Max Verstappen has issued that he would hold concerns over “how the season evolves” should Red Bull’s upgrades at Formula 1’s Hungarian Grand Prix fail to work.
Red Bull’s dominance seemed to be continuing as Verstappen stormed to four victories in the opening five races to open up a considerable championship advantage.
But while both driver and team have preserved their margins in the standings, Red Bull has come under increased pressure from rival teams over the past few rounds.
McLaren prevailed in Miami and has been in contention at other races, while Mercedes’ recent progress saw the marque lock out the front row and win at Silverstone.
Verstappen urged Red Bull to not treat being caught as “normal” and the reigning champions are set to introduce a seismic update package this weekend in Budapest.
“We brought stuff but they were not particularly big, I would say,” Verstappen, who sampled a revised floor in Britain, said.
“So this one is a bit bigger to what we have brought already. I think for everyone, yeah, this is an important weekend.”
The Dutchman has expressed that Red Bull’s latest upgrades not delivering the desired results would create question marks over its chances in the remaining rounds.
“You could say that, I think so,” Verstappen answered when asked whether the new parts were crucial in the development race.
“If this is not giving us some good lap time then I don’t know how the rest of the season is going to evolve.
“But also at the same time I don’t know what’s coming from the other teams. We just focus on ourselves.
“We are bringing quite some things to the car and I hope that will give us quite a bit of lap time.”
Verstappen has attributed Red Bull being unable to match its rivals’ strides in the development race to the team’s reduced aero testing time hampering its advances.
“If you look at it realistically, other teams have made bigger steps. That’s very clear,” he acknowledged.
“But I know that my team is pushing as hard as they can to find performance. They are just very complicated these cars.
“Some bits might also be in the set-up itself but at the same time, yeah, we need to find more performance.
“Of course as the leading team you have less time in the wind tunnel and stuff.
“I’m not using that as an excuse because I don’t want to think like that but the reality is we have less time. We try to do the best we can.”
Verstappen has indicated that Red Bull’s newest developments will intend to return the team to being the pacesetting benchmark rather than extending an advantage.
Asked how close he thinks the competition will be to Red Bull at the Hungaroring, Verstappen retorted: “I think you turn it around, how close can we be to the competition?
“The last few races we’ve not been the quickest car, so I don’t expect that to suddenly now be any different.
“Of course we will bring upgrades, hopefully that will give it a good boost, but at the moment just one to try and see how that will work this weekend.”
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