Max Verstappen is looking for a seventh consecutive win – and the ninth of the season – this weekend at the Hungaroring as he edges towards a third consecutive World Drivers’ Championship title.
The Oracle Red Bull Racing driver holds a ninety-nine point advantage at the top of the standings heading to the Hungarian Grand Prix, and Verstappen will have the use of some updates to his RB19 for this weekend’s race.
Verstappen says the Hungaroring is an ‘amazing track to drive’ but its high downforce nature makes it interesting to see where Red Bull are compared to their rivals.
“The Hungarian GP is always an interesting one, last year it was tricky to make the right calls with the incoming rain and colder temperatures, but as a Team we remained calm and made all the right decisions,” said Verstappen.
“We have a couple of upgrades this weekend, hopefully they will do what we expect them to do so we can find extra performance for the upcoming races.
“Let’s see where we stand on a track where you run high downforce with relatively low speed corners, it’s an amazing track to drive and very technical as well.
“Definitely a place I always look forward to coming back to.”
“I know I have fallen short in qualifying at times this season” – Sergio Pérez
Team-mate Sergio Pérez has not shown the same kind of performance as Verstappen has in recent races, and has failed to make it into Q3 in the past five weekends, a fact that the Mexican knows he has to stop this weekend.
Pérez won two of the opening four races and had been fighting for the championship with his team-mate, but his form has slipped dramatically, and as a result rumours about his place within Red Bull have become prevalent.
The Mexican knows he needs to improve his showings on Saturday in order to put himself into a better position for race day, and he has been working hard back at the factory to find solutions in a bid to turn around his form.
“Hungary is an important race for me, because it’s about getting my whole weekend in a complete place,” said Pérez. “I know I have fallen short in qualifying at times this season, so my focus has to be on having a successful Saturday because I know I have the race pace on a Sunday and an incredible car that should be on the podium every weekend.
“I have been in Milton Keynes working hard with my Team on making improvements.”
Sergio Pérez has failed to get into Q3 in any of the past five races – Credit: Dan Mullan/Getty Images