2025 Hungarian GP: Post Race Analysis

For decades Hungary produces a follow the leader type race. Today wasn't really different except there was a wonderful balance of different strategies going on that left us on the edge of unknown. Despite a lack of on track passing, it was still an enjoyable race.

McLaren remain dominant. Having two cars starting up front meant they could split the strategies and it's fascinating that the drivers finish nose to tail. Lando had a rough lap one, mostly just by positioning and not really any fault of his own. Stretched the medium tires and even though was flying on the hard tires, he still had plenty of pace at the end to defend. Great job. Oscar very well might have been the faster driver but the team opted to try and attack Leclerc for the lead, it didn't pay off and from there they were committed to the two stop. I wonder if it would have been possible for him to stay out and try to stretch his hard tires until the end and force Lando to pass him. Track position is typically worth more than tires around this track.

Mercedes had a good car in the cooler conditions. George Russell looked in great form and drove a great race. Too bad he still is the biggest cry baby out there. He is such an unlikable person by whining about everything and everyone, calling foul and even driving like a dirt back to try and force penalties on other drivers. Then acts like such a great guy out of the car. Let's not mention how he pretty much drove into the back of Alonso in a straight line. We didn't really see it, but Kimi clawed his way through to get a point. Kudos to him as just by being in a better car doesn't guarantee forward progress at this track.

Ferrari leave themselves, their drivers, and the entire tifosi gutted. Charles had the pace to start the race, looked okay in the 2nd stint, and completely fell apart in the 3rd stint. Russell's theory of the team bumping tire pressures to avoid excessive plank wear is very logical. Charles said there was a problem with the chassis but was unwilling to give any inclination to what that was. So it must have been a secret they didn't want to share. I suspect some of the pace drop was due to Leclerc being completely frustrated as well. Regardless it was shocking how far that car dropped off the pace and it's a shame Skysports didn't investigate that or even talk about it as we saw it happen in real time. Lewis Hamilton had good tire strategy for his starting position and yet made nothing happen. Another miserable weekend for him.

Aston Martin looked like a completely different car compared to Spa. They did bring a new front wing which seems to be positive. While it could be track specific, lets see if they perform well in the next high downforce circuit. The low downforce tracks are likely going to be terrible for them unfortunately. Alonso was as crafty as ever. He ran his own race and the cost of everyone else and it paid off. Fantastic job. Lance also did a great job. Best day for the team all year and they deserve it.

Sauber get another stunning result but this time at the hands of Gabriel Bortoleto. Best result, absolutely wonderful performance. Great to see as he had a bit of a lull early in the season but is now looking much better. Easily one of the drivers of the day. Hulkenberg had a pretty decent come back from the low grid position. Got a penalty for a false start which was very very minimal. We've seen Lando and Lewis do much much worse and get away with no penalty, but Hulk isn't a popular Brit so he got nailed.

RB finally had some decent pace, or at least a decent race given the pace they had. Very good qualifying position which was the right call for them. Perhaps not as strong in the race but track position is everything. Alonso being so slow probably helped their race but the drivers did okay. Lawson in particular. He held off Verstappen who was on much fresher tires. Hadjar just missed out on points.

Williams had a lousy day. Again it could be track specific, but their max downforce setup didn't look great. We'll see how they do in Singapore. Both Sainz and Albon can't be happy with their day.

Haas also looked poor. Ocon just simply lacked pace. Bearman retired due to some damage. Didn't see where he picked it up but it's likely from dipping a wheel off track.

Alpine was the worst car of the day. Pretty much the opposite of Aston Martin.

Driver of the Day: Lando Norris. To make the strategy work he had to be fast and not make mistakes and make the tires last. He did everything right and deserved the win.

 

Lando's result today flatters to deceive. Yes, to make the strategy work, Lando had to be fast and not make mistakes and make the tires last. But, crucially, it also required that Piastri get it wrong on strategy. Today almost makes me wonder if the Mclaren pit wall isn't orchestrating something here. Either trying to keep things close 'till the end or just plain helping Lando.

 

It wouldn't be the first time the British team McLaren favored their popular British driver. Cough cough, 2007

I do understand McLaren trying to undercut Leclerc though. The Ferrari was legit fast at that stage and the undercut was very powerful. Everyone thought the two stop was the better strategy going into the race so I don't think McLaren screwed over Piastri at all, it just didn't work out as well as it did for Lando.

 

Leclerc genuinely had the pace to challenge for the win until the 3rd stint, and there's no way tire pressure would cause it to fall off a cliff like that. They would be running higher pressures at the start of the race when fuel was high if that were the case, and it wouldn't be an issue in the 3rd stint. Something else went wrong for it to fall off 2 second a lap. Disappointing but the car had both qual and race pace to match McLaren on two different tires today.
Hamilton was nowhere, he has to step it up after the break or think about hanging it up.

Red Bull is spiraling.

 

I agree. but again, maybe I'm wrong but it just seems that soon after the race settled in, and before Piastri pitted, a 1 stop was being seen as feasible. If so, McLaren must have known that if they pit Piastri when they did, Lando would go to the one stop (struggling down in 3rd as he was). And knowing that, Leclerc would not be a concern because he is not in the title hunt.

