Summary

At a circuit on which it is notoriously difficult to overtake, the 2024 Hungary served a feast of excellent passes, matched with a smorgasbord of failed passing attempts. Wildly varying weather conditions, from wed-dry practice/qualifying to a sweltering 40 Deg C track temperature on Sunday tested the aero and tyre management limits of the cars; leading to race strategies which added to the mix.

Recent car developments seem to have removed the Red Bull dominance. Max has now not won any of the last 3 races; and McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes now seem able to offer a genuine challenge on-track.

Having recently taken a maiden sprint race win, Oscar Piastri took his maiden full GP F1 win. Lewis Hamilton took his 200th podium finish, with Michael Schumacher 2nd in the standings at 155! Both McLaren and Red Bull demonstrated that 'discretion on radio calls' is not part of an F1 drivers tool set.

Free Practice

FP1 on Friday had Ferrari in a 1st and 3rd (Sainz/Leclerc), with Verstappen sandwiched between them. George Russell's Mercedes sat 4th with McLaren's Norris and Piastri in 6th/7th . Hamilton and Perez occupied 10th and 11th, but still the 4 'big' teams seemed competitively balanced with less than half a second between the top 4. FP2 saw the order change (McLaren, RB, Ferrari & Mercedes) but the time difference still less than half a second. FP reinforced the view that McLaren had broken the Red Bull domination. Norris and Piastri heading Verstappen, closely followed by Russell an Sainz.

Qualifying

Showers threatened to impact qualifying, posing a challenge to the teams to get their timing right to be on track for the best conditions. Russell went out early and set a time in the top ten. With track conditions improving times were tumbling as Perez put his car into the wall causing a red flag. Showers during the Red Flag period caused the track conditions to change. George Russell was amongst the first to resume, and completed his first timed lap as the track was drying on the racing line. The drying track provided the fastest conditions for Q1, and Russell was about to go for his lap when the team called him in! Mercedes had miscalculated the timing and had not fuelled the car for the extra fast lap!

As the times tumbled, Russell's position dropped to 17th, leading him to finish in the Q1 session. Russell fumed on his in lap, and his radio messages were far from complimentary about the Mercedes' strategy. First of the big surprises of the weekend: both Perez and Russell were out in Q1, and would start 16th &17th respectively.

The showery conditions had departed leaving Q2 and Q3 as dry sessions. Q3 followed the pattern of FP3, and gave a starting grid of Norris, Piastri, Verstappen, Sainz, Hamilton and Leclerc. McLaren's first front row lock out since 2013. Alonso and Stroll sat in 7th & 8th, seeming to confirm that Aston Martin have dropped down the pecking order. Undoubtedly not what Alonso signed up for and the lack of competitive performance must raise questions about Fernando's continued commitment to the 'Aston project'.

2024 Race

Lando Norris, having already won one race seemed set fair to take his second. McLaren seemed to have the fastest package, and Lando had the advantage of starting on the racing line. To consolidate his advantage over team mate, Lando swung to the right to restrict Piastri's progress.

Lando then reverted to the racing line, only to find Verstappen occupying that space. Positioning his car to block Max caused both himself and Max to drift wide onto the tarmac run off area. Oscar Piastri took advantage of the 'shenanigans' to take the lead at Turn 1.

Verstappen made a quicker recovery than Norris to rejoin in second. Hamilton challenged for 3rd but was unable to complete his pass on Norris. The race settled for a couple of laps, but when it was announced that Verstappen's 'passing off track' was being "referred to the stewards" the Red Bull team instructed Max to yield the place back to Norris. This avoids suffering a 5s penalty at the first tyre stop; which would have cost Max many more places on track.

With overtaking at Hungaroring so difficult, track position takes on supreme tactical importance. The circuit also has a high degradation, meaning that the pit stop undercut is advantageous. Getting out on new tyres can gain a driver many seconds over a driver who stays out for an extra lap on old/worn tyres.

Hamilton triggered the Pit Stop tactic by stopping at lap 16. He took on hard compound tyres for his second stint. McLaren reacted to the possible under cut by bringing in Norris and Piastri on laps 17 & 18. Ferrari and Red Bull decided to a pursue different tyre strategy. Verstappen and Sainz pitted on Lap 21 to swap from medium to hard compound tyres; Leclerc pitting on L23 for his hard tyres. Their strategy now committed to running longer second stints aiming to put on new tyres for the closing laps to regain any places lost.

The order settled into Piastri/Norris/Hamilton/Leclerc/Verstappen, with Oscar showing complete control of the race at this stage. McLaren now looked to protect their 1-2 standing. When Hamilton and Leclerc pitted on lap 40 the Mercedes and Ferrari teams elected different strategies: Hamilton elected for a second set of Hard tyres, Leclerc for new Medium compound tyres.

