Lando Norris and McLaren led the way on pure pace on Friday at Formula 1’s 2024 Hungarian Grand Prix, but a deeper look at the long-run times suggests Red Bull possesses a race pace advantage at this stage.

Watch: McLaren Beat the Heat — F1 News — Hungarian Grand Prix Friday

Red Bull also spent the day assessing the impact of its much-discussed engine cover cooling upgrade applied so far only to Max Verstappen’s car, while Ferrari too was working through what data it could on its reworked Barcelona floor amid Charles Leclerc’s disrupted day.

All that and more is included in our assessment of where things stand so far at the Hungaroring.

The story of the day

In FP1, sweltering temperatures were the most notable element – with track heat peaking at 59.1°C, which Pirelli claims is only topped in its historical F1 data by 60°C in the 2018 race here and the 61°C in FP1 at the 2016 Malaysian GP.

F1 got to glimpse at Verstappen’s heavily revised RB20 – minus the high-waisted cooling gulleys added to Red Bull’s package at the start of the year – when he headed out of the pits, while Perez continued with the team’s old design.

Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko would later claim “Checo has got the same upgrade as Max, but that one part [sidepod and engine cover] is the most obvious to see, so everyone thinks that he doesn’t have it”.

“But Checo has the rest,” Marko continued. “So the difference is marginal in terms of performance.”

Perez doesn’t have the full raft of Red Bull upgrades, but the performance difference is minimal

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Aston Martin also split its car specification in FP1, as only Fernando Alonso ran its raft of front wing, halo, floor, diffuser and beam wing updates (Lance Stroll got these for FP2). Here the Ferraris were fitted with the revised floors that the Scuderia hopes will cure the high-speed corner bouncing that has afflicted the SF-24s since Barcelona.

Carlos Sainz led the way in the day’s opening session, setting a best time of 1m18.713s to forge ahead of Leclerc, before Verstappen nipped in with a 1m18.989s to end up +0.276s down in second. Verstappen was, however, running used softs and so missing peak new tyre freshness, as he’d opened up on the softs when the Ferraris ran hards.

In FP2, Ferrari’s day took a downturn, as Leclerc caused a long red-flag period with his Turn 4 crash in the initial running on mediums. Running wide onto the exit kerbs at the fast left-hander unsettled his car and spun him off and backwards into the barriers on the track’s outside. After a 15-minute delay as the barriers were rearranged, the pack headed back out en masse on the softs, which meant Perez’s early session-leading 1m18.568s on the mediums was eclipsed.

Verstappen shipped time to Norris in the first sector on their best FP2 times, but closed in with a purple middle sector before falling back again as his rear softs struggled to hang on through the final turns

First, Russell got ahead on a 1m18.294s, before Norris put in the day’s fastest time – these laps coming either side of a wild moment for Zhou Guanyu. He spun off at the same point as Leclerc, unsettled by Perez going slowly on the racing line ahead as Zhou turned in for Turn 4 and the Sauber narrowly missed the Red Bull. In FP1, Zhou had lost bodywork from his sidepod cooling elements.

Norris’s 1m17.788s remained unbeaten thereafter, as Sainz’s soft-tyre flier came in 0.397s down and Verstappen again ended up as second best – this time 0.243s adrift of a different adversary.

FP2 overall order

Verstappen was second fastest on Friday despite complaining of an early brake issue

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

Verstappen shipped time to Norris in the first sector on their best FP2 times, but closed in with a purple middle sector before falling back again as his rear softs struggled to hang on through the final turns. The Dutchman also complained of a braking issue – “they’re not biting”, he reported over his team radio – early in FP2.

An oversteer snap exiting Turn 2 proved to be costly for Verstappen as, per the GPS trace data from the cars on Friday afternoon logged from FP2’s quickest laps, he went from just shading Norris ahead of the left-hander to being 0.25s down on the exit. This is essentially the same gap the world champion faced by the lap’s end.

Intriguingly, the Red Bull did not appear to be turned down so significantly on engine modes (with all the usual caveats on this area and practice fuel loads applying). Sainz’s Ferrari, however, was consistently clocked with a higher top speed at the end of the main straight in both FP1 and FP2, while in the latter Verstappen’s speed matched Norris’s. Typically, Red Bull’s engines run offset to all their frontrunning rivals in Friday practice.

At Mercedes, the team feels it is yet to find the balance sweetspot for the W15 over a single lap, but it is confident it can at least bother Red Bull and McLaren come qualifying.

Mercedes’ fastest FP2 lap – from Russell – also featured tyre temperatures being too low for the opening corners and Russell therefore shipping 0.3s of his 0.506s final gap to Norris’s best time by Turn 3 alone.

The pack then switched to the typical FP2-ending long runs.

What the data tells us

In these, McLaren stands as an outlier – the orange team going alone in running the hard C3 tyres for FP2’s end.

While other ran medium tyres, McLaren spent significant time evaluating the hard Pirelli compound

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Both Norris and Oscar Piastri ran the hards, with the former’s 1m24.300s average comparing favourably with Mercedes’ best average (from Russell) on the mediums. But in these (see below), Red Bull comfortably led the way on Friday afternoon.

Medium long run averages

*N/A McLaren

Perez clocked the times in the table above, but more impressive was Verstappen’s degradation curve on a 1m24.221s average that still has him better than any other driver on the mediums late in FP2.

Data Autosport has seen (corrected for fuel loads and engine mode settings) has Verstappen being able to recover pace in the later tours of his slightly longer nine-lap stint. This in borne out in the lap times, as the Verstappen was able to get back to a 1m24s-flat by his final race sim lap having started off in the low-to-mid 1m24s and got initially slower.

