Max Verstappen

Ex-McLaren driver criticizes Red Bull and Verstappen: 'Not what you would expect'

07:55, 05 Aug

Updated: 08:17, 05 Aug

byCas van de Kleut

Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing had to settle for ninth place in Hungary. The Dutchman started the race from P8, but instead of moving up, he lost a position during the Grand Prix. Sam Bird pointed mainly to Red Bull in the Chequered Flag podcast from the BBC.

Bird started talking about the strategy the team had concocted: ''Red Bull tried something to get Max Verstappen higher up the order. They tried a really aggressive undercut at the beginning of the race one of the first to pit.''

Max Verstappen finishing ninth in Hungary - Red Bull Contentpool

'Red Bull made a mistake in the strategy with Verstappen'

The Formula E driver then saw how this plan failed for the Milton-Keynes based team: ''It was a little bit too early. He had to pit a second time and he didn't have the pace, and I think the strategy was a little bit off, not what you'd expect from Max Verstappen and certainly not what you expect from Red Bull.''

Because of his strategy, Verstappen got stuck in traffic and made little progress against the drivers ahead who had chosen to go with a different approach.

Liam Lawson finished ahead of his former teammate, and Stroll, who overtook Verstappen at the race start, also got past the Dutchman. The Red Bull Racing driver ended the race in ninth place, scoring just two points at the Hungaroring.

McLaren disappears into the distance in the championship

This puts the title even further out of sight, although Verstappen himself has said multiple times that it was anyway not an option.

The gap to Oscar Piastri has now stretched to 97 points, while Lando Norris sits 88 points behind the four-time world champion. In Hungary, George Russell closed the gap to Verstappen, finishing third and now just fifteen points shy of the Red Bull Racing driver.