Gasly and Albon exchange roles: the Frenchman goes to Q3 with AlphaTauri
Verstappen, behind the Racing Point and the Ferrari
More problems than anticipated for Red Bull at the 2020 Hungarian GP, a circuit in which the team wanted to hunt down Mercedes. Max Verstappen has not passed seventh place and Alexander Albon was knocked out in Q2, behind a Williams and an AlphaTauri.
Red Bull landed in Hungary with high expectations, wanting to catch up to Mercedes. A priori, the Hungaroring was the fetish circuit of the energy drink brand due to its characteristics. A single straight and many low and medium speed curves. The reality was very different today.
The RB16 has shown that it is a very nervous car and difficult to control. Not only in Hungary, but also in the opening dates of Austria. Verstappen himself suffered a spin in Free 3 when he tried to squeeze the limits of the car a little more.
Curiously, it was in the first sector – the fastest one – where Red Bull got closer to Mercedes, Racing Point and Ferrari. In the most twisty areas is where the car has suffered the most and where Verstappen has lost up to half a second with the silver arrows.
All this has been well reflected in classification. Red Bull has positioned itself as the fourth best team on the grid in pace with one lap, far from that second place to which it aspired at the beginning of the weekend.
Max Verstappen has finished seventh in the timesheets near Ferrari, but almost a second and a half behind Lewis Hamilton’s pole time. To give us an idea of this bad result we can contrast with last year’s numbers.
The Dutchman took the first position in the classification with a time of 1’14 “572, which today would have earned him to be third. Today in Hungary, the 33rd set a time of 1’14” 849, that is, Red Bull has lost almost three tenths.
“It was a disappointing qualification. Everything went very wrong over the weekend. Being seventh is not what I wanted. But there is nothing I can do,” Verstappen told Ziggo Sport.
“There is no balance in the car and no grip when you are out there. You have to accept it, it is difficult, but we are going to try to make the best of tomorrow.”
It is also true that the temperature on the track this weekend was not optimal and that Verstappen made his second Q3 attempt with a used tire. But this does not really justify a poor result for a brand that this year aspires to second place in the Championship.
On the other hand, the result of Alexander Albon disappointing. The British-Thai was knocked out in Q2 in 13th place, behind George Russell’s Williams and Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri. The Frenchman and Albon have again ‘exchanged’ roles as they already did in 2019. The wall has not helped him either because it has rolled with traffic.
Helmut Marko, Red Bull adviser, acknowledges the team’s problems. There is a serious error that they must solve in the factory to try to change the tone of the beginning of the season. Tomorrow, the podium will be difficult.
“Being 1.4 seconds behind Mercedes on this circuit is crazy. We cannot even dream of victory or the podium here. Silverstone is close to home, we have to find the solution to a fundamental problem,” said Marko to finish .
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