Is Red Bull’s Hungary problem a route-specific or does the weak phase also run through the upcoming races? The answer is only available after the summer break, but the weekend in Budapest was a clear warning from Red Bull’s point of view: because even the reliable Max Verstappen did not go beyond ninth on hungaroring.
The world champion lacked grip on all three days, especially in slow and medium -fast curves. But: Red Bulls Motorsport Consulent Helmut Marko was optimistic after the race that the problems will only occur this weekend, and the new team boss Laurent Mekies is “pretty sure that it was an isolated case”.
There are signs of this, because the difficulties already occurred from the first round in the first training session. “We looked at and thought: what’s going on here? And we could see that we were just very slow in all slow and medium -fast curves,” says Mekies.
“It was nothing that we could explain with the balance. It didn’t look like a balance problem – it was just a very big gap.” Something seemed to prevent the car from putting the tires into the right working window. “Sometimes that happens in FT1, but not to this extent,” said Mekies. “It felt wrong from the start and we tried a lot of things.”
Red Bull is looking for the reason
Red Bull’s problem: No matter what you tried, it made no difference. “Sometimes you get into the window by chance or by your own performance, but this time it never happened. And that was the same in qualifying,” he says.
Of course, Red Bull knows that the RB21 work window is extremely narrow this year, “but I think it was much more extreme this time. This time we really couldn’t get the car up and running,” said the team manager.
The fact that the difficulties occurred primarily in slow and medium -fast curves indicates him “that it was more about tires and their activation than our performance”.
But the big question is: what are the reasons for it? And there seems to be disagreement at Red Bull. Because while Marko said after the race that one knew what had gone wrong and also replied Verstappen himself that you have “some ideas”, Mekies goes in a different direction. “To be honest, if we knew it, we would probably have fixed it,” he says.
Does Red Bull no longer win in 2025?
Red Bull definitely needs to answer, otherwise Verstappen’s thesis could come true that he will not win a race this season. Mekies does not want to see it as black: “What you saw this weekend does not reflect where the car actually is.”
“We accept that we are probably not particularly strong on a route like this, but what we are [in Ungarn] Have seen it was extreme, “he says.” Sure, McLaren is faster – no question. But take a look at Spa: Max was definitely able to keep up in the sprint on Saturday and surprised everyone. So let’s take a look – the season is still a long time. “
Of course, no team will make great progress due to the development for 2026, “but there is still a lot of things we can learn,” says the team leader and refers to the race in Budapest.
“And it is precisely because of this as difficult and uncomfortable, you will find a fundamental way at such weekends. Better to have such experiences now. If we can get a little more out of the car through such a weekend, we will hopefully be able to fight better soon.”
Mekies and the difficult task
After being thrown out by Christian Horner, Mekies is now facing the difficult task of leading the falling ship Red Bull back to the top. He himself does not underestimate this task: “A top team has the goal of winning. And the biggest difference to midfield is: On every race weekend, only one answer counts – did you win or not?”
This is also lived in the team: “If you go to work, you only meet people who are there to win. And that’s a very strong feeling,” he says. “Of course, resilience is important in this sport. You experience weekends like this when you have the feeling that the world runs completely against you.”
“But we have so many talents, so many skills, so much experience in the team that we know exactly. Away from the hustle and bustle on the route, we know that. We will make weekends like this progress. That is the feeling.