“We overdid it”: Max Verstappen had confessed doubts about car setup to Daniel Ricciardo prior to F1 Hungarian GP

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen was overheard complaining to his former teammate, VCARB driver Daniel Ricciardo, about the upgrade package during the Hungarian GP weekend. The Austrian team had introduced a significant upgrade package at the Hungaroring in an attempt to make up for lost ground to McLaren and Mercedes in recent races.

However, the three-time world champion wasn't happy with the forward step, as he finished P3 behind the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri after the qualifying session on Saturday last weekend.

Ahead of the main race on Sunday, Max Verstappen was spotted chatting with Daniel Ricciardo during the driver's parade and could be heard saying (via Formula Passion):

“The corners could be better, but the car’s characteristics are still the same. Very slow on the entry, untamable rear end and a lot of understeer in the corners. I think we overdid it.”

The Dutch driver was proven correct in his assessment of the upgraded RB20, as he failed to challenge the McLaren and even fell behind Lewis Hamilton, finishing in P5 after colliding with the Mercedes driver.

As per F1.com, the 26-year-old analyzed his race and said:

“Today was a tough race for us so naturally that frustrated me as I want things to be better. If you look at the whole race I don’t think we were fast enough; we unfortunately just didn’t have the pace and the strategy wasn’t working for us today.

"The high temperatures on the track also meant that the tires overheated, especially when we were trying to overtake throughout the race, which was very tough. We got stuck behind cars and let ourselves get undercut and I think we just didn’t have our best day."

Max Verstappen gives his take on the clash with Lewis Hamilton

Max Verstappen said he needed to have another look at the incident with Lewis Hamilton but pointed out that he committed to the move on Turn 1.

As per the aforementioned source, the Red Bull driver said:

"As the pace of the car wasn’t as good, we really needed to capitalise on the strategy and we just didn’t manage to do that today. I need to look back at what happened with Lewis but I committed to the move and I don’t think I braked too late but we collided."

He emphasized the lack of pace in the RB20 and concluded that he didn't believe that they "could have beaten McLaren today but, from qualifying yesterday, I did think that P3 was on the cards, so it is a disappointing day all in all.”

Max Verstappen still has a healthy lead of 76 points in the Driver's Championship over Lando Norris in P1 after 13 races and three Sprints thus far in the 2024 season.