Verstappen reveals what Red Bull's 'big priority' should be after the summer break

Verstappen finished on the podium for the second consecutive weekend at the Hungaroring, but unlike at the Red Bull Ring, he was unable to challenge for victory.

Asked about the car, Verstappen outlined what Red Bull's priority should be. He said: "We need to first find more overall performance. Then we need to fix our problems, where we sometimes just lose performance over a weekend, or even from the start of the race to the end. So, yeah, that is also actually a big priority."

In terms of the power unit, he added: "Well, I would love to have some ADUO as well. Yeah, somehow. But that’s—I don’t know. We’ll see. We’ll have another look after the break."

GPblog has learned that the Red Bull Ford power unit would once again be rated above the Mercedes, provided the FIA uses the same measurement method it applied earlier this year.

During the first performance assessment of the season, which only considered the internal combustion engine, the Red Bull Ford power unit was declared the benchmark by the FIA. As a result, Mercedes, Ferrari, Audi and Honda would all be eligible for additional homologation updates, depending on how far behind Red Bull Ford they were.

GPblog understands that following the previous evaluation, Mercedes did indeed modify its power unit, but focused solely on improving reliability and said not to have added any performance.

In that case the Germans' gap to Red Bull would remain the same, unless the FIA changed the measurement methods following many complaints and discussions with Red Bull Racing.

Answering GPblog's question at the Hungaroring, team boss Laurent Mekies also explained that at one point, the team needs to make a decision to start prioritizing the 2027 car. He said: "At some stage we'll need to make a call on the balance between this year and next year. And I expect that to happen earlier than what we have done last year, especially as the regulations are how they are. So we will decide."