There’s something about the Hungaroring and first-time Formula 1 winners. Perhaps it’s the flowing layout of the course north-east of Budapest, with almost kart-circuit-like characteristics. Allied to the difficulty to overtake, which puts much more value on a good qualifying session, it makes it a happy hunting ground for maiden victories.
Case in point: Damon Hill, Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button, Heikki Kovalainen, and Esteban Ocon have all managed their first F1 wins at the circuit. Oscar Piastri has now added his name to that list, one comprising of a total of four F1 championships, 72 victories and, interestingly enough, two Super GT titles.
But it wasn’t entirely straightforward, even if Piastri had looked relatively serene in the lead for the opening half of the race. An excursion eradicated more than half of his buffer over team-mate Lando Norris, and this enshrined the undercut that the Briton was going to get by stopping two laps sooner. And then began the debate when Norris emerged in front when Piastri stopped.
PLUS: The 10 reasons why the Hungarian GP was so good
Of course, it all played out over the radio. Will Joseph, Norris’ race engineer, assumed the role of lobbyist and attempted to appeal to his driver’s better nature, a discussion that eventually bore fruit as the Miami winner reluctantly conceded at the start of lap 68 and allowed Piastri to restore his lead.
There was more spice among the proliferation of radio chatter, as Max Verstappen spent his race sounding off like a foghorn in a tornado, while the TV feed cut to race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase’s countenance of a put-upon father watching his toddler throw a strop in a Tesco.
And, as ever, there were plenty more news nuggets unearthed throughout the weekend that have been overshadowed by events since. Let’s unpack a few things we’ve learned, shall we?
1. Piastri is slowly becoming Norris’ equal at McLaren
Piastri and Norris celebrate McLaren’s first 1-2 since 2021
Photo by: Lubomir Asenov / Motorsport Images
When it came to Piastri’s first season in F1, he showed great improvement over the season as he began to live up to his prodigious reputation. His racecraft was well-judged, his efforts in qualifying could be spectacular, and he carried himself with a measured approach that suggested that F1’s pitfalls and trappings were water off a duck’s back. The main sticking point appeared to be his tyre management, which paled in comparison to that of Norris over the year.
That has pervaded to some degree in 2024, but the Australian is ever-improving in this area. After picking up the lead of the Hungarian Grand Prix into the first corner, he demonstrated that he was able to ease away from the front-runners. He could extend his opening stint on the medium tyres as a result, even with his McLaren fat with fuel. He had Norris’ number through the first half of the race, and through the first part of his hard-tyre stint — before the lap 33 slip off the road at Turn 11.
Norris, however, was stronger on the final medium stint — and he wanted to demonstrate that advantage. Perhaps the Miami Grand Prix winner is beginning to feel that Piastri is growing in strength, and felt laying down a marker in extending his lead was necessary. The two were separated by just 0.044s in qualifying to boot, albeit Norris did not have the chance to improve in qualifying with the Yuki Tsunoda-produced red flag.
Regardless, Piastri is continuing to build in strength, and he’s going to test Norris a lot more in the following races. At some point, McLaren is going to have to put its chips on Norris as he hopes to challenge Verstappen in an unlikely title battle, and Piastri will be called upon to dutifully play the team game. But when he gets his own chance to challenge, possibly in 2025 if the current order remains, Piastri will have the tools needed to get there.
2. Norris struggled to decide between team player and self-interest
Norris eventually allowed Piastri past after a difficult final stint
Photo by: Lubomir Asenov / Motorsport Images
An angelic homunculus metaphorically sat upon Norris’ shoulder in the final phase of the race, encouraged by race engineer Joseph, to coax the Bristol-born racer into looking at the bigger picture and complying with McLaren’s request to let Piastri through. But it was tempered by the devilish being perched upon the other shoulder, insisting that Norris should put himself first and stay out in front.
Norris admitted to being torn between the devil and the deep blue sea as the Hungary race drew towards its final act. «Things are always going to go through your mind because you’ve got to be selfish in this sport at times,» Norris explained. «You’ve got to think of yourself. That’s priority number one, is think of yourself. I’m also a team player, so my mind was going pretty crazy at the time. I know what we’ve done in the past between Oscar and myself. He’s helped me plenty of times. But I think this is a different situation.»
