Helmut Marko admits Red Bull at “fault” over Max Verstappen’s Hungarian GP strategy

Helmut Marko confessed that Red Bull got Max Verstappen's strategy wrong at the Hungarian GP.

Helmut Marko admits Red Bull at “fault” over Max Verstappen’s Hungarian GP strategy

Helmut Marko and Max Verstappen (via IMAGO)

The Hungarian GP ended with another controversy surrounding Max Verstappen, annd Lewis Hamilton. At turn 2 of the Hungaroring Verstappen crashed into Hamilton’s car, which affected his position in the race. The Dutchman blamed the team’s strategy for his P5 finish and was frustrated by the incident.

Red Bull motorsports consultant Helmut Marko admitted that the team made an error in their strategy for Max Verstappen. He explained that their computer simulations, which predict how fast cars need to be to overtake others, were incorrect. The team relied on these simulations to decide their tactics, but they miscalculated. Because of this, their strategy didn’t work as planned, and they made a significant mistake in their judgment. This mistake impacted the Dutchman’s performance during the race resulting in P5.

It's clear that it was our fault. All the simulations gave a different delta for the overtaking maneuver and our mistake was that we misjudged it so badly.
Helmut Marko said, as reported by Motorsport.com
YouTube video

Helmut Marko explained that the team believed Verstappen would be faster with new tires. Their strategy was to use new tires on Verstappen’s car to overtake Hamilton. However, despite their expectations, the Dutchman couldn’t get past the Briton. The new tires which they expected to work in their favor didn’t turn out well resulting in a crash. Because of this mistake the 26-year-old was stuck behind the seven-time-world champion who couldn’t improve his position in the race as they hoped.

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We thought that we would be faster with new tires. But we simply couldn't get past Hamilton.
Helmut Marko added.
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Nico Rosberg admits Max Verstappen’s messages on radio was below the belt

2016 championship winner Nico Rosberg was present at the Hungarian GP. The German commented on Max Verstappen’s frustration during the race. He stated as the event progressed the Dutchman’s frustration kept on rising. This was clearly evident on the team radio during the race, where Verstappen’s messages to his race engineer were inappropriate. Rosberg noted that the situation was intense and surprising for Red Bull.

The longer the weekend went on, the more annoyed Max became. Internally, on the team radio and also during the race, messages came across that were almost below the belt. It's pretty intense and it's a shock for Red Bull.
Nico Rosberg stated
Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton (via IMAGO)
Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton (via IMAGO)

Further, Rosberg stated that Red Bull was caught off guard by McLaren and even Mercedes. They didn’t expected Mercedes to be so dominant at this race and were surprised that even Mercedes managed to get past Verstappen. This unexpected performance from rivals was a real shock for Red Bull. The 39-year-old stated the team has to figure how to tackle these problems in the upcoming races or else they’ll be trapped in a dilemma.

They didn't expect to be so dominated by McLaren and even beaten by Mercedes on the track. It's a shock and they have to deal with it.
Nico Rosberg added

Certainly, Nico Rosberg Red Bull’s situation at the Hungarian GP. It was another unlucky and disappointing race for Max Verstappen similar to the race in Austria. For now Red Bull needs to work better on their strategies to perform better in upcoming races. Fans were disappointed by how the race turned out at the end for Verstappen.

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