Max Verstappen admits he finds the ever-changing chasing pack behind him “very confusing” this season as multiple teams endure fluctuating form.
Red Bull has been the standout team with Verstappen winning eight of the first ten races – including the last six in a row – while team-mate Sergio Perez has taken the other two victories. Not only has no team beaten Red Bull so far this year, at Silverstone McLaren emerged as its nearest challenger, while it was Ferrari in Austria, Aston Martin in Canada and Mercedes in Spain.
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“It’s very confusing to me because every single race weekend, it’s someone else,” Verstappen said. “I think it is because it’s so close behind that if you get your car in a little bit of a better window, it works on one particular track.
“So for me, I don’t know what’s going to happen in Hungary to be honest, who is going to be quick or the second quickest. The stable factor so far is that every single weekend, it seems like we are on top, which of course is the most important from our side. But again, Hungary completely different track, we will put some upgrades on the car there and hopefully they will work well.”
Although he struggles to understand the competitive order, Verstappen views it as a good thing to have more teams joining the battle to be the biggest threat to Red Bull.
“I was definitely positively surprised with the pace of the McLaren in the race (at Silverstone) that they were actually very quick compared to even the cars behind. But at the end of the day you just have to focus on yourself throughout the whole weekend and then you just find out anyway what happens behind you right? But yeah, positively surprised. Let’s see what the next race will bring again.”
Expanding on the new parts Red Bull will introduce this weekend in Budapest, Verstappen says he is still asking for more performance in all areas.
“Drag, low speed, medium speed, high speed, DRS effect, tyre wear… All of these areas. That’s what we’re working on! Braking performance. Yeah, I’m not kidding.”