Max Verstappen has emphasized that the Hungarian Grand Prix race is an important moment that determines the course of the rest of the season. After a strong start to the season, Red Bull has faced more challenges from rival teams recently. McLaren has consistently outpaced the incumbent world champions since Miami, while Mercedes has recently stepped up the pace and won the last two grand prix.

Red Bull will give its RB20 car a new upgrade this weekend at the Hungaroring, which Verstappen hopes will help increase speed. “We brought things [earlier this year] but I assumed they weren’t too big,” Verstappen told the media. “So this time it’s a little bigger than what we brought. “So I think for everyone, this is a very important weekend.”

When asked if this was an important moment for the team in relation to this year’s championship race, Verstappen declared: “You could say so. I think so, if this doesn’t give us some good lap times… “I don’t know how the rest of the season is going to go but at the same time, I don’t know what the other teams are going to do either. “So we just focus on ourselves. We are putting quite a lot into the car and of course, I hope that it will give us some lap times.”

Red Bull ‘not the fastest car’
Verstappen still maintains a lead of 84 points in the driver rankings, while the gap between the Red Bull and Ferrari racing teams is 71 points. Rival teams have recently been on Red Bull’s heels as Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Perez is struggling to perform.

The Dutchman was asked how closely he expected his regular rivals to follow this weekend – however Verstappen believes he is in the chasing group. “I think you turn it around, [it’s] ‘how close can we get to the competition?’” he said. “I think in the last few races we haven’t been the fastest car so I don’t expect that to suddenly be different. “Of course, we will bring upgrades, hopefully that will give us good momentum. But for now I just want to try and see how that goes this weekend.”