 

If Ferrari was wearing the plank excessively in the opening stint due to the car being too low plus heavy fuel, then Ferrari would have to make the adjustments after that stint. Perhaps it's also they were running low fuel and were again saving. Telemetry supposedly showed Leclerc not having the same top speed as his opening stint so he was either lift and coasting or he changed the modes to clip at the end of the straight to either save fuel, or reduce the bottoming out on the plank, or both. Who knows how much they had to increase the tire pressures but the Pirelli's are notorious for having a very small operating window. Increase the pressures, slide around, increase the temps, which again increase the pressures and there's no grip. Leclerc probably couldn't push as he himself was talking about managing differently. So we have no grip from the tires, a loss of downforce from an increase in ride height, and some form of loss of top speed on the straights. That could all add up to 1+ seconds a lap in reduce pace.

 

It says a lot about Red Bull’s race that you can write an entire summary - and a good one - without mentioning them!

 

Damn. I wasn't even really rushed either. haha


Red Bull had no pace. They brought a new front wing for more front load and the car just didn't have any grip at any point in the weekend. Verstappen looked good and on a charge in the opening stint but an early pit stop put him at the end of a long train of traffic lead by Alonso. From there his progress was stalled and surprisingly couldn't make any passes when he was on fresher tires. A poor result for him and an even worse day for Yuki. He finished 56 seconds behind Verstappen who only finished 9th.

 

Could/would Ferrari sabotage Leclerc's car and the race to make Hamilton (and Elkonn and Vasseur who chose Hamilton) look better? The only way to make Hamilton look faster is to make Leclerc slower.

 

Do you really believe that ? I don't.

Just like Ron Dennis let Prost and Senna sort it out among themselves, Zak Brown don't seem to take side.

 

Another conspiracy theory ?

 

out of the points, lap down in P12 speaks for itself, regardless of what your teammate does

 

Flat out fire 44. He already asked to be replaced. I’ll bet he would collect for being fired. Get those nose terminals and raggedy mop hair out of there.

 

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Its so silly, I'm sure they know exactly what was going on. With the data stream off these cars, how could you not. It would be so much smarter if they cam out and said the car is what the car is. That they will work hard to get the most out of it, but its not going to be much better.

 

You're not going to get any truth or transparency in F1 with regards to a teams weakness from the drivers or the team principal. It is what it is.

FChat does the digging to get you that truth that way you yourself can come up with your own conclusion on the matter.

 

I absolutely do. Former McLaren mechanic Marc Priestley talked about it. Alonso even suggested it. I think the loudest statement made by Alonso was leaving the team that just put him tied for 2nd in points in the WCC and then went on to be part of the Stepny-gate against his former team. Pretty damn clear that Alonso was unhappy with how he was treated at McLaren.

I also believe that Alonso was overconfident going into 2007 and didn't expect rookie Hamilton to be genuinely that fast right out of the gates. I do not think Lewis got preferred treatment in the beginning. Instead he was given equal status to Alonso. I believe this rubbed Alonso the wrong way as being the 2x defending champion typically gets #1 status over a rookie. Lewis did extremely well and was ahead in the championship and by mid season is when McLaren focused their efforts more towards Hamilton. It's funny because Alonso seemed to get his act together and was the better performer in the 2nd half of 2007, but it was too late by then.

 

It's especially bad at Ferrari. They will flat out lie and deceive to protect their "image" or status. I remember watching a behind the scenes meeting that included the drivers and their PR lady was literally telling them to not say anything negative about the team.

I also remember when Charles got vocal about the team and then Binotto gave him the finger wag after the race. We don't know the details of that convo, but it gave that impression.

 

Compare with Mercedes who are absolutely not updating the car anymore, binned the suspension upgrade etc. Stating all in the press. Ferrari just need to be a bit more open with those who support them. They have a 'baked-in' problem that is not about to go away until next year.........maybe lol

 

To me it is insane that Ferrari would go into the second half of the season without addressing the ride height/floor issue with the car. Cost caps be damned, this is about racing. Pay the price, but do the work and try to win. Otherwise let the drivers go on vacation for the rest of the season and just use the reserve drivers.

 

From what you are telling, Alonso had an "attitude" from the start and was vexed to be alongside a talented rookie who could fight his corner. I think Ron Dennis was fair in handling them.
Twice WDC, Alonso expected preferential treatment like the one he received from Briatore at Renault.
He didn't get it and threw his toys out of the pram. That's the way I saw it.

By the way, that notion that Brits will always favour Brits is old hat.

 

No blasphemy at Ferrari !!! Lol

 

F1 is never quite that simple. In the race, HAM's poor qualifying and the tyre choice the team made, had him stuck in traffic that he couldn't pass for the whole race. When he did get clean air, he was pretty much on the pace. I think what's more telling is what happens in qualifying - although in Hungary he was pretty close to LEC in Q2, but the on the wrong side of the line.

 

point remains the same-Lewis is underperforming to the extent you have to start asking the questions that have been asked of Daniel Ricciardo

fwiw, in Q2 Chuck was 6th, a quarter second up on Lewis in P12

 

To some degree yes. But I think Alonso was fully justified to expect to be #1. No time in history (at least from the 80s up) has a rookie got equal or preferred status over the 2x defending champion teammate. The guy that just dethroned the great Schumacher and Ferrari, gets paid big bucks by McLaren to deliver for them and then gets treated on the same level as a rookie? That's unheard of and downright insulting.

Nevertheless, I don't exactly disagree with McLaren letting both drivers have equal go to start to season. Sure, Hamilton had loads of testing but Alonso's an experienced champion, he should be able to get on with it pretty quickly.

Had McLaren backed Alonso over Hamilton, they without a doubt would have won the WDC that season. Lucky for us as Ferrari fans, Kimi pulled out the championship in the final race. What a great day that was.