Ominous warning for Red Bull rivals with Hungarian GP upgrade worth ‘0.2s’ – report

Michelle Foster
Close-up shot of Max Verstappen, Red Bull. Silverstone, July 2023.

Red Bull could take another march on their rivals at the Hungarian Grand Prix where, already billed as the favourites, the RB19 could be up by a further “two-tenths of a second” per lap.

Although the 2023 season is only 10 races in, the championship titles have been all but wrapped up by Red Bull such has been the team’s prolific form.

The rampant RB19, the latest of Adrian Newey’s race-winning designs, has won all 10 of this year’s grands prix, including four 1-2 results, while also securing pole position in nine grand prix qualifying sessions.

Red Bull will reportedly race new-look sidepods in Hungary

Arguably the most complete package on the track, Newey and Co are not resting on their laurels with more upgrades scheduled to hit the track at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

According toAuto Motor und Sport, Red Bull will have new bodywork at the Hungaroring with notable changes to the sidepods that “should be visible to the naked eye”.

“In the paddock, it was radioed that the industry leader was also looking at the competition, and there in particular at the Aston Martin with its deep groove in the sidepod,” the report stated.

“红牛应该期待一个好的upgra飞跃de, which probably includes even more areas.

“As a reminder, with the package in Baku, the RB19 brought in about two tenths of a second on the lap. That’s a big win these days.

“The Budapest upgrade could fit in on this scale.”

Verstappen spoke a bit about the upgrades after his British Grand Prix win, the driver saying: “Hungary completely different track, we will put some upgrades on the car there and hopefully they will work well.

“Drag, low speed, medium speed, high speed, DRS effect, tyre wear… all of these areas.

“That’s what we’re working on. I’m not kidding.”

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With Formula 1’s regulations remaining stagnant between this year and next season, any upgrades teams bring in the coming months will carry over onto next year’s cars as such Red Bull’s upgrades will reportedly continue to come even after the summer break.

Team boss Christian Horner recently spoke about Red Bull having to balance this year’s RB19 versus next season’s RB20 with the team having less wind tunnel time under Formula 1’s aerodynamic test restrictions regulations.

“Fortunately we turned up with a competitive package at the start of the season,” said the Briton. “Otherwise it would have been a nightmare for us with the restrictions.

“We have to choose carefully what we are actually testing and bringing. A lot of resources have already been shifted to next year’s car.”

Although Red Bull’s rivals have closed the gap since the beginning of the season, the Milton Keynes squad has benefitted from having a different P2 team every few races meaning their rivals are taking points off each other, not off Red Bull.

With 10 wins in a row, the team is leading the Constructors’ Championship by 208 points ahead of Mercedes while Verstappen and Sergio Perez are 1-2 in theDrivers’ standings.

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