‘I want things to be done better’ fumes Verstappen after Hungarian GP as he admits Red Bull now behind McLaren

Max Verstappen has called on Red Bull to “be more on it” after a frustrating Hungarian Grand Prix that saw McLaren take a comfortable one-two – with Verstappen finishing down in P5 following contact with old rival Lewis Hamilton.

Starting P3 on the grid, Verstappen’s race got off to a bad start as he ran wide at Turn 1, the extra tarmac in the run-off area actually allowing him to get ahead of Lando Norris before race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase asked him to hand the place back to the McLaren driver in order to avoid a penalty.

READ MORE: Piastri wins Hungarian Grand Prix as Norris belatedly hands back lead in McLaren intra-team drama

What followed was a long and ill-tempered afternoon for the reigning champion, who was vocal on team radio after getting undercut twice by his rivals – at one point telling Lambiase, after being chided for overworking his medium tyres after his final stop, “No mate, don’t give me this s*** – you guys gave me this s*** strategy, okay? I’m trying to rescue what’s left.”

“Of course not happy,” said Verstappen after making his way to the media pen post-race. “On a day where of course we’re already lacking pace compared to McLaren, you try and of course hope that we do the right things with the strategy, which today was not the case. The first [stop], to be undercut – it was not ideal, but maybe – you know – you get caught out, okay.

“Then again they leave me out [in the second round of stops] where I basically immediately got into traffic with backmarkers. And on a day where the car’s not the quickest, you need to try and capitalise on undercuts… You can’t rely on a little pace advantage.

“Maybe last year, yeah, with the car being quite a lot faster than everyone else. But I think in the position that we’re in now, we can’t do that anymore and I think that’s why today was a tough race for us.

“Naturally of course that frustrates me because I want things to be done better because of course I’m realistic – today, we couldn’t have beaten the McLarens but a P3 I think was on the cards if we would have just been on it a bit more.”

READ MORE: Piastri admits McLaren team orders made him ‘a bit nervous’ as he reflects on ‘very special’ maiden win in Hungary

Asked what changes needed to be enacted at Red Bull, meanwhile, Verstappen replied: “We need to work. I mean, it’s not like suddenly next weekend [in Spa] we can have new upgrades on the car, so yeah, it is a problem.

“We know that we’re lacking compared to McLaren and it’s of course not nice, but we have to analyse our stuff, how we can improve our overall package currently. But I don’t think that’s something very easily done, you know? We’ll see next week how it will evolve, but at the moment, I think race pace, qualifying pace – we are behind [McLaren].”

Verstappen’s mood wasn’t improved after a dramatic coming-together with Hamilton at Turn 1 seven laps from the end as the pair were squabbling over P3 – Verstappen tipped into the air after clipping Hamilton’s right-front wheel, an incident that the stewards looked at after the Grand Prix, before ruling that no further action was required.

“I went for a move that was fully on,” reckoned Verstappen, “but then in the middle of the braking zone, when I’m already committed of course to the move, he suddenly just keeps [moving] right, and if I wouldn’t have turned while braking straight, I would have made contact with him. So I went in the air.

AS IT HAPPENED: Follow all the action as Piastri wins the 2024 Hungarian Grand Prix

“People always make a lot about what happened in Austria, ‘it was not correct’, blah blah blah,” added Verstappen, of his controversial crash with Lando Norris two races ago. “But that’s on the initial move and then you just brake straight and you hold the wheel quite straight. And I feel like now it was not on the initial move but afterwards, during the braking zone [Lewis] keeps turning right – you cannot do that when someone’s committed to the inside.

“That’s why I locked up, because otherwise we would have collided anyway, because he would have just turned in on me.”

Asked, meanwhile, whether he planned to apologise to his team for his irate radio messages, Verstappen demurred: “I don’t think we need to apologise. We just need to do a better job. I don’t know why people think that you cannot be vocal on the radio. This is a sport, you know? If some people don’t like that, then stay home.”

HIGHLIGHTS: Enjoy the action from a controversial Hungarian GP as Piastri claims maiden F1 victory

With Oscar Piastri leading McLaren’s one-two, team mate Lando Norris closed the gap to Verstappen in the drivers’ fight down to 76 points – with the Belgian Grand Prix up next week.