The F1 secret to winning Hungarian GP: a cool head

Starting on the soft compound, Verstappen picked up a few positions on the opening laps courtesy of the superior machinery underneath him — making the majority of his overtakes under braking at Turn 1 and avoiding contact. By lap 12 he was up to fifth and his calm approach was paying dividends as the race started to come to him. Pitting on lap 16 for a fresh set of medium tyres allowed him to undercut the fourth-placed Lewis Hamilton who pitted his Mercedes three laps later. The decision which ultimately handed the Dutchman the race victory – with as many as 25 laps left to run — came during the second round of pitstops.

Data collected from Friday’s practice sessions had told Red Bull and Verstappen long before any competitive action that the hard tyre was not going to be useable during Sunday’s Grand Prix — mainly due to the fact that it would be incredibly difficult to warm up under the cooler conditions which plagued the weekend’s running. Their suspicions were confirmed between lap 21-23 by the Alpines of Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon, which had been running as high as a fifth and sixth on the medium compound before a disastrous middle stint on the hards saw them drop back to tenth and eleventh by lap 31.

Even after seeing the struggles of Alpine, Ferrari still chose to pit its race-leader — Charles Leclerc — for a set of hard tyres with just 30 laps. He effectively became a sitting duck as he failed to get his tyres up to their optimum temperature and Verstappen passed for the lead on lap 41 — after pitting for a fresh set of medium compound tyres two laps earlier. Verstappen had to repeat the move four laps later after a spin, and from there was left to race to the chequered flag at a relative canter.

 

2021 — Esteban Ocon 

Won from 8th

A chaotic start to the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix gave Esteban Ocon a rare chance to hit the front, but it was a sequence of perfectly timed calls that ultimately allowed him to stay there.

On a wet track, as the lights went out, the second-placed Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas got away slowly and was pushed down to sixth. This mistake would then be magnified less than 200m later, as the Finn misjudged his braking zone and ploughed into the back of Lando Norris‘s McLaren — kickstarting the world’s most expensive game of dominoes as the pair crashed into the side of both Red Bulls. In the same corner, Lance Stroll also hit the brakes too late, jumped the kerb and careened into the side of Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari which was catapaulted into the side of Daniel Ricciardo‘s McLaren.

In total, seven cars were involved in the Turn 1 melee — four of which were retired immediately. But all the while, from his mid-pack eighth-place grid slot, Ocon remained calm in the face of chaos and navigated his way through the tumult. As he emerged at the corner exit, he was second and a red flag ensured he’d stay there for the restart.

But shortly before racing got back underway, Hungary’s unpredictable weather began to come into play once again.

Blazing sunshine had quickly dried the track, so after completing their warm-up lap, 14 of the 15 remaining runners pitted for slick tyres. Lewis Hamilton was the only exception. While the rest of the grid piled into the pitlane, the Mercedes lined up on the grid for the restart.

Once again, Ocon’s calm demeanour was his greatest asset as he navigated the packed pitlane and emerged third behind Hamilton and the Williams of George Russell — which soon became second after Russell was told to drop back due to a pitlane infraction.

Hamilton inevitably then pitted, and Ocon inherited the lead, putting up a stout defence against the Aston Martin of Sebastian Vettel for the remaining 66 laps.

The Frenchman’s passage to the top of the podium was also eased by his team-mate Fernando Alonso, who put up a spirited defence of fourth place against the storming Hamilton from lap 63-65, delaying his progress to the front, where the Mercedes’ superior pace would have threatened Ocon’s win.

 

2006 — Jenson Button 

Won from 14th 

Jenson Button‘s first F1 win at the 2006 Hungarian GP was arguably the ultimate expression of composure. While the field around him stumbled, span and skated off the circuit, the Briton ran almost mistake-free from lights out to the chequered flag.

Racing for Honda, Button had been sporadically competitive over the course of the season, with a podium finish in Malaysia followed by a sixth-place finish in Spain and a fourth-place finish in Germany, but Hungary didn’t look promising after he qualified a distant 14th. However, heavy rain clouds rolled in on raceday and with them, the legend of Button’s extraordinary instincts in the wet.

In initially damp conditions, Button was up to fourth by lap six of Sunday’s race — making up several places as drivers ahead of him crashed or span out on the slippery track.

On lap 26, race-leader Kimi Raikkonen crashed his McLaren into the side of Toro Rosso’s Vitantonio Liuzzi — causing a safety car, which left Button second behind the Renault of Fernando Alonso.

Over the next 20 laps, a period of unbroken sunshine tempted a handful of drivers — including Scott Speed and Ralf Schumacher — to change to dry weather tyres, and Alonso was in almost constant contact with the Renault pitwall, discussing when would be the optimum moment to switch.

Conversely, Button had a clear opinion. Despite numerous calls from his race engineer asking him to make the switch to dry tyres, he was adamant that the wet weather tyres were best.

On lap 47, he pitted for the final time and chose to retain his wet-weather tyres while taking on fuel. Alonso made his own stop five laps later and switched to dry tyres under pressure from the pitwall, and despite Button’s superior pace behind.

It wasn’t changing to dry tyres that cost Alonso the race though, simply the decision to change tyres. The right-rear wheelnut became damaged during the stop and the Renault was immediately squirming as it rejoined the track, and then span into the barrier at Turn 2.

From there, Button was left to win his first grand prix unencumbered and 30 seconds clear of Pedro de la Rosa — who himself had climbed from fourth and remained unfazed by his pitwall’s call for a dry tyre switch. “Don’t panic in the pitwall guys” he said at the chequered flag. “I know what I was doing.”

 

Nigel Mansell — 1989 

Won from 12th 

Even when the climate doesn’t play a major role, keeping a calm demeanour and pouncing on opportunity can still result in race-winning success in Hungary.

In 1989, Nigel Mansell started the race a dismal 12th but the superior race pace of his Ferrari F1/89 combined with the generally smaller size of the cars of the era meant he was able to make up positions quickly.

By lap 54 he was second, having passed the slowing Williams of Riccardo Patrese and was soon pestering the rear wing of race leader Ayrton Senna. With less than 20 laps left to run, the Brazilian — renowned for his ability to ruthlessly defend any position — was still the likely victor, but the constant and unwavering sight of Mansell in his rear view mirrors soon led to an error. While overtaking lapped cars, Senna hesitated ever briefly, opening up a gap on the inside of the circuit. Mansell quickly drove by and into the lead, giving Senna little to no chance to defend it.

The Briton soon disappeared up the road and met the chequered flag with a 25-second margin of advantage — damning evidence of the superior race pace Ferrari had he harbouring during qualifying. But on a circuit where overtaking was tricky, he showed that maintaining a level head was crucial to winning the Hungarian Grand Prix.