Red Bull concede failure in locating 'crack' in cars of Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda

Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies has conceded to failed experimentation in helping Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda understand a troubled RB21 throughout practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Verstappen endured a wretched Friday, declaring the car to be "on ice" and "undriveable" at various stages, leaving him in a lowly position on the timesheet, even behind team-mate Tsuonda on a rare occasion.

The anticipated overnight turnaround, which has so often been a feature of Red Bull and Verstappen's performances this season, failed to feature in final practice as Verstappen bemoaned the fact that, despite fixes to the rear of the car, it had "ploughed into understeer".

A mistake on Verstappen's true qualifying simulation lap at the end of the session left him 12th on the timesheet, whilst Tsunoda struggled with the car throughout and was a miserable 19th.

Assessing the grim picture for Red Bull going into qualifying at the Hungaroring, speaking to Sky Sports F1, Mekies said: "We've been struggling since yesterday. It's been very difficult to put the car in the right window to give Max and Yuki the right feeling.

"We've now tried a number of things to turn the car around, but I have to say, it's probably the same sort of feeling today, and not finding the grip overall, so...uncomfortable.

"But it's in this sort of situation that you learn something, so we are trying to do quite a few tests to understand where the limitation, where the crack is, but so far, it's fair to say that we haven't given our drivers the car they wanted."

Max Verstappen 'a huge, huge help'

Mekies, who recently replaced Christian Horner as team principal, confirmed the team tried alternative set-ups on the two cars in FP3 to try and understand its problems, but it remains at a loss.

"We have gone in two different directions, both yesterday and also this morning, to try to understand a bit better," he said.

"From the first run yesterday, it felt like something was not quite right, and we have been experimenting. So far, we haven't cracked it."

At least Mekies is grateful for having a driver of Verstappen's calibre on board to at least help steer the team in the right direction.

"It is essential [having Verstappen}, I have to say,"  he said. "It's a huge advantage because he knows when the car has been working, when the car has not been working.

"And especially in a situation like this, where it's not so much a balance issue, we're struggling to find the level of grip we should be having here, he's certainly a huge, huge help in these situations."