Red Bull struggles badly in Hungary: what went wrong for Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda?. At the 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix, Red Bull Racing faced a major performance setback.

At the 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix, Red Bull Racing experienced an unexpectedly poor and disappointing performance compared to their usual dominance this season. Max Verstappen managed to finish only ninth on the final classification after starting from the eighth position on the grid. Meanwhile, Yuki Tsunoda had an even tougher race, finishing in 18th place after beginning the race from the pit lane due to a penalty or technical issue. The primary cause of the team’s struggles was the failure to get the Pirelli tires working optimally. The RB21 car was unable to bring its tires consistently into the ideal “temperature window” required to maximize grip and performance on this demanding circuit.

This tire temperature issue severely compromised Red Bull’s race pace and handling, making it difficult for the drivers to extract maximum performance. On top of this, the team’s strategic decision to run a two-stop race plan complicated matters further. Historically, the Hungaroring is one of the most challenging tracks on the Formula 1 calendar when it comes to overtaking, due to its tight and twisty layout. This meant that Verstappen and Tsunoda found themselves stuck behind slower cars for much of the race, losing valuable time and struggling to overtake. Despite a few laps during which Verstappen managed to match the pace of the race leaders, he was ultimately unable to fully capitalize on the initial speed advantage the RB21 could offer.

According to a detailed report from Motorsport UK, Red Bull has publicly acknowledged that it has not yet definitively pinpointed the root cause of these issues. Preliminary analysis suggests that a combination of factors related to the car’s mechanical setup and aerodynamic balance resulted in significantly reduced grip levels. This manifested in persistent handling problems including both understeer, where the car resists turning into corners, and oversteer, where the rear end becomes unstable and prone to sliding. The team made multiple attempts to adjust and optimize the car during practice sessions and qualifying, but none of these changes provided clear solutions or significant improvements in race performance.

Now, after this difficult weekend, Red Bull faces a critical phase of intensive study, development, and correction work as they prepare for the upcoming rounds of the championship. The Hungaroring race represented a marked regression for a team that had been comfortably dominating the 2025 Formula 1 season up until this point, putting pressure on both engineers and drivers to understand and fix these unforeseen performance problems quickly.