Verstappen hits 200 (and more?) at Red Bull. Plus, Norris leads early in Hungary

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Prime Tire Newsletter | This is The Athletic’s twice-weekly F1 newsletter. Sign up here to receive Prime Tire directly in your inbox on Tuesday and Friday.

Welcome back to Prime Tire, where today, as is so often the case in this Formula One era, it’s a Max Verstappen special.

I’m Alex, and Luke Smith will be along later.

Verstappen’s Red Bull 200

Dutchman staying put at a milestone moment

Verstappen’s will-he-won’t-he 2026 Mercedes transfer saga might be over — for this year at least — but he and Red Bull are still worth talking about for a nice healthy statistical reason.

Verstappen, assuming he takes the start on Sunday at this weekend’s Hungarian GP, is about to notch up a whopping 200 grand prix appearances for Red Bull.

And he’ll do it at a venue that’s already hosted a notable moment in that run: Verstappen’s first F1 pole, which he claimed in the 2019 Hungarian Grand Prix.

Verstappen has long been Red Bull’s longest-serving driver, as he passed the previous highest total (Mark Webber’s 129) back at the 2022 Austrian GP. All told, 21 drivers have turned out for Red Bull.

Verstappen pretty much outstrips them all in every metric that matters for Red Bull. He’s matched Sebastian Vettel (113 Red Bull starts) in terms of titles (with his four from 2021-2024 against the great German driver’s four from 2010-2013), but statistically sits ahead on success count back because Verstappen has more Red Bull wins (65 to Vettel’s 38).

Only three other drivers have won races for Red Bull in F1. Webber — these days Oscar Piastri’s manager — scored nine wins for the team. Daniel Ricciardo managed seven from his century of Red Bull races, while Sergio Perez picked up five from his 90.

This group are also the only five drivers to have claimed a Red Bull F1 pole. Pierre Gasly, however, joins this group in having claimed a fastest lap for Red Bull (the current Alpine star doing so twice, at the 2019 Chinese and Monaco races).

Red Bull’s first F1 world champion, Sebastian Vettel, hails his car at the 2013 Indian GP (Getty Images)

Vettel does have Verstappen beaten in two particular parts of Red Bull’s success stats pile. His wins and poles coming from a smaller starts total means Vettel leads the Dutchman in average return. Vettel won 33.6 percent of his Red Bull F1 races, while Verstappen is currently on 32.7 percent. This is far above the next highest average — Webber and fellow Aussie Ricciardo on seven percent. Vettel also claimed pole for an impressive 38.9 percent of his Red Bull starts, compared to Verstappen’s 22.1 percent — and they are dead level right now on 44 poles each for the team overall.

Since the 2024 United States GP, Verstappen has been in second place on F1’s record list for most races started for a single constructor, when he passed the legendary Michael Schumacher’s 181 for Ferrari. Ahead, only sits Hamilton’s 246 GP races for Mercedes.

Should Verstappen start every race after 2025’s summer break, he’ll be on 210 Red Bull starts come the year’s end. And if he sees out his current Red Bull deal to the end of the 2028 season, he’ll finally topple Hamilton’s record just before the end of the 2027 campaign.

But, something tells me he won’t. Verstappen might’ve claimed in Hungary on Thursday that it was “time to basically stop all the rumors” about him possibly joining Mercedes, but he could’ve done exactly that several months ago by shutting down all the noise about the switch potential by just declaring he’d honor his current contract. Instead, he chose to let the speculation build. As is his want.

But, as Luke pointed out in his column earlier this week, he’s only confirmed he’ll be driving for Red Bull in 2026 now there’s no chances the break clauses in his contract can become activated in 2025 (as Verstappen won’t dip down the drivers’ standings beyond the critical third-place cutoff point pre-summer break).

Therefore, if Red Bull’s new engine and car package aren’t up to scratch as the new rules design begins in 2026, he’ll have an even bigger chance to walk away early (and drivers do have to put loyalty aside when really pushed, as much as it’s clear Max loves his current squad). Especially if Mercedes surges back to the front again, as it did in 2014, which led Hamilton to sweep so many F1 records before him.

