During Friday’s practice sessions at the 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix, Red Bull drivers Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda encountered significant difficulties with their car performances. The team is now urgently searching for solutions to improve the RB21’s handling as both drivers experienced troubling results on the Hungaroring track.

Max Verstappen finished ninth in Free Practice 1 but dropped to 14th in the second session, while Yuki Tsunoda showed slight improvement by moving from 17th to ninth place. Despite the marginal progress for Tsunoda, neither driver was satisfied, signaling wide-ranging challenges with the car’s behavior throughout the day.

Technical Challenges Hamper Red Bull’s Performance in Hungary

Red Bull’s technical director, Pierre Wache, described the day’s running as “very difficult,” highlighting that the RB21 was not performing as anticipated. During both practice sessions, various tests were conducted, yet the results failed to meet expectations. Wache emphasized that a thorough analysis of the data collected overnight and ahead of Saturday’s practice is essential to identify improvements.

“It was a very difficult day out there for us today, the car is not behaving as expected currently. We did some tests during both sessions today and nothing is responding as expected.”

“We have to analyze all the tests we have done during the night and tomorrow before free practice. Currently we are not competitive enough, so there is a lot of work to do and we are hoping we will find some good solutions for tomorrow.”

—Pierre Wache, Red Bull Technical Director

This season, the RB21 has presented a relentless challenge to the team, with Verstappen as the sole driver consistently extracting competitive pace from the car. The difficulties faced by Red Bull partially explain why Verstappen, despite being a multiple world champion, is third in the drivers’ championship standings. For Tsunoda, who joined the team at Round 3, the problems have been even more acute, limiting his ability to score points throughout the season.

Tsunoda Proposes Combining Car Setups to Improve Grip

In response to the ongoing struggles, Yuki Tsunoda has advocated for a new approach heading into qualifying. He suggested that engineers might improve performance by blending elements from both his and Verstappen’s setups to better address grip issues on the track.

“The balance itself is not the main issue, and where we are struggling is that the grip I should normally feel, [I am not]. It is where we are lacking, but at least after FP1, there was a bit of a step from that, so there are some positives, which is good, but overall, as a team, we are struggling.”

“It is not an easy thing [to change], we changed a lot of things in FP2, and I’m sure we can take something from Max’s car and my car and combine each other’s [set-up].”

—Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull Driver

Max Verstappen has achieved two Grand Prix wins this year and holds 185 points, demonstrating some success despite the challenges. By contrast, Tsunoda has struggled to gain momentum and currently ranks 17th with only 10 points, reflecting a tough season for the young driver.

Team’s Urgency to Recover Competitive Edge Before Qualifying

As Red Bull prepares for qualifying at the Hungaroring, the team faces increasing pressure to address the RB21’s handling problems swiftly. The challenges on Friday underscore the importance of finding a technical breakthrough to regain competitiveness both in Hungary and for the remainder of the season. How the team adapts their car setup following this data analysis will likely have a critical influence on Verstappen’s and Tsunoda’s ability to challenge the frontrunners in upcoming sessions.