18/07/2020
NEWS STORY
A difficult day for Red Bull proved especially troublesome for Alex Albon, who - much like his teammate - has struggled with his car for much of the weekend.
Failing to make it into Q3, the youngster criticised his team for sending him out on both his Q2 runs in traffic.
Off the pace of his teammate in last weekend's Styrian Grand Prix, finishing 11s down on Verstappen even though the Dutchman made an extra pit stop, it would appear that - not for the first time - the vultures are circling overhead, egged on by sections of the media that smell a story.
Red Bull has history, and in particular its 'consultant', Helmut Marko, the driving force behind the successful driver programme and also widely seen as the company's Lord High Executioner.
Indeed, it was when Marko chose to drop Pierre Gasly after last year's Hungarian Grand Prix that Albon was promoted to the seat alongside Verstappen.
Feeling that his long-time friend and rival is not being treated fairly by the Austrian team, following today's session Russell was publicly critical of its attitude towards the Thai driver.
"I've known Alex for the past 15 years," the Williams drive told Sky Sports, "been in the same paddock as him, he's one of the best drivers we've all raced... Max, Charles, all of us would say it.
"He's been at the front of everything he's done," he continued. "I don't know what the hell is going on but I feel really bad for him because he's being made to look like an idiot and he's absolutely not.
"He's won everything he's done. So I don't know what's going on, but they need to sort it out for him."
Told of the Briton's comments, Verstappen was quick to react.
"I think first of all George doesn't know anything about the team," he said. "I think it's better he just focuses on his car and his performance instead of speaking for someone else.
"We just don't have a good balance throughout the corner," he added, "there's understeer, oversteer, lack of grip... not having a lot of top speed as well, so everything together just makes it slow.
"It's definitely not looking great," he admitted, "I hope this is going to be our worst weekend and really hopefully learn a lot from this and try to of course rectify it a little bit for the upcoming races."
Check out our Saturday gallery from Budapest, here.