Max Verstappen, Red Bull, Hungaroring, 2020

Red Bull’s poor performance “very surprising”, say Mercedes drivers

2020 F1 season

Posted on

| Written by and

Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas admitted they were surprised the Red Bull drivers weren’t more competitive in today’s qualifying session for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen qualified seventh for tomorrow’s race while Alexander Albon failed to make the cut for Q3.

“It’s very surprising,” Bottas said. “For sure I was expecting them to be maybe potentially closer here than Austria.

“Obviously I don’t know the details of how their session actually went – was it nice and clean or was there other issues? But the whole weekend, too, they’ve not really been that close. So it’s just surprising, obviously I don’t know the details yet.”

Hamilton said he expected Red Bull to be more competitive at the Hungaroring, where Verstappen took pole position and led much of the race last year.

Told Verstappen had qualified 1.4 seconds slower than him, Hamilton said: “I didn’t know that was the case, but that is a very big gap.

“I definitely wasn’t expecting them to be as off as they have been this weekend. You saw the pace of them last year.

“This is not a power circuit, this is more about the car and the mechanical grip and aero package. I thought that they had a better package than, I guess, today’s results showed.

“I don’t know if they all had great laps or not, but still either way that’s a big, big gap.”

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2020 F1 season

Browse all 2020 F1 season articles

15 comments on “Red Bull’s poor performance “very surprising”, say Mercedes drivers”

  1. RB should take last year car and just put this year engine in and do nothing more! If they do that i think that would bring a second !

    1. Aero is not the only concern that Honda PU is flimsy and temperamental at best. Given how many bridges this team has burnt on the grid they have no option but to live with these Honda PUs.

      1. Given how well Renault is doing, I can’t fault their decision.

      2. That engine dusted Hamilton in a drag race to the line in Brazil last year. It’s come a long way. I’d rather have a Honda than a Ferrari right now.

        1. Archit (@architjain07)
          18th July 2020, 17:18

          FYI…Brazil race is run at higher altitude and since Honda uses a smaller turbo, they can spin it faster than any other team hence increase HP. Plus Lewis had tangled with Albon giving him a little damage. That’s why Honda PU performs great in Austria, Brazil and Mexico. Cheers!

        2. Ferrari have said that the new “clarification” on engine set up has affected all teams. Seems they might be on to something there.

      3. Agree – the bottom line is the engine doesn’t have enough power.
        To make matters worse, Merc basically gave RP last years chassis and their engine which has boosted them enough that they are now a buffer for Merc which was not by mistake I’m sure.
        RP and RBR will be a close fight for points and by the looks of it RP is the favorite.
        Alonso said Renault should forget this and next season and start working on 2022 and I’m sure other teams are thinking the same.
        Problem is, Merc knows they have 2020 and 2021 in the bag and are not doubt already working on 2022 themselves.
        Merc could be on top for many more years by the looks of it.

  2. Mmmm… not sure Barcelona and Austria promised RBR will be good.

    Considering their car has some aero problem with stability, it was clear they will not drive super fast around aero-dependent circuit.

    Maybe how bad they are is surprising, but only a little. And also I think it has something to do with gremlins in there Hondas.

  3. What was up with Albons front wing? RBR spent a lot of time looking at it closely with a flashlight.

  4. Redbull is failing because their coronated driver have No accomplishments or achievements in f1,he has never mounted a championship campaign,one pole position which he only took with an intern Albon coming after six months in,he lost 3 poles to Riciardo.No one wants to addesse this but once in a generation driver dont loose poles to their teammates like that,the guy has performance pressure issue,he is good when out of the championship nothing to loose aggressive risk taking…this been happening for the past 3 yrs….he blows it at the begin,the media turns to Mercedes engine,he wins a race at the back end with tire strategy while Mercedese playing it safe with engine to wrap up the championship…and voila the masturbation of the media starts all over again……just wait for the deppression of the media as soon as Lewis takes the championship lead.

    Max is over driving and not managing the tires as was evidenent in the last race ,and because they want the coranation of Max and no challege from the otherside ,when Max is lost there is no reference point and no challenge within the team to push them foward. ALLA TODAY

    The guy gets out qualified by Lewis by 1.2 seconds and the media makes him a hero.bear in mind all weekend he was nip and tuc with the Merc but suddendly its all Merc egine.The guy comes 2nd to Lewis in Brazil 2016 and he is the hero wow .has mediocrity ever been celebrated that much or has any one achieved that little and celebrated that much…….oh I get it Lewis is wining everything we need a white hero…..THE GREAT WHITE HOPE

    1. That was like a rumble in a psychiatric clinic.

    2. I agree. Although VER is a very good driver. Brazil 16 really got on my “proverbials”. VER spun the car on the kink to the finish line. THAT was why he was down the field and overtaking cars. It was his own mistake that out him there. Yet the race winner who made not a single error… no mention.

      1. What? If you want to make accusations to a driver can you at least watch the race before? Verstappen didn’t even lose a place due to that spin, he was behind due to a gamble from red bull that didn’t pay off, that’s what eventually cost him 2nd place!

  5. Marco should be force to drink Red Bull as punnishment.

  6. Oh yes, very surprised !!!!
    I believe so!!!

Comments are closed.