Red Bull confident RB16 will be more suited to Hungaroring

Red Bull

Red Bull confident RB16 will be more suited to Hungaroring

Team made major revisions to the car in between Austrian races

Ian Parkes

Wednesday 15 July 2020 11:08

Red Bull believes its RB16 should fare better in this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix compared to the last two Formula 1 races in Austria.

The team had to play second fiddle to Mercedes around the Red Bull Ring as Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton claimed a victory apiece, leaving Max Verstappen to suggest his car was too slow.

Red Bull, however, did have an advantage over Mercedes in the slower-speed corners at the circuit, which could play into its hands given the nature of the Hungaroring.

"I think we have got a good car," insisted race engineer Paul Monaghan.

"Hungary is a slightly different cornering speed challenge, and if anything, I think our car will be better suited to Hungary than we were in Austria, so let's see what we can do.

"It's a fresh challenge, and I hope we are arguing over first and second on Sunday afternoon."

Despite the issues that blighted the season-opening race, and ultimately led to a double retirement, Monaghan has no doubt the car from that grand prix to the second in Austria was a vast improvement.

Asked as to whether he was happy with the progress, Monaghan added: "Yes, enormously. We've taken on a huge amount to revise the car, not all of it will be visible.

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"For the first race, we had one of them parked by the side of the road on lap 10, or whatever it was, and the other coughing and spluttering near the end of the race.

"For the second, we've run without needing to protect or deal with anything of significance, so that's enormously satisfying and a great reward to everybody that has helped with that."

Detailing the vast amount of work that has gone on behind the scenes, Monaghan added: "The bodywork updates were extensive, [they were] tested again on Friday, all the pieces were there.

"We were able to get more than two cars' worth in [of parts], which is a phenomenal effort from everybody, and their efforts were rewarded with a third and fourth place.

"We're on the scoreboard, there's a reasonable order of the teams starting to become clear, and it's a nice reward for Honda because they've worked extremely hard after the first weekend. We're going forward."

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