The Red Bull team has said they aren’t concerned about rivals “closing the gap” on them, as they have Aston Martin-style upgrades lined up for the Hungarian GP.
Helmut Marko, the Red Bull team advisor, said he was not worried that rival teams would close the performance gap between themselves and Red Bull.
He pointed to the continuing dominance of Max Verstappen as a reason for his lack of concern.
He said: “Even if the cars are all equally fast, then we still have the Max factor.
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“Nobody can hold a candle to him at the moment.
“The updates from our competitors have brought about a shift, but without wanting to be arrogant, they really haven’t come that much closer to us.”
This comes after McLaren performed particularly well at the British GP, with Lando Norris keeping pace with Verstappen for most of the race.
The 23-year-old McLaren driver ended up finishing in second place, +3.798s off of Verstappen who finished in pole position.
The Dutchman claimed a sixth consecutive victory with this feat.
Verstappen revealed that Red Bull had its own upgrades prepared for the Hungarian GP.
It’s believed that the most significant upgrades to Red Bull’s RB19 will be to its sidepods, which will now feature Aston Martin-style sidepod channels.
Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, says these changes could be worth two-tenths per lap.
“The changes to the bodywork should be visible to the naked eye,” stated correspondent Andreas Haupt.
“It has been rumoured that Red Bull is always looking at the competition, especially Aston Martin with its deep groove in the sidepods.
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“With the upgrade in Baku, the RB19 won about two-tenths – which is a lot these days. The Budapest upgrade could be on the same scale.”
Other teams seem to have taken inspiration from Red Bull’s design to inform their upgrades.
At the British GP, many noted that the McLaren’s upgrades made the car look similar to Red Bull’s from the side.