F1 pundit explains how Red Bull lost in Qualifying in Hungary but was so dominant in the race

F1 pundit Mark Hughes recently explained how Red Bull was not dominant in the 2023 F1 Hungarian GP qualifying session but was unbeatable in the race. Despite Red Bull being excellent in most qualifying sessions, the team is not as dominant as it is in the main race.

On The Race F1 podcast, Hughes first explained how the reigning world champions have been beaten in the qualifying sessions before by Charles Leclerc in Azerbaijan as well.

He later explained that a small kink in the RB19's pace is enough for some other driver and car to take pole position.

"The Red Bull is always much better in the race than in qualifying, as we know. And even before Hamilton's pole, they had already been beaten in pole this season by Leclerc in Baku, twice actually with the sprint weekend. So we come to a place where the car's aero efficiency advantage is not as greatly rewarded and it still has it's slightly under-temperature front tire, so that was enough for someone to sneak in there and edge them," Hughes said.

However, he speculated that even Mercedes knew that it was not going to beat the Austrian-British team in the race since it is known for its unprecedented race pace.

"No one at Merc was kidding themselves [thinking] they are gonna be faster than Red Bull in the race. They might have made more of a race if Hamilton would have started well, but even then, they would have probably not made any difference. The Red Bull's race day performance here [at Hungaroring] was huge," Hughes added.

Lastly, Mark Hughes dove deep into how Max Verstappen's RB19 had an understeer balance setup that essentially protected the rear tire, which was crucial at a track like Hungaroring. Hence, this prevented the Dutchman from maximizing his flying laps.

"One of the reasons it's [RB19's] balance was not good enough for Verstappen to take pole as that it was setup with an understeer balance in order to protect the rear tire on race day around a track where that is always a huge challenge. Plus, Mercedes went very adventurous with its body work that for sure got Hamilton pole," Hughes concluded.

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Lewis Hamilton urges Mercedes to follow Red Bull's concept to improve

Lewis Hamilton recently stated how Mercedes needs to improve their car's concept in order to catch Red Bull and improve. He explained how the RB19 has more force than the W14, mainly due to the floor.

Hamilton said on Sky Sports F1:

"We generally have a bigger wing than some of the others, like the Red Bulls for example, but they seem to have more downforce from their floor. We have a lot of work to do. I am like a broken record. I’ve just gotta keep telling the guys ‘we need to go in that direction’. I would like to see that either with this year’s car or next year."

Mercedes is currently second in the constructors' championship with 223 points.