Red Bull confirm major difference between Verstappen and Perez cars

Red Bull has confirmed only Max Verstappen will receive Red Bull’s full upgrade package for this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix.

The reigning F1 champions unveiled extensive updates at the Hungaroring as it aims to fend off the threat posed in recent weeks by McLaren and Mercedes.

The most striking alterations relate to the engine cover and cooling with the ‘shoulder’ air inlets shaved from the car.

Speaking to media, including RacingNews365, Red Bull’s chief engineer Paul Monaghan confirmed the package would be split across its two cars “for the rest of the weekend”.

The difference between the two cars is “mainly the sidepod shape”, Monaghan clarified.

With Sergio Perez running an alternate configuration to Verstappen, Monaghan has denied it will have a detrimental impact on its run plan for the weekend.

“Is it more work? No, not really, because you do the two cars anyway,” he stated.

“So the fact it’s a slightly different shape is not going to change our world. So it doesn’t change how we try to optimise it

“It’s something we hopefully will dispose of by Zandvoort.”

Red Bull rushed upgrade to Hungary

Monaghan outlined the recent threat posed to Red Bull by rival teams caused it to fast-track the upgrade to the Hungaroring.

“We’ll see how it pans out here – if the lap times are poor in relative terms we’ll have to consider [reverting], but our belief is we’re going forward with this,” he said. 

“Thanks to everyone in the factory who has done a stunning job because we’ve got it here earlier than we expected, so hopefully we’ll make good use of it.

“We looked to see how quickly we could bring this and this was the earliest opportunity. 

“Everybody is close to us so we need to be at the top of our game. This is another small step. 

“The upgrades, bar one part of it, are on both cars. So it’s a huge statement of thank you to everyone that has got it to this point.”