2023 Hungarian GP: Post Race Analysis

If you went into the race expecting a follow the leader, no passing typical Hungarian GP type race, then you would have found this race to be quite enjoyable. Loads of passing up and down the grid, and technically even a pass for the lead.

Red Bull sets a record for 12 consecutive race wins, ties the record with the 1988 McLaren MP4/4 for 11 straight wins in a single season. Max grabbed the lead in turn 1 and didn't look back. Cruised to a 30+ second victory. It's hard to believe that car is barely the best in quali, but easily half a second faster than everyone in race trim. Incredible. Perez had a fantastic drive from 9th place, making some aggressive passes on track. Though didn't have enough in the tank to charge up to Lando and was being caught by Lewis in the end.

McLaren had another superb race. Lando was brilliant, especially at end. Putting in faster laps than Perez to comfortably come home 2nd. Piastri also had a great race, though didn't quite have the same pace as Norris. It may have seemed strange that the team pitted him after Lando, but it was needed to cover from Hamilton. In the end it was the right call as Lando was obviously faster.

Mercedes have to pretty happy, though they may have expected more. It seems like they opted for a qualifying biased setup, which is quite common in Hungary since it's so difficult to pass. Hamilton was managing some temperature issues and couldn't extract the full potential for the first half of the race. In the closing laps on medium tires and low fuel, the car came alive. Too little too late. Russell had an outstanding recovery drive. Starting in 18th, he was a pitbull in the race, raging through the field. Nearly tipped Leclerc on track, but still gets 6th.

Ferrari can't seem to do a race without at least once mistake. They probably should have let Sainz through on the softs and if needed swapped later, but okay I get it. Leclerc was the outright faster driver and unfortunately had a very slow pitstop which hurt his race. He had a bit of a rant on the radio and a stern reply from his engineer, but was still given pitstop priority later in the race. Unfortunately Charles commits his own mistake and takes a costly 5 second penalty. Sainz after a fantastic start on softs was then in charge of calling his own strategy. The team is in shambles.

Aston Martin now at the bottom end of points, just a few races after being on the podium all season long. How sad. Their upgrade is a complete failure, the team is making more and more mistakes. The feel good story of the season is turning into a bit of a horror story. Alonso still did the best he could, but couldn't even take the fight to the self imploding Ferrari's. Lance did score the final point which has to be considered a good job since he couldn't seem to score many points when the car was second best.

Williams nearly grabbed a point with Alex Albon. Where did he come from? Most of the race sitting around 15th or so, and next thing you know he was one retirement away from points. Great job. Logan's side of the garage decided to retire the car because he wasn't going to improve.

Alfa Romeo have to be kicking themselves for missing out on a huge opportunity. Another team that likely prioritized the setup for qualifying. Bottas drove pretty good and was up near the points most of the race, but to finish behind a Williams. Not good enough. Zhou had the spotlights on him for his 5th place qualifying, just to throw it all away in the first second of the race. Not sure what happened, but it's like he forget to select a gear. Tumbled down and couldn't recover. Brutal.

AlphaTauri never looked to be in points contention, but their race wasn't horrible. A nice welcome back for Danny Ric, out qualified his teammate, got collected in the turn 1 crash and managed to battle back to 13th. Pretty darn good job. What happened to Tsunoda though? He was up around 11th to 13th for so long, then suddenly he was near the bottom.

Haas had another awful race. Oddly the car looked competitive with full fuel, but as the race went on the car got worse and worse. Perhaps it was just poor management from the team? Who knows. 15th and 17th is how they finished.

Alpine have had bad days before, but to lose both cars in the first corner of the race? Yikes. At least the mechanics could start packing up early.

Driver of the Day: Up until about lap 63 it was for sure going to be Perez. Then Russell came alive with a stunning pass on Sainz and got right on the rear wing of Leclerc. Going from 18th to 6th on a track that is notoriously hard to pass, and in a car that wasn't all that amazing with heavier fuel loads. George Russell deserves driver of the day.

 

I forgot to add that Mercedes are typically one of, if not the best off the line this year. Somehow Lewis had a terrible start which allowed Max to get a run from the dirty side of the track. Not sure he had enough for 2nd today, but I wonder if a podium could have been possible if he kept the lead through the first stage of the race.

 

I'm starting to think the same. I do believe Leclerc has some top level pace, but he continues to make costly mistakes. Mind you Carlos puts in his fair sure of mistakes and I don't recall him being prone to errors with other teams. So maybe it's just the pressure of driving a crappy Ferrari that they go beyond the limits too often.