The 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix weekend has proven to be a major challenge for Red Bull Racing, as the team continues to wrestle with serious handling issues on their RB21 car at the tight and demanding Hungaroring circuit. The technical difficulties were openly acknowledged by Red Bull’s technical director, Pierre Waché, who admitted that the team’s setup experiments during Friday’s two free practice sessions have so far failed to deliver the expected results.
RB21 ‘undrivable’ in Hungary according to Verstappen and Tsunoda
Max Verstappen, the four-time Formula 1 world champion and lead driver for Red Bull Racing, was blunt in his assessment over team radio during a long run on Friday afternoon, describing the RB21 as “undrivable.” Earlier in the day, when asked about the car’s balance by race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase, Verstappen compared driving the RB21 to “driving on ice,” emphasizing the extreme lack of grip and control. Yuki Tsunoda also struggled but was able to post a faster time than Verstappen in Free Practice 2. The Japanese driver similarly reported feeling a significant lack of grip from the RB21 throughout the weekend so far.
Technical director Pierre Waché comments on Red Bull’s difficult day
Pierre Waché did not shy away from admitting that the day had been “very difficult” for Red Bull Racing. He explained that none of the setup changes or technical tests carried out during the two free practice sessions on Friday have worked as the team expected. Waché stated:
“It has been a very tough day for us. The car is not behaving as we had predicted. We carried out several tests during both sessions today, but nothing is responding as planned. At the moment, we are not competitive enough, so there is a lot of work to do ahead of qualifying. We hope to find some good solutions.”
Data correlation problems continue to haunt Red Bull at the Hungaroring
Once again at the Hungarian Grand Prix, Red Bull appears to be suffering from ongoing data correlation issues. The setups programmed and tested extensively on the team’s sophisticated simulators do not seem to translate effectively onto the real track, resulting in a car that performs below expectations. This mismatch between simulator predictions and on-track reality poses a significant obstacle for the engineers as they scramble to find solutions in time for qualifying and the race.
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