Red Bull Motorsports
F1
This is what happened at the Hungarian Grand Prix
Lewis Hamilton goes into the summer break satisfied after beating Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen at Hungaroring and taking back-to-back victories to end the first half of the F1 season.
Lewis Hamilton's victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix was his sixth at the Hungaroring and his third at the circuit for Mercedes. He finished 17 seconds ahead of the Ferraris, for whom Sebastian Vettel crossed the line three seconds ahead of team-mate Kimi Räikkönen.
The weather on race day couldn't have been more different to Saturday's qualifying downpour. Blue sky and rocketing temperatures were a big factor in the race. The air temperature of 32°C wasn't what mattered, it was the track temperature pushing 60°C. That's just about as hot as F1 gets, and it's tyre-destroying weather, although Pirelli were adamant this was going to be a one-stop race. They were correct, but there's more than one sort of one-stop race.
Everyone had a free choice of starting tyre and all three compounds were in play from the off. The front three of Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas and Räikkönen all opted to start on the ultrasoft tyres. Vettel, from P4, opted to roll dice and started on the soft compound. It should have caused him trouble on the long run to the first corner, but Vettel managed to hold his ground and take P3 off his team-mate after the first complex of corners.
The race was always going to be a curiosity. Ferrari had the pace, but Mercedes had the track position. After their 1–2 in wet qualifying, Hamilton mentioned several times that if Mercedes were going to win, they'd need to work as a collective. "We're in a great position," he said. "We're going to do our best to work as a team and keep the red guys behind us."
That works both ways. Ferrari decided to shake things up, provocatively pitting Räikkönen on lap 14 of 70. Mercedes covered that, with Bottas pitting the next lap. Both swapped to the soft compound. Hamilton went to lap 25, Vettel, on the tyre with better longevity, went to 39, one lap after Räikkönen had pitted again for another set of softs – the only front-runner to go for a two-stopper. The order going into the last 25 laps was as it had been at the end of lap one, but with different end games in play.
Hamilton was going to be vulnerable to Vettel, who had the newer tyres, but the Brit had a capable rear-gunner in the shape of Bottas. The Finn was practically down to the canvas on his old rubber, but at the Hungaroring a driver who puts his car in the right place is very difficult to pass. He held off Vettel for 25 laps before losing P2 – and his front wing end-plate – with six laps to go. By the time Vettel had the position, Hamilton was out of sight, though. Job done. "Valtteri did a great job. It was a long, long stint on those tyres," said Hamilton. "We knew it was going to be difficult to win. That's why the gap was so important."
In the collision with Vettel, Bottas also ceded P3 to Räikkönen. With fresher tyres, Räikkönen would have been a threat to Vettel under other circumstances, but made no attempt to attack his team-mate, holding station to the flag.
Behind them, the star performer was Red Bull Racing's Daniel Ricciardo. Starting P12, after a little bit of back luck in qualifying with the weather and a spinning Lance Stroll, Ricciardo steadily made ground. He was the sole Red Bull in the race after Max Verstappen retired on lap six, citing a lack of power.
Ricciardo ran very long from the start on the soft tyre, pitting after 44 laps for the ultrasoft option. He looked like finishing a solid P5, but Bottas's collision with Vettel gave him an opportunity. He had several goes at the Finn, and finished with rather less bodywork that could be considered healthy, but dramatically snatched P4 on the final lap.
Bottas limped home fifth – though the stewards are taking a look at that – while Pierre Gasly was an excellent sixth for Toro Rosso, having done the hard work on Saturday. Kevin Magnussen took seventh for Haas, Fernando Alonso was eighth on his birthday for McLaren, Carlos Sainz ninth for Renault and Romain Grosjean grabbed the final point in the second Haas.
Mercedes were on the back foot all weekend but, as was the case a week previously, they somehow emerged with victory and an enhanced position in both championships. Much is made of Ferrari's technical gains over the last few months, but F1 is about more than horsepower – Mercedes picked the right strategy and Hamilton executed it faultlessly. "Friday didn't look great, the long runs didn't look great, but I guess I switch into a different mode on a Sunday," said the victorious Hamilton at the flag.
The Story of the Weekend
Summer Break
There's a definite end-of-term feeling at the Hungaroring. After five races in six weeks, there's a little fatigue setting in around the paddock, and pretty much everyone seems keen to take a couple of weeks off. To be clear, the two-week summer shutdown is mandated in the rules and rigidly enforced. Apart from minor factory maintenance, F1 goes dark for a fortnight: factories and offices are locked, computers turned off and machine halls go quiet. No one is allowed to so much as answer an email – which they won't receive, because the servers are spun down.
It's an unusually draconian regime, but it's the only way this break works. Every day the team works, the car gets faster, and thus left to their own cognisance, teams would work 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for fear of falling behind. Mandating a sport-wide shutdown is the only way to stop them. Everyone's fairly happy with the arrangement – except for some of the younger staff, who resent having to take their break at the most expensive time of year for holidays, but you can't please everyone.
Force India in administration
On Thursday, Force India driver Sergio Pérez was unusually blunt in his assessment of the team's financial predicament. Having previously blamed an unhelpful economic situation for the team's slide down in competitiveness this year, in Hungary, Pérez described the situation as "critical". On Friday, the team was placed into administration, following court action led by none other than Sergio Pérez or, at least, his management company, who are attempting to recover unpaid wages.
It's a curious situation. The widely-reported belief in the paddock posited Pérez as both the stalking horse for other creditors (notably Mercedes, who supply Force India's powertrain, and primary sponsor BWT), but also as the potential saviour of the team. The current owners have deterred potential buyers with a high asking price. With an administrator in charge, that potential roadblock may be removed. The (non-shareholding) team management was treading a careful line at the weekend, highlighting the excellent record of the current ownership, which has taken the team from the back of the grid to the top of the midfield, but equally stating that they fully understand Pérez's position.
Key personnel
McLaren continued their leadership reshuffle this weekend, with news that James Key will become their new technical director. This isn't quite so straightforward as it sounds, given that Key is currently the technical director of Toro Rosso and, as the Italian team point out, he has a long-term contract. No comment from Key himself, he's currently on holiday.
Silly season
Oh, where to begin? With the summer break traditionally the period in which deals are done, silly season rumours abounded in Hungary.
Red Bull haven't yet announced a Daniel Ricciardo deal, Ferrari haven't announced who will be partnering Sebastian Vettel. Esteban Ocon might be going to Renault, which means Carlos Sainz might be going to McLaren, if he isn't going to Red Bull. Stoffel Vandoorne may be off to Sauber if Charles Leclerc is going to Ferrari, and Lance Stroll may take Ocon's seat at Force India. Everything could happen. Nothing could happen. The picture will hopefully become clearer after the break.
Fernando the voluble
Fernando Alonso turned 37 on race day, and celebrated his birthday with the de rigueur team cake photo-op, complete with Fernando Alonso face masks, which aimed for jolly, but hit wonderfully sinister. Alonso has been unhappy this weekend with FOM's insistence on broadcasting his radio comms more than any other drivers. In fairness to FOM, Alonso's utterances tend to be far more entertaining than those of other drivers. In an era of diplomatic, almost gnomic utterances from his peers, he tends to call it like he sees it. And he usually sees it in fairly blunt terms.
