Hungarian GP Analysis: Another Double DNF For Alpine

Continued disaster at Alpine

Alpine yet again suffered a double DNF this weekend. Most believed the team would redeem itself from last weeks horror of a race, but it was quite the opposite.

Turn one, lap one and both Alpines out... (At least each car got further in the race last week).

This weekend Alpine was caught in the end of a chain reaction. Zhou Guanyu didn't get off the line once the lights went out which triggered him to lock up before turning into the first corner.

This lockup led him to go into the back of the returning Daniel Ricciardo, which led the Aussie to go into Esteban Ocon, then into Pierre Gasly.

This crash led to Ocons race seat being split in half due to his harsh shunt that sent his car flying up into the air. Ocon had to have his back examined by doctors due to this collision.

All in all, Alpine need some luck at Spa-Francorchamps. With a huge investment (which i touched on in my British GP analysis) they need to start gaining valueable points to close the 40 point gap to McLaren (or at least finish a race).

Ferrari need to implement change immediately

It's another dissapointing weekend for Ferrari. With mistakes from the pitstops and pitwall, Ferrari seem to be falling more behind its competitors due to rookie mistakes.

Let's first start with the pit stop. Charles Leclercs pit stop lasted a whooping 9.4 seconds! The cause of this long pit stop was due to a faulty wheel gun.

This issue did not help the Monegasques' race at all, leading him to get caught up with Valteri Bottas and battle for position.

It was estimated this pit stop cost Charles 7-8 seconds of valuable race time. Not to mention he was handed a 5 second time penalty for pitlane speeding...

“We lost another eight seconds on the pitstop I think, plus then the traffic. It would have been probably P5.”- Fred Vasseur admits defeat when speaking to autosport.

Leclerc only managed to get himself up to 7th. Not the best result from qualifying 6th. While his teammate Carlos Sainz qualifyied 11th and finished the race in 8th.

In the previous race (British GP) Ferrari finished ninth and tenth because of McLaren's better performance and a resurgent Mercedes.

This continous low scoring is yet another year filled with disappointment from the Italian team. A disappointment Tifosi are used to by now...

A part from the particular mistakes made during the race, Vasseur acknowledged that the team had not planned their weekend around the alternate tyre allotment, which presented a new challenge to all teams.

“First, we need time to understand what we did right and wrong, because the format was different,”- Fred Vasseur highlighting the new tyre format for Qualifying may not have gone his way.

Following his second-place performance in Austria two races prior, Leclerc finished ninth and seventh in the subsequent rounds. It seems that Ferrari takes one step forward and three steps backwards.

“Honestly, today I feel like the result is much worse than what it felt like,” - Charles Leclerc seems pretty hopeless after the Hungarian GP

But issues were already brewing before the race even begun, with Leclercs drink tube being too short to reach his mouth.

"I had no water... Just before the start I realised that the tube was too short so I couldn’t reach the water. So it was really frustrating.”- Charles Leclerc

Things only got worse for Charles as it became clear him and his race engineer Xavier Marcos Padros had difficulty communicating.

In one radio message to the Italian team Charles expressed that the strategy didn't make sense, and was understandly confused to be told “We are discussing and we will do it at the end” in a haste response.

“We have also a lot of problems with the radio, One out of four words is not understood by an engineer because there’s just problems with our radio [for] three or four races. So we need to fix that."- Leclerc further explained.

On the other hand, Carlos Sainz wasn't having the best time with Ferrari either. With the Spaniard trying to make up for his crash in the first free practice session, his efforts were dampened by strategy.

Sainz is of the view that his teams choice to give Charles Leclerc a position exchange to make up for his bad pitstop wrecked the day for him.

“There’s not much to say. Charles had a complicated stop and then it’s clear that the team has decided to change the positions of the cars, maybe to compensate or I don’t know. A shame.”- Carlos Sainz told DAZN.

The Honey Badger is back

I was worried this weekend for Daniel Ricciardo. Around six months out of a car, driving an AlphaTauri thats one of the worst cars on the grid, ontop of driving in Hungary which is not the easiest track to drive on. But he suprised me!

Daniel not only out qualified his teammate but also finished higher in the race. Yuki Tsunoda qualified 17th and finished 15th, Ricciardo qualified 13th and finished at that position.

The Australian has seemed to turn a new leaf as he practically skipped into the post race interviews happy with his result.

I'm glad to see this high spirited Ricciardo back as throughout his time with McLaren, his smile and confidence seemed to slowly be stripped from him.

With his well needed break and new found confidence combined, I say the iconic Honey Badger we've all missed will be back fighting up the grid.

Yes, he's in a low performing car, but I believe with Daniels experience he will be able to up lift the team and push them to go further to achieve more.

Although its great to see Daniel thrive, I do believe Nyck De Vries deserved at least till the summer break to prove himself.

I understand that he was underperforming. But to cut a driver out so quickly and throw them to a curb is harsh. Like Lewis Hamilton said "Thats the Red Bull way".

Checo sticks it to Red Bull

Sergio Perez has been struggling lately, especially when it come to Qualifying. With Daniel Ricciardos return you can't deny that the Australian is wanting his old seat and former team back. This has bound to put a pressure on Checo.