He was probably right that McLaren probably should have stopped Piastri first to avoid the subsequent posturing on the radio. However, it’s understandable why McLaren wanted to take the conservative approach and cover off the Lewis Hamilton/Max Verstappen battle further back, given the race wins that the papaya team has carelessly tossed away this year. Unlikely or not, Norris is thinking about a title here, and a continuation of Red Bull slip-ups could mean that Norris finds himself hacking away at the 76-point advantage that Verstappen currently has.
And if Norris catches up, if only to lose the title by less than the seven-point swing he took for letting Piastri through, he might feel somewhat aggrieved — to put it lightly, at least. Equally, this might be good for him, and light a fire underneath him for the rest of the season. He’s already shown his maturity in stating; «I didn’t give up the race win. I lost the race win off the line».
3. Verstappen’s temper is starting to fray under renewed challenge
Verstappen’s frustration built towards his collision with Hamilton
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
It feels like a long time ago that Max Verstappen was in position to pick up from his 2023 season and reel off another season of crushing domination. His points lead is still mighty thanks to that early season form, but the improvements of other teams coincident with Red Bull seemingly hitting the limit of development has riled him up.
That brings us to Hungary, where Verstappen was apparently irked by absolutely everything that existed during the 70-lap affair in Hungary. Strategy? Check. Car? Check. Lewis Hamilton’s defending? Check. The hospitality catering? Inconclusive.
His piss-and-vinegar driving appeared to work for a time, as he was sufficiently riled up by Red Bull’s willingness to accept being undercut to extend the stints, but he did not seem entirely keen to view the bigger picture. The undercut was powerful, but it has limitations; with enough of an offset, Verstappen should have been able to pick past Leclerc and Hamilton and claim third place. It put the onus on him but, with a driver of his talent, there’s always the chance for more.
Leclerc was swept aside, and Hamilton was ripe for the picking while coaxing his car around on the hard tyre, but Verstappen was hardly a paragon of patience when he careened into Turn 1 and locked up. Hamilton, turning into the corner as normal, ended up making contact with the Red Bull.
Red Bull was keen to point out that Verstappen’s 3am sim-racing efforts on Saturday night were not to blame for his foul mood, and accepted blame for the less-than-optimal strategy, but it’s clear that Verstappen’s concerns about Red Bull are starting to grow. An upgrade for Hungary didn’t deliver immediate returns, playing into his fears that the team is stagnating, which probably also explains his irascibility.
4. Hamilton overcomes Mercedes heat issues to show defensive chops
Hamilton earned a 200th podium after fending off Verstappen
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
«Not a good day,» was Hamilton’s verdict after Friday’s free practice sessions, as Mercedes proved to be at odds with the sweltering conditions that prevailed around the Hungaroring circuit. The W15 struggles in the heat, as the tyres tend to fall out of their optimal windows, but the conditions never quite approached the 60C track temperatures that turned the Pirellis into burrata in FP1.
Hamilton had only scraped into Q3, with 0.01s separating he and 11th-placed Hulkenberg either side of the cut-off, but he at least grabbed a fifth place. The race was far better, and Hamilton put himself in a great position by staying within two seconds of Verstappen throughout the opening phase of the race. This ensured that Mercedes could pounce upon an undercut over Verstappen with the first stop, prompting the Briton to turn in a clutch of rapid laps on the hard tyre to ensure he was well ahead of the Dutchman by the time Red Bull flicked the switch.
Hamilton perhaps took a little bit too much out of the tyres in those break-building laps, which left him vulnerable to Verstappen at the end of the stint, but the seven-time champion managed to play for time enough to keep his 2021 title rival behind. Having been sufficiently irritating to the Red Bull driver, Hamilton again collected the undercut after being passed for third and once again produced a thorny defence when Verstappen caught up again later on.
It’d be interesting to consider whether Hamilton and Verstappen change their approaches when they come up against each other. Does Hamilton defend more than he would for anyone else? Does Verstappen get more aggressive with Hamilton? On the evidence of Sunday, (and, let’s be honest, various occasions in 2021), it’s certainly possible.
5. F1 gets further flexi-wing monitoring — and in-car aircon?
Front wings have been put under the microscope again this year
Photo by: Filip Cleeren
Another year, another flexi-wing debate. Elastic aerodynamic devices have long been a rich vein of performance for the engineers to tap into, but the trick is doing it legally so that it satisfies the FIA’s loading and flex tests in scrutineering. It’s also become abundantly clear that a flexing front wing is a must-have with the current formula, a trick that has been employed as the other teams catch up to Red Bull.