And there will be three Mercedes customer teams (including mighty McLaren), potentially squeezing Red Bull firmly into the midfield if history does repeat itself, let alone if Ferrari or Honda-powered Aston Martin come good.

Max and new Red Bull team boss Laurent Mekies are clearly starting off on the right foot, given what F1 saw of their relationship last weekend at Spa. That’s to be expected as Mekies is a no-nonsense character and a respected engineer. But it’s only a temporary reprieve. Red Bull just has to get better fast to keep its best asset long-term.

Now, over to Luke in Hungary.

Inside the Paddock with Luke Smith

The Hungaroring’s glow-up

Budapest is one of my favorite places to visit on the F1 calendar. But in an era of shiny new tracks and much redevelopment, the Hungaroring was starting to fall a bit behind the times. As much as it held some old-school charm.

That’s all changed for this year. One day after last year’s race, work began on a brand new pit building, which has been completed for our visit this year, as well as a new grandstand overlooking the main straight (below). Both are impressive structures, even if the media is (for this year only, apparently) confined to working from a windowless underground bunker before a proper media center appears.

The new main grandstand towers over the Hungaroring pit lane (Luke Smith/The Athletic)

It’s all part of a wider development program for the Hungaroring that is designed to turn this venue into a year-round “multifunctional event centre” from 2026, which will be the 40th anniversary of the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The changes haven’t made the track feel at all soulless, instead serving as a welcome upgrade that everyone in the paddock is saying positive things about. More garage space and fresh facilities are always good news for teams. And the face-lift will also ensure this is a race that stays firmly with the times and, importantly, on the calendar whilst maintaining its character.

Here’s how things sit so far from the on-track action at the 2025 Hungarian GP weekend.

Norris Sets Early Budapest Pace

McLaren set for yet another 1-2?

Here are the main takeaways from today’s on-track action in Hungary:

• Lando Norris set the pace in FP1, with a scorching 1:16.052 on the soft tires, ahead of Oscar Piastri by 0.019 seconds and 0.217 seconds clear of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
• This track is much more like Austria, where Norris won impressively, rather than the faster corners of Silverstone and Spa where Piastri had an edge in the title battle.
• In FP2, Norris led the way again — in a session where the McLaren pair both had wild moments while pushing at the final corner, then came bizarrely close to crashing together during the late race simulations. Foreshadowing Turn 1 on Sunday, perhaps?
• Norris’ best time was a 1:15.624, with Piastri second again — 0.291 seconds behind this time — and Leclerc also third in the second session.
• Verstappen was only ninth and 14th in FP2, not enjoying his RB21 car at a corner with none of the fast corners it loves. But Red Bull usually make impressive recoveries Friday-Sunday, so it won’t be panicking just yet, if it ever does.
• Verstappen actually had the most interesting moment of a straightforward FP2, when he threw a towel that had been left in his cockpit onto the track. Not metaphorical for his Red Bull career, yet, but almost certainly for his chances of a fifth-straight title.

Here’s the moment during FP2 🎥#F1 #HungarianGP pic.twitter.com/gL8acbirpP

— Formula 1 (@F1) August 1, 2025

Final practice in Hungary takes place at 6:30 a.m. ET and 11:30 a.m. UK on Saturday, with qualifying to follow at 10 a.m. ET and 3 p.m. UK. Follow it all with us.

Norris started on pole in Hungary in 2024, but Piastri won the race (Clive Rose/Getty Images)

Outside the points

🏎 Check out what is a beautifully shot film featuring Verstappen and British TV presenter Chris Harris, where they discuss all things driving. It’s lovely insight into what makes the world champion tick, with some extremely blatant fizzy drink product placement.

😔 Madeline Coleman examined what’s been going wrong for Kimi Antonelli after his emotional scenes during a tricky Belgian GP weekend.

🇮🇹 Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur signed a new contract with the Scuderia this week — keeping him in place beyond 2025. It’s a show of faith given Vasseur has been hit hard in the Italian media this year, but Ferrari’s bigwigs will still be expecting results to improve, fast.

📫 Love Prime Tire? Check out The Athletic’s other newsletters.

(Top photo: (Peter Fox/Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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