Helmut Marko offered his encouragement after the 33-year-old put on a much improved performance at the just-completed Hungarian Grand Prix. Which was much needed for the Red Bull star to restore his waning self-confidence.

In spite of difficult times, Team Principle Christian Horner has also been supportive of the Mexican (at least in the public eye).

"A race like that only gives you a huge amount of confidence. I think his overtaking, the bravery that he showed, for me that was really a statement drive today to say, 'Look, don't write me off'." - Christian Horner on Sergios race at Hungary.

The fans also felt the same way about Checo as he was voted ' Driver of the day'. Although he wasn't quick enough to catch Lando Norris in the new speedy McLaren.

Sergio Perez needs to keep this pace up as if he slips up even the slightest Red Bull won't be afraid to replace him with Daniel Ricciardo...

McLaren stay on top

At the British Grand Prix many (including myself) were shocked that McLarens upgrades made their car so quick. Having the team go from barely any pace in the mid field to getting P2 and P4 finishes.

The Hungarian GP further proved that the McLaren is here to fight. With Lando Norris finishing P2 and Oscar Piastri P5.

Its great to see McLaren on the Podium again (Maybe not the breaking trophies part...) and not struggling at the back of the grid again and again.

Yes this pace and improvements are great for the team, but I can't help feel that Oscar was hard done by team strategy.

Piastri ran as high as second in the beginning phases of the race, having passed both Lewis Hamilton and team mate Lando, however he dropped down the order with almost half a minute behind Norris.

But why is this? Oscar proposed that excessive tyre degradation was the cause of his drop in pace in the latter half of the race.

Andrea Stella agreed about this tyre degradation issue but also included that he believed Oscar sustained damaged to his car.

"We think the damage happened running wide on a curb [or] when he went off track while fighting with [Sergio] Perez, so there may be both times that this damage to the car happened." - Stella told RacingNews365.com.

A part from this the McLaren's are making a vaste improvement that I honestly didn't expect! I'm glad Lando has finally got a car he can fight with that he's deserved for so long.

I also am glad that Oscar is keeping up with his team mate in his rookie season (especially after all that happen with him trying to obtain his McLaren seat). Let's hope McLaren keep this momentum up for the rest of the season!

Mercedes crawling back

Something I didn't expect to see this weekend was Lewis Hamilton getting pole position at qualifying by a very close 0.003 seconds (his first pole since 2021).

It was a shame that George Russell ended up qualifying 18th which he stated "won't happen again" during post qualifying media interviews.

Hamilton was unable to keep this position and finished 4th, while his team mate finished 6th.

The Seven-time World Champion was very clear when voicing his complaints early on in the race.

Hamilton complained that the car couldn't go quick enough to perform overtakes and which was crucial once he fell down the order after a turn one incident he merely missed.

Another issue Hamilton faced throughout the opening stint was temperature concerns. The team tried to advise him to lift and coast in an attempt to cool things down a bit.

“We had one issue where the way that we predicted the cooling had meant that we were undercooled, so we are investigating why that wasn’t in line with expectation,”- Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin elaborated in Mercedes debrief video.

Shovlin was asked whether Mercedes thought Hamilton could be promoted to first place in front of Verstappen if they started him on softer tyres, he replied:

"we were focused on doing what was best for the overall race time, which was why Lewis was on the Medium and most of the cars around his area of the grid were on the Medium for the same reason.”

George Russell had some making up to do, with a lack lustre 18th position in qualifying Russel managed to get his elbows out during the race and finish p6 (after Charles Leclerc's penalty psuhed him up from 7th).

"It was very satisfying. To come away P6 from P18, you couldn’t ask for much more – the car was feeling great."- A relief for Russell to further up the grid.

It was impressive to see George climb his way up the grid, as the Mercedes seemed to come alive again once they burnt down fuel. Of course this is not beneficial for the start of the race and could be one of the reasons the Mercedes struggling for pace.

Overall, these are strides for the German team and progress from the start of the year. Yes, mistakes where made but the team is slowly but surely getting there.

Aston Martin falling down the order

I'm worried for Aston Martin. The team have gone from fitting for 2nd and 3rd place, to now finishing 9th and 10th...

I expected Aston Martin to keep their momentum up (at least for a bit longer) and get closer to closing the gap to Max Verstappen.

Fernando Alonso, who started eighth, dropped one place in the race to finish ninth, just under five seconds behind Carlos Sainz.

His team mate Lance Stroll was just one positiom behind him in tenth, the last car to be lapped by Max Verstappen.

"I think we were not quick enough to challenge anyone in front and we didn’t have any threats behind...So three points, ninth and tenth [was] the maximum today.”- Alonso explained to RaceFans.net.

In order to match their rivials who have been making advances over the last few rounds, Alonso says the Silverstone based team has to react in a race for car development.

“But then in the race, normally everything balances out and the big teams finish in front. We are just in the back end of those top teams, so we need to get back to the front end of that group.”

Aston Martin has shocked us before with a fast car, and I belived they still have time this year to show us what their car can do with more upgrades.