimes.
“So then I guess it just means that we are a bit slower and we have work to do. Simple as that.”
Verstappen slammed his steering wheel in frustration at not beating the McLarens on his second Q3 run and later retorted “I’m not allowed be frustrated?” when Motorsport.com enquired about how he was feeling at that point.
Unlike the two McLaren drivers, Verstappen did not take part in the fruitless final two minutes of Q3 after Yuki Tsunoda’s crash, which the Dutchman explained was because he “didn’t want to drive any more” due to having only used tyres left – “so I was never gonna improve”.
