The four-time world champion qualified sixth at the Hungaroring after spinning at the final corner on his last Q3 attempt, ending another frustrating session for Red Bull.
Verstappen had already been struggling to extract performance from the RB22 before the spin, with the Dutchman reporting that the balance deteriorated every time he returned to the circuit.
“The weekend in general has been difficult, but when instead of the tyres degrading, your car is degrading, then you have a big problem,” Verstappen said.
“The car just kept getting worse and worse lap after lap, so the more laps I did, the more difficult it was to put a lap together, and for tomorrow, we need to fix it, because the car is just not drivable like this, as you can see in the final corner.”
Verstappen lost control as he attempted to negotiate the final turn on his last flying lap, triggering a yellow flag during the closing moments of qualifying.
He had already been unlikely to challenge Lando Norris’ pole time before the mistake, but the spin denied him any opportunity to improve from sixth.
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Verstappen immediately vented his frustration over team radio after the incident.
“The car is just completely broken aerodynamically, it’s just getting worse and worse. What a joke. What a joke honestly, what a shit weekend,” he said.
Red Bull had hoped the characteristics of the Hungaroring would offer an opportunity to move closer to the front after a difficult run of recent events.
Instead, Verstappen said the team detected an aerodynamic loss which became progressively worse throughout qualifying, leaving the rear of the car increasingly unstable.
“They could see a loss in aero, and it kept getting worse, but the grip actually disappeared, and the car just kept oversteering more and more,” he explained.
“The turn-in is non-existent on the rear, and it is really crazy, but let’s see where it is coming from, because I always feel like it is a different problem, and that is harder to control.”
Verstappen spinning, Russell stopping on track, Lewis parking at the P1 board!
It was a chaotic end to qualifying 😮#F1 #HungarianGP pic.twitter.com/tD2JTERvr4
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 25, 2026
Verstappen believed the issue was separate from the rotating rear wing problem which had contributed to his earlier spins in Austria and Britain.
Red Bull reintroduced its version of the so-called ‘Macarena’ rear wing in Hungary, but Verstappen said the team would need to study the data before determining the exact cause of the latest failure.
“I first need to look into the data myself,” he said.
“They could see loss in aero and it kept getting worse, so that’s not good.”
The Dutchman said the problem became increasingly pronounced as qualifying progressed, despite the circuit normally becoming faster as more rubber was laid onto the track.
“Normally it gets better with the grip being put down, but my car just kept oversteering more and more,” Verstappen said.
“I think I’m quite good at understanding when there is a problem or when I feel something is not right, and the car just became uncontrollable in some corners on entry, and the feeling that you have the car is not sticking anymore.
“I felt it before, but this again, it’s not good.”
Verstappen’s frustration was heightened by Red Bull continuing to encounter different issues from one weekend to the next, making it difficult for the team to find a consistent solution.
“There’s always something different happening. It’s difficult for me to make sense of it, because I don’t know exactly what the problem was myself,” he said.
“But it’s clear that something was wrong again, because they already told me during qualifying that something wasn’t right in the data and that they could see the aerodynamics deteriorating.
“That’s obviously not what you want during qualifying, and by that point you can’t even adjust the front wing anymore. Then the whole car is no longer in the right balance.”
Asked whether the continuing setbacks had left him feeling desperate, Verstappen delivered a bleak assessment of Red Bull’s current situation.
“No, no, desperate? That word doesn’t even exist for me anymore,” he said.
“I’m already past that stage. We just let it go and try again tomorrow.”
Verstappen will move up two places following the grid penalties for Kimi Antonelli and Lewis Hamilton, starting fourth behind Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri.
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