Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix 2024Formula 1 

  • Thread starter Jimlaad43
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Hannah (RB strategist) looked like she was about to cry
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Max complaining about Lewis while he braked so late he was almost in Slovakia is peak petulant crybaby behavior. Put your toys back in the pram kid, you're gonna have to work for it again.

Less said of the McLaren hostage de-escalation style radio situation the better, so we'll leave it at that.
 
The only way McLaren could throw away more goodwill from winning this race would be if Zak Brown invited Putin's toady for a photo op.
 
The only reason Max got away with that collision is simply because Lewis refused to give way and tried to take the corner as normal. Max was predominately responsible for that collision, which should be enough to give the penalty, but I guess that Lewis being pragmatic (and not involved in the championship) and saying that it was a racing incident was enough to save Verstappen.
 
The only reason Max got away with that collision is simply because Lewis refused to give way and tried to take the corner as normal. Max was predominately responsible for that collision, which should be enough to give the penalty, but I guess that Lewis being pragmatic (and not involved in the championship) and saying that it was a racing incident was enough to save Verstappen.
But then not penalizing Max for divebombing from 3 cities away gives out a precedent that means you can do it again and no further action will be taken for the future as well. It's poor stewarding yet again.
 
I’m guessing they must have had some kind of a pre-race agreement that probably dictated whoever led out of turn 1 or by the end of lap 1 would be prioritised to win. That would explain why they asked Lando to let Oscar through from the moment both had made their final stop.
There's that and the very early call of you're racing Max.

The way I see it both McLaren drivers would be right to feel annoyed right now. It didn't really make sense to pit Lando first in the last round of stops, they both had the pace to cover Lewis.

Assuming there was a pre-race deal Oscar would have been thinking what's going on, is he going to give back the position he probably shouldn't have.

On the other hand (without knowing how much each drivers were pushing the tyres) Lando would have been correct in thinking I've got the pace and am the closest to Max in the championship Oscar needs to catch me.

This one is on the team not the drivers.
 
But then not penalizing Max for divebombing from 3 cities away gives out a precedent that means you can do it again and no further action will be taken for the future as well. It's poor stewarding yet again.
I don't disagree, Verstappen should've been penalised, even just to make the example that divebombing causing collisions will not be tolerated anymore. Too many times has the golden goose gotten away with dangerous manoeuvres.
 
Great to see a 1-2 for McLaren, but sad to see Piastri winning his first F1 race under such circumstances - maybe McLaren should have considered that?

Winning a race like this sucks big time, but winning your first F1 race like this...? It feels like McLaren have robbed Piastri of a unique moment. Embarrassing all round, but a good decision by Norris to obey team orders, despite being against all common sense and reason.
 
The only reason Max got away with that collision is simply because Lewis refused to give way and tried to take the corner as normal. Max was predominately responsible for that collision, which should be enough to give the penalty, but I guess that Lewis being pragmatic (and not involved in the championship) and saying that it was a racing incident was enough to save Verstappen.
Also the fact that Lewis got away from it relatively unscathed, if he had to limp back to the pits with a puncture and/or retire I reckon the stewards would've been a lot less lenient.
 

I'm reminded of a stewarding call I was involved in back in the GT5/6 days. Similar situation to the Lewis/Max contact except at Nurburgring GP Turn 1. Somehow, the other stewards blamed the ahead car with similar logic that they could've avoided the contact by not turning into a flying missile. Even today, I don't understand how one could make that call.

In that regard, I'm not completely surprised by this call. I am surprised how RB was not coddling Max much at all today.
 
The only reason Max got away with that collision is simply because Lewis refused to give way and tried to take the corner as normal. Max was predominately responsible for that collision, which should be enough to give the penalty, but I guess that Lewis being pragmatic (and not involved in the championship) and saying that it was a racing incident was enough to save Verstappen.
The fact Verstappen was saved by Lewis' outlook on it and yet he continued to blame Lewis for it, blame the team for "making dumb comments on the radio" as to why he was mad, & responded to critics saying he went too far & was too disrespectful to the team with, "They can all **** off" highlights a major issue with his attitude when under pressure. It's no surprise that there's a report that Horner will be holding a closed-door meeting.

One thing for certain is Checo having a good recovery drive has to be sitting in the debrief glad someone else is catching Horner's attention this week.
Jurassic Park Wow GIF by Spotify
 
Caught some highlights of the last few laps, as I had to leave for work around lap 65.

Obviously McLaren are among the big losers here despite getting a 1-2 finish for the first time since Italy '21. The strategy FUBAR and the radio message exchange between Norris and the Pit Wall shows that the team still needs to get its cohesion figured out, and they need to do it quickly and effectively if they want to stay in the title hunt with Verstappen and Red Bull.

