Bernie Collins saw something worrying watching Red Bull’s mechanics on Max Verstappen’s car at the Hungarian Grand Prix

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Max Verstappen rounded out Friday’s practice sessions at the Hungarian Grand Prix as the slowest Red Bull driver for the first time this season.

The Austrian constructor’s weekend in Hungary has been of stark contrast to what they accomplished in Belgium last week. Verstappen reigned victorious in the Sprint race on Saturday and was hindered by the FIA’s decision to delay the start of the Grand Prix after equipping his car with a wet-weather setup.

Red Bull tested a new front wing and front brake ventilation unit during the opening practice sessions of the Hungarian Grand Prix. However, the changes didn’t seem to have the intended effect on the RB21, with Verstappen’s data showing a ‘striking deficit to that of Lando Norris.

McLaren has hit their stride again at the Hungaroring, boasting the top two fastest times in all three of the Free Practice sessions of the weekend.

READ MORE: Red Bull driver Max Verstappen’s life outside F1 from net worth to girlfriend

Bernie Collins saw Red Bull engineers struggle to agree on what to do to Max Verstappen’s car in FP2

Speaking on Sky Sports F1’s coverage of the Hungarian GP on Saturday morning (02/08 11:21am), Bernie Collins expressed her surprise at the lack of control Red Bull engineers had in the team’s garage during FP2.

“When I was stood in the pit lane yesterday, it did look like a struggle at Red Bull,” Collins said. “People weren’t agreeing about what to do when it looked like flow-vis was going on both front corners of both cars, to try and figure out how the new components are working.

“It didn’t look under control. They will have gone through all of the data last night, both here and in Milton Keynes, and hopefully they will have come up with the best solution and pop that on the car.”

Whatever Red Bull engineers did overnight to help minimise the damage to the RB21’s performance, it didn’t seem to work as Verstappen and Tsunoda ended FP3 with the 12th and 19th fastest times, respectively.

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Laurent Mekies’ honeymoon period at Red Bull is coming to an end amid struggles in Hungary

After enjoying the best possible start to his tenure at Red Bull in Belgium, the Milton Keynes-based team’s woes in Hungary will have put the job Laurent Mekies has on his hands into perspective.

Verstappen was reported to be ‘feeling happy’ about working with Mekies, but there is no doubt that the four-time world champion will want to see a bigger improvement from the team than what he is already experiencing in Hungary.

On the other side of the garage, Tsunoda isn’t having the proudest moments of his F1 career. The Red Bull social team reportedly had to stop recording in the garage once they realised an ’emergency meeting’ involving the Japanese driver was taking place after Sunday’s Grand Prix.

The talks don’t seem to be related to Tsunoda’s future at the team, however. Helmut Marko recently disclosed that his seat at Red Bull for 2026 will be decided ‘after the summer break’