The FIA has held off increasing the stringency of its deformation tests for the time being, but it has asked teams to fit cameras and affix small dots to the inside of the endplates at the Belgian Grand Prix as a focus point to monitor the movement of the current wings. So far, the governing body has not shared any particular concerns that teams are surpassing the limits set out in the rules, but instead has introduced it as an information-gathering exercise.
It was also revealed during the Hungary weekend that the FIA is going to trial an in-car air conditioning system at the Dutch Grand Prix after the summer break, as a further measure to ensure that drivers are less affected by extreme heat.
This follows from the addition of an extra cooling scoop in response to last year’s Qatar Grand Prix, where numerous drivers were treated for heat exhaustion in consistent plus-30C temperatures. Alex Kalinauckas’ piece [above] delves into the subject further.
6. Perez defiant in Red Bull seat claim; Sargeant a man out of time at Williams
Perez rebounded from another qualifying crash with a strong race
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
Red Bull handed Sergio Perez a contract extension earlier on this year to tie up his medium-term future at the team, understood to be a one-plus-one deal. It was felt that, if Perez was given a comfort blanket with a secure future, his dwindling performances might start to pick up again. Instead, that hasn’t entirely been the case; the Mexican’s loss of form had continued throughout the following races to pick up a scant 15 points between (and including) the Imola and Silverstone rounds.
This has led to all sorts of speculation about his future. Suggestions that a release clause exists if he does not sit within 100 points of Max Verstappen at the summer break have fuelled the burgeoning fire, and Perez has had to bear the brunt of questions asking if he’ll stick around.
Yet, he remained defiant that he’d be at the team for the duration of his new deal. “I’m not worried,» he said. «I’m fully determined to turn my season around and focus on my performance. It hurts a lot as a driver when you let your team down, but I will not give up. I will really give my very best to turn the situation around and push as much as possible to get the constructors’ Seven things we learned at the 2024 Hungarian Grand Prix home.”
On the flipside, Logan Sargeant very much appeared to give the impression that his time at Williams was coming to an end. It has long been known that Williams is in talks with other drivers for 2025, putting pressure on Sargeant to produce a miraculous series of results to retain his seat.
However, speculation that Williams may enact a mid-season replacement has rumbled on; it denied that it had supported the drop in minimum age to 17 to help Andrea Kimi Antonelli make a rapid step up to F1 in preparation for 2025, and news of a seat fitting for Esteban Ocon was said to be with a view to 2025 and beyond, rather than prising the Frenchman away from Alpine for the immediate term.
Sargeant seems to know he’ll be gone at the end of the season at the latest, and is already casting his net out for other opportunities in racing. IndyCar perhaps beckons…
7. Magnussen’s time at Haas is over (again)
Magnussen will depart Haas at the end of the season
Photo by: Lubomir Asenov / Motorsport Images
Recent media sessions with Kevin Magnussen have shown that he is much more at ease with the idea of life outside of F1. When he was first let go from Haas at the end of 2020, the situation was different; he’d already lost an F1 drive before with McLaren, and his subsequent four-year spell at the American squad (after a brief stop at Renault) came with few other F1 opportunities.
But he had a year to explore other opportunities. A spell in IMSA with Chip Ganassi Racing in 2021 led to an IndyCar one-off with Arrow McLaren, and he was set to join Peugeot’s World Endurance Championship return before Haas came calling once again for 2022. Magnussen added much-needed experience when the team dispensed with Nikita Mazepin, helping Haas to a solid eighth in the constructors’ championship, but things have not been quite so stellar of late.
Haas has decided to go in a different direction for 2025, with Oliver Bearman signed for 2025 and Ocon expected to partner him. Magnussen may be an option for the other remaining seats on the grid, but it’s likely that his stay in F1 might be up. And he’s okay with that.
“F1 is the pinnacle of motorsport, but I’ve always been of the opinion that racing outside of Formula 1 is also awesome,» he explained.
“My whole life, since I was a little kid, was about getting to Formula 1, and then I had 10 years in the sport. So, it was interesting and kind of exciting to see a different side of life in 2021. And it wasn’t frightening, it was it was actually very positive and fun. I think that changed my mindset in terms of [how] I had a lot of fear before that – of losing Formula 1 because I didn’t know what was on the outside.
“And that kind of showed me, ‘hold on to Formula 1 as long as you can, but don’t fear the outside’. Afterlife is going to be good.”
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F1 heads on to Belgium for its final round before the summer break
Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images