A combination of all three tyre compounds hasn’t been ruled out for race strategies, but given the relentless heat this weekend, it would be logical to expect the harder compounds to make the bigger difference

We can look to McLaren’s best medium tyre long average of 1m24.943s, from Norris, from late in FP1 as a comparison of sorts, but the very high track temperatures of that session explain the massive one-second difference to Red Bull’s best average in FP2.

Mercedes also provides an outlier with Hamilton’s soft tyre long run in FP2, which he had to do after flatspotting the set of mediums ear-marked for this run during FP2’s early stages, with a big moment at Turn 1 that had him in the runoff. Aston was the only other team to do a soft-tyre long run, via Stroll, which was 0.329s slower than Hamilton on average.

Based on the medium averages, Ferrari appears to have work to do given Sainz trails Perez by a hefty 0.766s margin overall. His longer stint length gives some indication on fuel loads, but what is more interesting is to look at the times clocked ahead by Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon for Alpine and Williams respectively.

Ferrari’s preparations were hindered by a crash for Leclerc in FP2

Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images

Each starts off pushing hard but go onto severe degradation curves in the data Autosport has seen. However, the comparatively short practice race runs mean their averages are naturally elevated.

Yet over a real race stint such an approach would be severely punished, so it’s probably safer to look at the more gently-tyre-treated averages from Esteban Ocon (1m24.929s) and Logan Sargeant (1m25.132s) to see where these two teams stacked up on Friday. Things still look decent for Williams in that regard.

Red Bull took the same approach, with Perez pushing hard early in his long run and then his times getting slower, as the thermal deg – most notably on the front tyres here – bites. The teams are looking to see exactly how extreme the degradation problem is in the 2024 Hungary heat.

So far, a combination of all three tyre compounds hasn’t been ruled out for race strategies, but given the relentless heat this weekend, it would be logical to expect the harder compounds to make the bigger difference on Sunday.

It was therefore interesting to hear Marko tell TV crews that “if I take the long runs, then I guess it’s between McLaren and us”, based on the Friday showing.

“But if I’ve seen it right,” he added. “McLaren already has one hard tyre less and that can be a deciding factor again with the temperatures…”

Stacked against this, however, is the winning strategy from the 2023 event that was a medium-hard-medium.

Might Norris regret his hard tyre running later in the weekend?

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

The FIA is to trial fitting a simplified air conditioning system to Formula 1 car cockpits after drivers suffered health scares in the extreme heat of the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix, Autosport can reveal.

When the Qatar track returned to the F1 calendar last year, its schedule-placing in early October meant even during its night-time track session settings temperatures for the race never dipped below 31°C on what is a fast, high-energy circuit layout.

This led to several drivers having suffering physical problems as they pushed on over the race’s 57-laps, with Williams’ Logan Sargeant withdrawing with heatstroke, Alpine driver Esteban Ocon vomiting in his helmet and Aston Martin racer Lance Stroll briefly passing out.

Following this, and in consultation with all the teams, the FIA instigated an investigation into what had occurred.

It promised “material action now to avoid a repeat of this scenario”, even with Qatar moving back to December for its 2024 edition and temperatures therefore predicted to be lower, in a statement released last October.

Part of the FIA’s effort included consulting with its medical commission, with a subsequent step quickly arriving in F1’s 2024 technical rules that allowed a second cooling inlet scoop to be placed on the top of the nose at the front of the cockpit to improve airflow towards drivers.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, 1st position, has a drink in Parc Ferme

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

The governing body has now made good on its post-Qatar vow to produce “guidance for competitors” and “research into modifications for more efficient airflow in the cockpit”.

Starting at the upcoming Dutch GP, an experimental system will be fitted to one car to test an FIA-researched method of direct in-cockpit air cooling.

Unlike a standard air conditioning unit, however, Autosport understands the system is arranged in several smaller structures around the cockpit and its surrounding car bodywork, to channel cooled air to the driver.

Tests at subsequent races will follow the Zandvoort experiment and if these all prove successful the FIA will introduce the system as mandatory in F1’s rules.

But it will only get teams to fit the device if conditions require its use, as had been part of the FIA’s aborted attempt to fit temporary wheel spray guards to cars in extreme wet weather.

In a statement supplied exclusively to Autosport, the FIA said: “In response to the extreme temperatures experienced at last year’s Qatar GP, the FIA and all F1 teams immediately initiated research to improve the venting and cooling of drivers in such conditions.

Esteban Ocon, Alpine A523

Photo by: Alpine

“Since then, the technical regulations have been updated to allow the introduction of a passive scoop on top of the cockpit for enhanced ventilation, which teams are strongly encouraged to use.

“These joint research activities have advanced and focused on the development of an active cooling system which would be installed in F1 cars when facing extreme conditions.

“Initial tests and in-situ proof of concept are planned to take place in Zandvoort and upcoming races.

“If these tests prove successful, the FIA will mandate the installation of such an active cooling system in Formula 1 cars in the future when a heat hazard will have been declared.”

Excessive heat is a hot topic at this weekend’s Hungarian GP, which is set to rival the Imola and Austrian races as being F1’s hottest of 2024 so far – plus the additional factor of the Hungaroring’s many corners.

That puts this race closer to a potential Qatar scenario, as the drivers do not get much chance for physical respite during the race.

Lando Norris, McLaren, in cockpit

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

The FIA is therefore expected to force the teams to run the passive upper nose cone scoop, as it is not mandatory in F1’s rules.

“Additionally, teams will be authorised exceptional measures to cool down driver equipment and survival cell as much as possible before sessions,” the FIA statement added.

Autosport understands that this includes the teams being allowed to remove the driver’s seat and other cockpit parts to cool them before use in sessions, something that is currently prohibited by F1’s rules.

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