Max Verstappen tears into Red Bull over upgraded RB20 with ‘wake up’ demand

Max Verstappen up close in the RB20

Max Verstappen believes some people at Red Bull need to “wake up a little” after the team’s upgraded RB20 failed to beat McLaren in qualifying in Budapest.

Red Bull fast-tracked a substantial update for the Hungarian Grand Prix, which included a new engine cover and re-sculpted sidepods as part of the five-part upgrade.

Max Verstappen declares Red Bull’s upgrades ‘not good enough’

But despite that, Verstappen will line up third on the grid after McLaren locked out the front row.

While the MCL38 looked epic around the Hungaroring, the car sticking to the track, Verstappen was notably fighting his RB20 and had not one but two moments on his final flying lap.

“The McLarens are one and two, so that car just goes like a bullet,” Verstappen said as per Racingnews365.

“With us it’s just very difficult, because it’s just really hard to find a good balance. It’s very easy to go over and then you immediately lose quite a lot of time.

“With all those upgrades, it’s still not good enough. I do feel frustrated about that.

“I had hoped it would have brought a bit more. Everything is working, but not the steps we want to make, I think… I said on Friday that it wasn’t optimal.”

But with Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko declaring “the updates work”, Verstappen insisted it is “not optimal but maybe we have a different opinion about that.

“At least they know that I don’t make excuses, I’m always very realistic about that. But maybe not everyone is on the same wavelength.

“That doesn’t frustrate me, but I do think that some people need to wake up a little. We don’t have to go into detail about who they are.”

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Max Verstappen: It’s just not coming any more

It’s a stance he maintained during the post-qualifying press conference when he spoke of pushing “harder” than he did in last year’s qualifying where he was P2 on the grid.

“We’re still not first, right?” he said of the Red Bull upgrade. “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.

“I probably push harder than I did last year, it’s just not coming any more – to have these like great lap times.

“So then I guess it just means that we are a bit slower and we have work to do. Simple as that.”

His troubles with McLaren’s two-pronged attack were compounded by Sergio Perez’s crash which left the Mexican driver P16 on the grid and unable to help Verstappen in Sunday’s race.

“That doesn’t really matter to me,” the Dutchman told Viaplay of strategy games against McLaren. “If you are faster, you will overtake them anyway. Then they can play a team game as much as they want, but that doesn’t matter. However, I don’t have the feeling that we are faster at the moment.”

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