Hungary package ’much bigger’ than other upgrades - Verstappen

Red Bull’s Hungarian GP upgrade is "much bigger" than the other packages of improvements the team has brought to races so far in 2024.

Team advisor Dr Helmut Marko says the new components, some highly visible and others not, "must now have an effect", given that he admits the formerly-dominant team is no longer the fastest car in the field.

"We want to see improvements on the stopwatch and not just in theory in the wind tunnel," he told Kleine Zeitung newspaper. "It’s about our car finding its balance more quickly."

Championship leader Max Verstappen has been sounding the alarm about the car’s declining performance relative to rivals including McLaren and Mercedes for several weeks now.

The Dutchman said the new package he is driving at the Hungaroring is the fifth upgrade of 2024.

"It’s much bigger than the other four," said the triple world champion.

"We hope it will help us to eliminate all the problems that have been slowing us down recently. It is extremely important for us that it has an effect and brings us back to where we came from," Verstappen added.

"If not, that would be a concern."

Verstappen, 26, even tried to reduce the immense pressure mounting on his endangered teammate Sergio Perez’s shoulders, insisting it’s "not fair to say it’s all his fault".

"It was difficult for me as well to get everything out of the car last weekend and the team knows that too," he insisted. "We need to find a better working window."

But even if the Hungary upgrade goes to plan, Verstappen is not expecting to simply leapfrog back to a dominant position.

"The question is not how close McLaren and Mercedes will be to us," he said. "You have to turn it around and ask ’How close can we be?’ We didn’t have the fastest car in the last two races and I don’t expect that to suddenly be any different now.

"It’s an important weekend for us, because I don’t know how the rest of the season will turn out if we don’t gain time here. And of course I don’t know what the other teams will have with them here either," added Verstappen.