Max Verstappen secured second place for Red Bull at the Hungarian Grand Prix, matching the team’s best result of the season from Austria. Yet the two performances were fundamentally different, and Budapest offered an important indication of what the RB22 is still missing: not only aerodynamic load, but also a sufficiently broad balance window for its drivers to exploit the car consistently.
After a difficult Friday, Red Bull would have gladly accepted a runner-up finish with Verstappen. The result provided a welcome lift before the summer break, although it did little to change the team’s awareness that considerable work remains if it is to climb back towards the front of the Formula 1 grid.
Team principal Laurent Mekies also acknowledged after the race that maintaining the same rate of development during the second half of the season would be difficult following the effort invested over the previous months. That makes maximising every available opportunity even more important, as Red Bull managed to do in Budapest.
Even Verstappen appeared surprised by the outcome after finishing behind Hungarian Grand Prix winner Lando Norris.
“How the hell did I end up here? I was stunned,” Max Verstappen admitted.
Max Verstappen’s podium does not erase the RB22’s problems
Second place was naturally a satisfying result for the Dutch driver, but it reflected a Red Bull weekend shaped more by individual moments and strong execution than by consistently extracting the RB22’s full potential. At Monaco and in Canada, Verstappen had remained near the front partly because the car itself was competitive, a view supported by some encouraging performances from Isack Hadjar.
That same underlying competitiveness was less evident in Budapest. The Hungaroring’s medium- and low-speed corners did not suit Red Bull as well as anticipated, while the team also appeared to lack something on the faster sections of the lap.
The impression was that the car was running short of electrical energy precisely when it was needed most, with the MGU-K assistance ending too early. Budapest’s straights are not especially long, but when performance gaps are narrowing, even small losses can have an important effect.
That is the central issue behind Red Bull’s Hungarian weekend. The second-place finish did not mean the RB22’s weaknesses had been resolved. The car remains short of aerodynamic load and generates more drag than its main rivals, but its difficulties extend beyond those two characteristics.
Red Bull RB22 balance window remains too narrow
As in qualifying, Max Verstappen continued to fight the car’s balance throughout the race. The oversteer that had troubled him all weekend remained present, with the data clearly pointing towards aerodynamic losses. However, the broader lack of overall balance represented the more significant limitation.
Monaco offered a different set of conditions because every team had to soften its car, while the circuit places particular emphasis on mechanical performance. In Canada, Verstappen had complained throughout Friday about how the RB22 behaved over Montreal’s bumps. However, the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is a classic stop-and-go venue, dominated by heavy braking and acceleration zones, with relatively few corners requiring prolonged speed through the turn.
Budapest places different demands on a car. Although it is a relatively slow circuit with several traction zones, it also requires dependable aerodynamic stability. That remains an area in which the RB22 performs inconsistently, helping to explain why Isack Hadjar reported a lack of progress during the Hungarian weekend.
The problem had been evident since Friday. Red Bull could not stiffen the set-up because of the bumps in the newly laid asphalt, while the RB22 did not possess the level of aerodynamic load it needed. As a result, the car struggled to enter its optimum operating window.
Several instances of damage during the weekend added further complications, but they did not completely conceal the fundamental limitations of a car with an extremely narrow working window.
“I don’t think we ever managed to give Max and Isack a car they could push with,” Laurent Mekies acknowledged. “If I think back to the drivers’ feedback at Spa or in Austria, they would probably have said the car was quite close to where it should have been and allowed them to do what they wanted to do. That was never the case this weekend.”
“We will try to understand why we are so close to the limit in terms of the car’s balance, its balance through the corners and whether the car works or not. It has been hard work, certainly for the drivers, but also for the team during these recent races to keep the car in its ideal window.”
Laurent Mekies sees performance still available in current package
While Verstappen wondered how he had reached the podium despite Red Bull’s difficulties, Mekies maintained that the Dutchman had actually been the second-fastest driver in terms of outright race pace.
“I think it is fair to say that only Lando Norris was clearly faster than Max today,” the Red Bull team principal explained. “I believe he could have matched or beaten everyone else. So I suppose that is positive, because it means we still have room to improve with the current package.”
That assessment offers Red Bull some encouragement heading into the summer break. If the team can broaden the RB22’s balance window and make its performance more accessible, the existing package may be capable of delivering more without relying so heavily on favourable circuit characteristics or race circumstances.
It is also relevant to the development of Isack Hadjar, whose performances alongside Verstappen have provided another reference point for Red Bull. The French driver’s potential to take on a more prominent role has already raised the question of whether Hadjar could eventually become one of Red Bull’s leading figures, but Budapest demonstrated how difficult the RB22 can be for both drivers when it falls outside its narrow window.
Red Bull strategy and Verstappen execution secure second place
Red Bull’s strategic choices played a major part in converting a challenging weekend into its joint-best finish of the season. The team made several aggressive decisions, including its response during the virtual safety car period and the earlier choice not to cover Lewis Hamilton when the Ferrari driver made an early pit stop.
“The guys made several pretty spicy strategic decisions, including the one during the VSC,” Mekies added. “But it wasn’t only that one. You can also look at the earlier decision not to cover Lewis when he made his early pit stop. As always, they got them right. So it was really excellent work from the pit wall and from the entire team back at the factory. Overall, the race execution was very, very solid.”
Some performance differences naturally become less pronounced during a race, but Verstappen’s ability to overtake Lewis Hamilton at the beginning of the second stint was decisive. Combined with Red Bull’s strategic calls, that move helped direct the race towards a podium that had appeared highly unlikely at one stage.
Verstappen ultimately finished second in the final 2026 Hungarian Grand Prix classification, giving Red Bull a valuable result before the summer shutdown. However, the performance also confirmed that the team still lacks the consistency required to make the major step forward it has been pursuing.
The result delivered points and encouragement, but it did not represent a complete recovery. Red Bull’s challenge is now to improve the RB22’s aerodynamic efficiency and, crucially, give Verstappen and Hadjar a wider and more dependable balance window. Until that happens, the team’s position in the Formula 1 championship standings may continue to depend as much on execution and isolated opportunities as on the car’s underlying pace.
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