McLaren may have been worried of staying ahead of Mercedes and Ferrari as they were putting in faster laps on new tyres. With Piastri in the lead, normal team etiquette is to call in the lead car. Worried that Norris could lose a position McLaren ignored normal protocol and bought Norris in first. They radioed Piastri to say it was "a team decision and the positions would be restored".

Norris pitted on lap 46, and when Piastri pitted on lap 48 the McLaren's were still 1-2; but now Lando ahead of Oscar! No problem! Teams often perform this manoeuvre of swapping positions for team advantage and restoring order for individual driver results. The impression here was that this had not been discussed, or at least not agreed in the pre-race briefing. There now followed a dozen laps of McLaren taking to Lando, but without giving explicit instructions. Phrases such as "restore stable order" didn't seem to fit with Lando's desires.

[NB recalls the Malaysian GP of 2013 when Vettel and Webber had a radio call of "multi-21". This was a coded instruction for the drivers to swap on track position.. In 2013, Vettel decided it didn't apply to him as he was the #1 team driver. Will McLaren now also have a fractured driver relationship to manage?].

Verstappen was the last of the front runners to pit. He did so on lap 49 to switch to new Medium tyres. Red Bull's strategy of fastest in later laps at the end was now being tested. Max proceeded to set fastest laps. He soon caught and passed Leclerc for 4th, and was soon racing Hamilton. Lewis has 'history with Max, and has clearly indicated he is no longer prepared to easily yield position in head-to-head racing. With fresher tyres Max sailed past Lewis into turn 4, only to run wide and allow Lewis' Mercedes to regain 3rd.

Max had already demonstrated on the radio he was 'discontent' with the Red Bull car and more so with the race strategy that dropped him to 5th. His angry radio messages gave a clear insight into his determination to pass Lewis. Lap 63 heading down the main straight. Both Lewis and Max move right to pass Ocon. Hamilton then drifts left to take the normal racing line into T1 whilst Max, with the benefit of DRS is travelling much faster than Lewis and sees an opportunity to pass. Lewis commences the normal racing line of turning gently right to enter the corner; Max on a different trajectory uses his extra speed to dive down the inside line of Lewis. When Max tries to break in a straight line into T1 his front tyres immediately lock up. With locked tyres Max has no steering and slides in a straight line towards the run off area; Lewis already turning in finds his front wheel in line of Max;s rear. The collision causes the Red Bull to bounce into the air then slide into the run off - giving Leclerc time to regain 4th from Max.

Post race the stewards agree it was "a racing incident"; but noted that Hamilton "could have done more to avoid it". Lewis saw it as a "too late desperate dive leading to a racing incident. Max saw it as Hamilton "deliberately turning into him in the breaking area"! Interesting views on the same incident.

[NB recollection: I recall seeing Sir Jackie Stewart interview Ayrton Senna & ask him about the number of coming together with opponents that Senna had 'suffered'. Jackie of course came from a generation where colliding with an opponent normally resulted in at least 1 fatality. Senna had stronger, more survivable cars, end expressed an interesting philosophy to Sir Jackie:- "when you see an opportunity to pass, and don't take it, you are no longer a racing driver. I suspect Max may share that view!]

The collision didn't damage Hamilton's car but did cost Verstappen his chance of a podium. His car was obviously much faster than Hamilton's, and with 8 laps remaining he could easily have waited and pass to take 3rd - but perhaps he was still racing the McLaren's in 1-2 !

With 2 laps remaining Norris did the 'gentlemanly' thing and yielded position ot Piastri. Post race Lando said "I didn't lose the race in the handover, I lost into turn 1 when Oscar passed me. Oscar drove the better race and deserved the win". Perhaps McLaren do not have another Senna-Prost ego situation, but it will be interesting to see how they manage team orders going forward.

Podium: Oscar Piastri, Lando Norris, Lewis Hamilton

     (Full results F1 Results - 2024 Hungarian Grand Prix - BBC Sport)

Conclusions

The 2024 season has suddenly become a whole lot less predictable. Red Bull seem to have lost their car dominance. McLaren seem able to challenged the RB at all circuits. Mercedes have won the last 2 races and now have a car which not only works well in cool temperatures, but also works well in hotter climates.

Max, has had 3 seasons of a dominant car and he has performed majestically. His recent form when racing under pressure raises the question of whether he has reverted to the wilder/more aggressive Max of his earlier seasons.

Radio traffic can be entertaining. Don't be surprised if the teams request 'censorship' to restrict what is broadcast. One team has already confirmed it has instructed its race engineers and drivers to restrict their communication. (Interestingly the FIA prohibit 'coded' messages'!]

Will Alonso retire? Will Perez get fired. Will Max leave Red Bull? Will the close racing continue?

Next Race

Belgian GP at Spa-Francorchamps, July 28th.

Lets hope the Spa sweeps give as exciting a race as this Hungary GP. Report to follow...