Verstappen: Of course I'm not happy

Sunday afternoon at Budapest was one to forget for the reigning Formula 1 Champion as he upgraded RB20 lacked the pace with all Red Bull's efforts at the pitwall backfiring as they came under pressure from Mercedes and Ferrari rather than taking the fight to the McLarens.

As a result, Verstappen spent most of the race ranting over the team radio rather than driving, evident from his inability to pass the slower Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton after a long fight which ended in the pair clashing.

As a result, the Dutchman dropped to fifth behind Hamilton and Charles Leclerc which is where he finished the race clearly unhappy about his car and race strategy.

"Of course I’m not happy," Verstappen told Sky Sports F1 after the race. "On a day when we’re already lacking pace compared to McLaren you try and hope we do the right things with the strategy which today was not the case.

"To be undercut was not ideal but maybe you get caught out ok. We tried to go a bit longer but my pace was not very good. On the hard tyres I tried to close up but got stuck again for a long time behind Lewis and lost a lot of seconds.

"I thought in that middle stint we were decent, not fantastic, but I thought we had quite decent pace on that hard compound, but basically we couldn’t use it because I just got stuck.

"Then again they leave me out where I immediately got into traffic with back-markers. On a day where the car is not really the quickest you need to try and capitalise on undercuts.

"On a track like this where it’s very hot for the tyres, as soon as you get behind cars they overheat within two laps," the Red Bull ace pointed out. "You can’t rely on a little pace advantage. Maybe last year when the car was quite a lot faster than everyone else, but in the position we are in now we can’t do that any more. That’s why today was a tough race for us.

"Naturally that frustrates me because I want things to be done better. I’m realistic. Today we couldn’t have beaten the McLarens, but a P3 was on the cards if we would have been on it a bit more," he insisted.

As for his radio rants, Verstappen was adamant he did not need to apologize, he said: "I don’t think we need to apologise. I just think we need to do a better job.

"I don’t know why people think you cannot be vocal on a radio. This is a sport. If some people don’t like that then stay home."

Reflecting on his clash with Hamilton, which the stewards deemed a racing incident, Verstappen said: "I went for a move that was fully on, but then in the middle of the braking zone when I was already committed to the move, he [Hamilton] suddenly keeps warping right.

"If I wouldn’t have turned while braking straight I would have made contact with him. At one point naturally I locked up because he kept turning to the right.

"People always made a lot of what happened in Austria. It was not correct blah blah blah," he added referring to his accident with Lando Norris in the Austrian GP. "But that’s on the initial move and then you just brake straight, you hold your wheel quite straight.

"I felt now it was not on the initial move, but afterwards during the braking zone he keeps turning right. You cannot do that when someone is committed to the inside.

"That’s why I locked up because otherwise we would have collided anyway because he would have just turned in on me.

"We’ll see. At the end of the day if we would have done a better strategy you are not in that position. I don’t think that was wrong. I went for a move that was fully on. I don’t think I braked too late," the triple F1 Champion concluded.

Sergio Perez, who is fighting for his seat at Red Bull, managed to score points after finishing seventh having started from 16th after crashing out in Q1 of qualifying, a decent result given his recent struggles.

Speaking in Red Bull's race report, Perez said: "I think that was the maximum we could achieve today; overtaking was impossible in the first stint on the hard.

"It was an aggressive strategy to begin on the hard and it worked well for us, from the start it was about putting it all together, making the right calls and the right progress. My Team had to rebuild the car overnight and it was not one hundred percent on set-up, some correlation was off, so it's positive I was able to feel at one with the car today and I am getting the feeling back, this is a good boost of confidence.

"The Team did an incredible job to get the car on track today after my crash, I need to maximise my own performance to match their hard work," the Mexican admitted. "The only thing that matters to me is my Team and the people working with me, I have to give my very best to them because they deserve it.

"I am here keeping my head down; I will keep improving and get back to my form. I think we have the pace to fight at the front, we showed it today and it is just a matter of time until we are back on the podium," he concluded.

As for Red Bull boss Christian Horner, he summed the race up saying: "It didn't work out for us today. We seemed to have understeer and then losing that position at the start and conceding back to Lando affected us.

"We tried giving an overlap to give Max the pace but to no avail. The middle sector, in parts of the race was where we were looking competitive but there is plenty for us to look at to try and see how we can improve and come back stronger next weekend.

"Checo drove a good race today and his strategy, getting the undercut on George, worked well. He also showed good pace, made good overtakes and hopefully would have taken some good confidence from that for a strong performance in Spa," Horner added.

Verstappen still leads the 2024 F1 Drivers' Championship, but his lead over Norris is now down to 76 points.