MORE HAMILTON BRILLIANCE, HEROIC’S BY REDBULL MECHANICS AND UNITY NEEDED ON #BLM SUPPORT
It would be wrong to call this weekends Hungarian Grand Prix a thriller but it should not be described as a boring event either. Tricky weather conditions, people out of position on the grid and plenty of action in the midfield played their part in providing an entertaining weekend for race fans.
If last weekend Lewis Hamilton made up for a below par performance in the first Austria race then this weekend he properly asserted himself in the championship and laid down a marker for his only realistic title challenger Valterri Bottas. In qualifying they were close, Hamilton taking pole only a tenth ahead of the Finn but in the race car number 44 was never headed and took a win that was never in doubt. Bottas had a poor start after moving before the lights and then having to stop before getting off the line and found himself battling for sixth on the first lap while Lewis was streaking away to 3.1 second lead out front on the first tour. Bottas was then left to claw back what he had lost and a third place was his eventual reward. It is days like this that Bottas may well look back on at the end of the season as being the moments where his title challenge failed.
Let’s not write off the Finn, he is without doubt a very good racing driver and his doing a great job for the team and things may change in the following races but as we have seen in previous seasons when Lewis gets fully into his stride he is extremely difficult to beat. And next up we have two races at Silverstone, a place that Lewis has owned over the last several years. Five points is the difference in the championship but for Valterri to overturn that in the next races he will need to bring his A game and not give Lewis any more easy days.
For RedBull second place for Max Verstappen was a good result from a weekend where they never appeared to have the pace to run at the front. Many people, me included expected them to provide more of a fight to the Mercs at the Hungaroring but that never looked like happening. The car looked twitchy and difficult to drive as it had back in pre-season testing and it is clear that the team has some work to do if they want to win races this year. New updates fitted to the car that hadn’t been fully fine tuned was cited as one reason for their lack of pace and if this is the case they need to get around this very quickly.
Max’s drive to second was even more impressive after he binned the car into the barriers on the lap to the grid forcing the team to do a frankly unbelievable repair job on the grid. The front damage was easily fixed with a new wing but for the team to fix the front left suspension in twenty minutes on the grid was nothing short of heroic. It was a job that would normally take about ninety minutes.
After a difficult saturday Alex Albon in the second RedBull had a good race to claw his way back to fifth place, the team still need him to be right there with Max to help strategy decisions but they needed to take some responsibility for his failure to get into Q3 after sending him out in traffic. A good drive and hopefully better results will follow as I am a fan of the young Albon.
Ferrari’s woes continued as they were again no where near the pace and both drivers although in the top ten on the grid were well over a second behind the time of Hamilton. A sixth for Vettel in the race was the best that they could have achieved and both cars being lapped in the race shows how far the have dropped. As mentioned last week they need to steady things and focus on the future, they are too far behind to catch up the Mercedes and are not even able to push the RedBulls at present. There has been talk of changing personnel again but I’m not sure that is the answer. To change team principle whenever things aren’t going right doesn’t really fix the issues. I do however think that they need to appoint a technical director rather than have Binotto fulfill that and lead the team, that set up is just not workable in modern F1.
Racing point had a further protest thrown at them post race by Renault in a story that has a long way to go that. There will be plenty more to come from that situation in the coming weeks and months. In the race though a solid forth from Lance stroll and a slightly disappointing seventh from Perez was a good haul of points. You feel that after both cars qualifying on the second row a fifth for the second car should have been achievable. Nevertheless is was a good performance.
Continuing rumors about Vettel signing with the team for next year when they become Aston Martin are adding some more intrigue to the team and Perez himself says that other teams have been in contact with him regarding his future. Obviously he would be the driver to leave if Vettel does join as Stroll will not be leaving when his father owns the outfit. We will have to wait and see what happens here, Vettel would not come cheap and Sergio Perez does bring money to the team through his Mexican sponsors so it will be an interesting one. Personally i thin k it would be unfair on Sergio if he was forced out as he has done a brilliant job for them over the years he has been year and was instrumental in forcing the change of ownership that eventually saved the team from disappearing.
The Haas team had an interesting race that did give them their first points of the year but that was in doubt after the race when the team were investigated and penalized for breaching the rule that says the driver must drive the car alone and unaided. The team called both drivers in at the end of the parade lap to change them to dry tyres but as the drivers were told to do this and didn’t make the call themselves they were deemed to have broken that rule and were handed with a ten second penalty for each driver. This meant that KMag dropped from ninth to tenth and only scored the one point, still a result but the team must have been left dissappointed after Kevin drove such a good race. Grosjean was out of the points anyway so is didn’t affect him so much. Haas have struggled so far and have a lot of work to do so the penalty must have felt like being kicked when your down to them. I have a soft spot for the team so I hope they see an improvement in fortunes soon.
Of the other teams McLaren didn’t look as strong all weekend but Sainz gor them some points in ninth. Renault underwhelmed but agin mangaed points with Ricciardo in eighth and Alpha Tauri and Alfa Romeo had very difficult weekends.
Williams though saw some improvement again as both cars got through to Q2 in quali and Russell lined up twelfth on the grid. As expected they struggled much more in the race and never threatened the points but even so to see some signs of progress is very welcome for the team. They seem to at least have something to build from and that is good news for everyone who loves the team.
DRIVER OF THE DAY
Not a driver this weekend, this award must go to the RedBull mechanics who fixed Verstappen’s car saving his bacon allowing him to race to second place and showing just how good F1 mechanics are at what they do if anyone was in doubt.
#BLM MOVEMENT
It is important to mention the sports efforts to improve diversity and fight against racism as that is something that the sport has made a lot of noise about i recent weeks. There is clearly a desire within the sport to improve this but at the moment their efforts at the start of the race when to show solidarity are a little shambolic and need much improvement. Firstly the drivers themselves need to show some unity, seeing some drivers take the knee and others standing is a misleading image to send out to the world and I can understand Hamilton’s frustration at some of his fellow drivers about this. Secondly at the last two races the show of support has been undermined by mismanagement of the pre-race ceremonies. Atb the Styrian Grand Prix as the drivers took the knee the camera’s were instead looking at the RedBull sky divers landing on the track and in Hungary it looked like a last minute idea as some drivers turned up late and the whole thing was rushed and unprepared. Quite franklt for a sport that has pledged to do so much and support the movement that is sweeping the planet it is a pretty poor show. Other sports have shown everyone at the venue taking the knee in unity and at a point that is given the appropriate time. The sport must do more and improve on this as images mean a lot and send out important messages to the world.
Now then there is a two week break until Silverstone before we have another triple header and I for one am very excited about two races at the home of British motor sport and one of the greatest race tracks in the world. As a Brit I feel proud of the track that we have and that fact the we able to deliver what we plan for the championship and cannot wait for two races around that amazing racetrack. And yes I may be a little biased here but that is the way I feel. Bring it on.
My F1 talk 