Speaking of which, the thing I'm gonna be most curious is where Red Bull, and more specifically Max Verstappen, are in the 2nd half of the season. Max is regularly being challenged by outside forces this year in the form of McLaren and occasionally Mercedes. He doesn't have any backup on the top end of the grid due to Checo's bad performances as of late, the car, while still very strong in terms of pace, is only equal at best to the McLaren at this point, and the upgrades to the RB20 haven't helped (or hurt) at all. The equal-at-best pace compared to the McLaren means that a bad strategy call will have greater effect on the final result, requiring Max to push even farther. Lando is fast enough to consistently challenge Max on merit, and Piastri can also be up there and pose a threat if things are going well for him.

Basically, Max is pretty much carrying Red Bull on his own at the current moment, and if anything goes wrong, it's extremely hard for him to rectify the issue, which I imagine doesn't mesh well with his extremely competitive and perfectionist personality. I personally think Max'll still win the WDC, but I also won't be surprised if we get more spats like we saw today.
 
For McLaren's sake, I hope they don't lose the WDC by 7 or less points.
I don't think McLaren actually think themselves they have a shot at the WDC, but they do have an actual shot at the WCC.

Personally I don't believe the gap of 76 points will be closed, Max and RBR are just too good.

But seeing Perez' abysmal performance, they do actually have a legit shot at the WCC.

Seeing they completely shafted Piastri at Silverstone, followed by a 2nd pitstop by Norris today that should've been for Piastri, I can see where McLaren feels it has to show Oscar their support. I agree it's not the way it should've gone, but McLaren created the problem itself with the incorrect strategy choices.

I've completely had it with Max today to be frank. His messages over the radio just made me wonder why Horner didn't just step in and put Max in his place. Had he focused on the actual driving task, P3 would've been the minimum he would've left Hungary with.
 
I've completely had it with Max today to be frank. His messages over the radio just made me wonder why Horner didn't just step in and put Max in his place. Had he focused on the actual driving task, P3 would've been the minimum he would've left Hungary with.
I can only assume Horner realized him stepping in could've made things worse (knowing Max would likely respond negatively to him in front of a public audience) & return F1 media to putting the internal conflict that was talked about earlier this season (Max/Marko vs. Horner) back in on the headlines.
 
Eh, McLaren have form; Häkkinen's first two wins were tainted.

Crap race.
Häkkinen's first win had nothing to do with McLaren but Schumacher - it was his collision with Villeneuve that caused close-to-catastrophic damage to Jacques' Williams that he jumped out of the way of the two McLaren's, when Patrick Head told Ron Dennis that Jacques would put up a fight. True, Mika didn't fight to achieve the win, but it wasn't gifted to him the way Barrichello used to get his wins.
 
Great to see a 1-2 for McLaren, but sad to see Piastri winning his first F1 race under such circumstances - maybe McLaren should have considered that?

Winning a race like this sucks big time, but winning your first F1 race like this...? It feels like McLaren have robbed Piastri of a unique moment. Embarrassing all round, but a good decision by Norris to obey team orders, despite being against all common sense and reason.

They’ll have to figure it out with the car they have. Manufacturing driver drama needlessly is embarrassing.

It’s unfortunate for Lando too, as he didn’t do anything wrong and will now be criticized for not having a champions killer instinct like Vettel or Verstappen.
 
But then not penalizing Max for divebombing from 3 cities away gives out a precedent that means you can do it again and no further action will be taken for the future as well. It's poor stewarding yet again.
I lost all faith in proper stewarding after Saudi Arabia 2021. The fact Max didn't get a race ban when anyone else would have but since the WDC was close he got a slap on the wrist was a joke. The dude is a cancer and all he has done has encouraged the rest of the field to race like petulant children as a result of his "online lobby" style of racing. Can't wait until this prick leaves the sport.
 
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Häkkinen's first win had nothing to do with McLaren but Schumacher - it was his collision with Villeneuve that caused close-to-catastrophic damage to Jacques' Williams that he jumped out of the way of the two McLaren's, when Patrick Head told Ron Dennis that Jacques would put up a fight. True, Mika didn't fight to achieve the win, but it wasn't gifted to him the way Barrichello used to get his wins.
His first was not a "team decision" but it was certainly gifted to him, as was his second.
 
Some explanation of McLaren's decision to pit Lando first


They seem to be spending more time looking backwards rather than forward - trying to cover Lewis and Max here, the tyre choice at Silverstone to cover Max behind rather than chase Lewis ahead. Think they need a change of mindset and a realization that they are the team to beat now. Stop worrying about the others and go win the races.
 
And he got away once again without getting an appropriate punishment from the FIA.
And they even said that Hamilton should've done more to avoid it. So it's clear that dive bombing is an ok manoeuvre & the defendee should move out of the way to avoid the dive bomber regardless of whether they're in control or not.
 
That was the most bush league 1-2 I've seen in 17 years of watching F1. The McLaren pitwall are a joke.
It's true, although 2012 was probably even worse. They had a similar level of car performace that year but were constantly creating pit disasters and strategy mistakes and couldn't decide who to push towards for the WDC.
 
Every time the Hungarian GP has produced a first time winner, the race number has gotten higher.

0>8>12>23>31>81

All of whom won from even numbers (6, 6, 4, 12, 44* and 4)

(*After Vettel (#5) was disqualified of course)
 
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