Red Bull chief under mounting ‘pressure’ after Max Verstappen’s ‘frustrated’ Hungarian GP comments

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There’s an argument to be made that the Hungarian Grand Prix was the worst weekend of the season for Red Bull.

Going into the summer break, Red Bull are 365 points behind McLaren in the constructors’ championship, and Max Verstappen has a nearly 100-point deficit to overturn if he wants to win a fifth consecutive drivers’ title.

The Dutchman’s hopes of emulating Michael Schumacher’s consecutive championship record are as good as over at this stage, but his bigger concern will be the lack of progress made over the past two years.

Bernie Collins thinks Verstappen might have demotivated Red Bull staff by suggesting they won’t win another race this season.

However, based on the evidence from the Hungarian Grand Prix, it’s not an unfair claim to make, after the 27-year-old barely squeezed through to Q3 and could only finish ninth, albeit after a poor strategy decision.

Red Bull and every other team on the grid have now turned their attention to next season.

The 2026 F1 regulations are completely different and require teams to understand a new set of aerodynamic and power unit rules.

After Adrian Newey’s exit and decision to join Aston Martin, the pressure is mounting on Pierre Wache to prove he has what it takes to replace the genius designer.

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‘Pressure continues to mount’ on Pierre Wache at Red Bull after Max Verstappen comments

Journalist Diego Mejia was speaking on the Pit Pass F1 Podcast about Red Bull’s struggles at the Hungaroring.

He explained: “Yuki’s comments and Max’s comments were quite similar in terms of the car being completely numb around the slow corners.

“There was no way to fix that, they tried to test something with Yuki in the race, but we saw that he went at some point to the soft tyre just to see if that tyre would ignite and be within the window because with the hard and with the medium, they couldn’t get that window and the grip that window delivers.

“So, apparently, they found some answers, hopefully that’s the case, and they’re able to fix that.

“The pressure continues to mount within. I think the main person in charge of all of this is Pierre Wache.

“You read some of his quotes over the weekend, and you wonder what he is seeing that we are not because in his mind, or at least in his words, he seems to reflect some confidence and being closer to the front end than it looks when you see the times.

“Red Bull was way off the whole weekend, and Max’s radio [messages] were very telling.

“You didn’t need to see the gap, just listen to Max, and he was quite frustrated because he didn’t have any grip, and the car was sliding all the time.

“In Yuki’s case, the car was sliding, and it had no balance and a different balance around different corners. So, quite difficult to extract any pace from a car like that.”

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Pierre Wache admits the Hungarian Grand Prix was ‘very difficult’ for Red Bull

Wache was one of Christian Horner’s closest allies before his Red Bull exit after being chosen as the man to replace Newey.

Horner’s exit has made Wache vulnerable, although Red Bull choosing to replace him at this stage in the development of next year’s car would be incredibly risky.

Wache spoke to the press, via Pit Pass, after Friday’s practice in Hungary, and it was clear that he wasn’t happy with the team’s performance.

He explained: “It was a very difficult day out there for us today, the car is not behaving as expected currently.

“We did some tests during both sessions today, and nothing is responding as expected. We have to analyse all the tests we have done during the night and tomorrow before Free Practice.

“Currently, we are not competitive enough, so there is a lot of work to do, and we are hoping we will find some good solutions for tomorrow.”

Red Bull need to reach a turning point in their development soon, with 2026 on the horizon.

Verstappen might have committed to another season with the Milton Keynes-based team, but it’s unlikely that he will settle for this level of performance again.