2025 Hungary Thoughts
THE BIG PICTURE: Give McLaren the constructors' title. But the teams' fight in the middle is becoming a lot of fun. And of course, the McLaren duo are going to entertain us for the remainder of the season.
EVENT: Forty years ago, F1 went behind the Iron Curtain. Who could ever have imagined it is now one of the most successful events on the calendar.
TRACK: It is fascinating that a track which has produced some of the most boring races in history, every now and then produces a winner.
QUALIFYING: After struggling in qualifying, the temperatures dropped just in time for Q3 and Leclerc grabs pole (while Hamilton flunks out in Q2), Piastri beats out Norris, Russell gets fourth (while Antonelli fails in Q2), Bortoleto pulls another Q3 surprise (while Hulkenberg is mired in Q1), Verstappen struggles big time (while Tsunoda is back to not getting out of Q1, as both Racing Bulls make it to Q3), and Aston Martin is impressive.
RACE: It may not have been exciting for 70 laps, but the final showdown was worth the wait.
START: Norris gets perhaps the best start of all, but his overaggressiveness bottles him up losing not just one but two spots, as Russell and Alonso took advantage, all while Leclerc's strong start keeps him in the lead.
NORRIS: The team ran two different strategies. It worked Lando.
PIASTRI: It did not work for Oscar. It just was as simple as that.
MCLAREN: We as fans should be thankful McLaren has racing in their blood. When you see the mechanics laughing over the close call, you know this is not a soulless corporate entity that just happens to own a racing team. They are racers, through and through.
MERCEDES: Going backwards (putting on their previous rear suspension configuration) allowed them to go forward (Russell's podium and Antonelli regaining confidence with the car).
LECLERC: One very unhappy Ferrari driver.
HAMILTON: Lewis, at times, can be a drama queen. Those who think he's actually quitting or Ferrari plans to replace him, are idiots.
FERRARI: For all the drama this team has gone through, one can easily forget they are in second place. Sure, much further back than last year. And this is Ferrari, first or nothing. But, they are still in second place.
ASTON MARTIN: The most inconsistent team of the season. But when they are on, like this weekend, they are on.
BORTOLETO: Gabriel continues to impress.
LAWSON: Liam is definitely out of his funk. And is now putting real pressure on his teammate.
RED BULL: It appears, at least at the Hungaroring, the issues with the car finally caught up with them.
VERSTAPPEN: And for Max to be so bad tells you everything you need to know. He couldn't even beat a Racing Bulls car.
TSUNODA: Which means Yuki wasn't going to do a thing, even if he was closer to Max's speed.
WILLIAMS: What was to be expected at the Hungaroring.
ALPINE: With nothing out of the ordinary happening, they were back to a pitiful weekend.
F2: Despite having a five-second penalty, Italian Leonardo Fornaroli still won the feature race and leads the championship by 17 points. Spaniard Josep María Martí won the reverse grid sprint race from pole after fending off a last lap challenge.
F3: With one weekend still to go, Brazilian Rafael Câmara is the 2025 champion after winning the feature race, his fourth along with five poles. He becomes the first driver to win a junior regional title (FREC) immediately followed by an international junior title since Oscar Piastri. Thai Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak won his second sprint race of the season.
WORD OF THE WEEKEND: Rant.
STAT OF THE WEEKEND: 5/27 -- Charles Leclerc now has 27 career poles, but has only converted five of those to victory.
HISTORICAL STAT OF THE WEEKEND: This is the 200th victory for McLaren. Fittingly, the first win was by Bruce himself, at Spa in 1968, starting from sixth, two years after first entering his team in F1 at Monaco. Interestingly, even though Bruce wasn't killed until two years later, he never won another GP with his eponymous team. His teammate, Denny Hulme, won three times in that span (and also won a non-championship event), eventually grabbing six victories. Ayrton Senna leads the team with 35, followed by Alain Prost at 30.
TWEET OF THE WEEKEND: From @FDataAnalysis:
As a Ferrari fan, I'm in the phase in which I'm so disillusioned that races like this one don't even hurt me anymore
@ScuderiaFerrari @Charles_Leclerc #F1
QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND: George Russell in the cooldown room after watching the highlight of Piastri locking up the brakes and nearly taking Norris out, "Why didn't you T-bone him? That would have been great."
QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND RUNNERUP: F1 TV technical analyst, Ruth Buscombe, explaning why Verstappen was struggling so much, "The one thing Max hates more than answering questions in a press conference is an understeering car."
SCHEDULE: Though everyone is looking forward to the summer break, we also have a lot to look forward to upon the return to Zandvoort as the championship has tightened up to just a nine point differential.
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