Max Verstappen bemoaned a miserable qualifying session at the Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix as he admitted that “nothing works” on his Red Bull.
The Dutchman said the RB21 has offered “no grip” or “direction” throughout the weekend so far, as changes made during practice delivered no improvement before he eventually qualified eighth on the grid.
With the start of Q1, Verstappen was already struggling as he needed his final lap to avoid an early exit in qualifying.
The Red Bull has been difficult to handle all weekend as the reigning World Champion slammed its performance over the team radio through the Friday sessions, labelling it “undriveable”.
Into Q2 and he scraped through in eighth place before setting his first lap in Q3, which was good enough for fifth after the first round of flying laps.
However, he found little improvement on his second run as he slumped down to eighth for his worst qualifying result of the season.
After the session, Verstappen heavily criticised the characteristics of the car and how he holds little hope for improvement going forward.
“Looking at the whole weekend, I think we are happy to be in Q3, because I’ve been more outside of the top 10 than in,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
“It’s been difficult this whole weekend, no grip. Yeah, fun, and it was the same in qualifying. So, for me, it was not really a shock.
“This weekend, already from lap one, it just felt off. And we threw the car around a lot. And nothing really gave a direction.
“And that, of course, is the biggest problem. Because when you use or you change a lot on the side of it, it will always give you positives or negatives.
“And now, it’s just nothing works. It’s just going around in circles. Nothing gives you any kind of idea of what to do.”
Verstappen left baffled by gripless Red Bull in Hungary
When asked if the team had been able to identify the issue, Verstappen admitted there was no clear explanation for Red Bull’s poor form at the Hungaroring.
“No, clearly not – otherwise, of course, we would have changed it already,” he added. “But somehow, this weekend, nothing seems to work.”
The Dutchman described an all-round lack of grip from the RB21, explaining: “It’s not been a single lap or a single corner that I felt good. So, the whole weekend so far has just been sliding.”
When asked whether a trademark Red Bull turnaround was possible for the race, Verstappen replied bluntly: “Not this weekend.”
Looking ahead, he downplayed his chances of a charge through the field.
“I mean, there may be a few cars in front of me that I can maybe battle with a little bit,” he assessed.
“But, of course, Lewis [Hamilton] is still a bit further down the road, which I think he shouldn’t be there.
“So, he will come through a bit. We’ll see what we get for tomorrow.”
Put to him if this was among his worst weekends, he concluded: “We had quite a few Singapore disasters, but this has not been a good one.”
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