Red Bull lack of pace is starting to annoy Verstappen: Hungarian GP diary
F1
Tense radio exchanges shaded the 2024 Hungarian GP, but McLaren still won comfortably — thanks to its unusual lucky charm? Meanwhile Verstappen looks rattled; Ricciardo fights for his F1 future and there's more drama in F2: Chris Medland's paddock diary
Verstappen has been voicing his concern about his team's competitiveness
One-all at McLaren when it comes to wins for their driver line-up, but the decision in Lando Norris‘s hands became a major talking point on Sunday night. Still, it was a nice problem for the team and drivers to have, as others see their futures questioned or keep having wins stripped…
Radios steal the show
Oscar Piastri’s first win was somewhat overshadowed by the radio messages that went between his team-mate and the McLaren pitwall, and also between Max Verstappen and his Red Bull team.
Both were telling situations, but in the case of Norris the right outcome was ultimately reached.
Norris with race engineer Will Joseph earlier this season
Qian Jun/MB Media/Getty
Norris only got ahead of Piastri because of a strategic call to protect his second place – given the additional buffer Piastri had in the lead – and it was fair to play it even more safe with a one-two for the taking. Had Norris not pushed back and spent so long creating doubt within his race engineer’s messages, then little would have been said about the strategic call.
Max Verstappen's rage and tension on Lando Norris's F1 radio only diverted from McLaren's walkover at the 2024 Hungarian Grand Prix, writes Mark Hughes, with much of the furore down to a single, small mistake
By
Mark Hughes
For McLaren, don’t let the drama overshadow the actual success. It had two cars on the front row, and converted that into a one-two in the race, maximising a result when it had failed to do so just a fortnight ago.
Whether it should have agreed to prioritise Norris in search of an unlikely drivers’ championship is another matter, but that was a decision that doesn’t appear to have been taken prior to the race, and preventing Piastri from winning for the first time would have been extremely damaging to the overall dynamic.
Similar could be said of Verstappen’s radio comments, although he doesn’t care for that opinion if you voice it, telling critics of his messages: “They can all f**k off”.
And let’s not forget that these drivers are fighting at 200mph in 30C heat when they send these messages, as well as only seeing a certain percentage of what we get at home.
Verstappen-Hamilton battle had a familiar outcome
Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images
Verstappen did betray a weakness, but it’s not in the sense that his messages might upset the team. If direct comments are deemed best, that’s up to Red Bull. But the ease with which he appeared to lose his cool suggests the lack of overall performance relative to McLaren – and the way Mercedes and Ferrari are close enough to be a threat – despite more upgrades this weekend, is annoying the championship leader.
The Dutchman has been increasingly vocal about the trend in recent weeks, and is clearly not resting on his laurels. No champion ever does. And Verstappen knows that even if it turns out to be enough of a buffer for him to resist any challenge from Norris across the coming 11 races from a championship point of view, 2025 is looking far tougher from a title fight perspective, before it could all change again in 2026.
Ricciardo’s refreshing honesty and defence of Perez
Sergio Perez was a driver under real pressure arriving in Hungary, and he certainly didn’t help himself by crashing heavily during Q1 on Saturday. But even before that latest incident, he had received some support from an unlikely source.
Ricciardo described the current double-header as crucial to his career
Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty via Red Bull
Daniel Ricciardo has been linked with Perez’s seat and in many ways might be enjoying seeing the ongoing struggles, but he certainly didn’t let on if that was the case, saying he felt the Mexican has the experience to deal with the scrutiny and likening it to his own situation at McLaren.
After the big crashes for Perez and Yuki Tsunoda in qualifying, Ricciardo defended both drivers, saying the conditions made it so easy for anyone to make a mistake, and believing his team-mate’s incident was partly caused by the run-off being particularly punishing.
It’s easier for Ricciardo to be the good guy when he’s having a stronger weekend, but he also admitted he had told himself that the two rounds before the summer break would be crucial to his own future. Not in terms of a Red Bull seat, but in avoiding losing his drive completely.
Ricciardo leads Tsunoda at the start of the race, but an early pitstop dropped him down the running order
Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty via Red Bull
“I’ve told myself if I can do it, go fast,” Ricciardo said. “You’ve got two races to give it hell. And that’s honestly not even with the the idea of moving up, it’s even just trying to lock something in for next year.
“I intentionally came into the weekend telling myself that these two races could be two of the most important of not only my season but potentially my career. They haven’t specifically said anything to me but I’ve said enough to myself.”
Ultimately, it was Tsunoda who scored again out of the RB drivers on Sunday, while Perez salvaged a seventh place with a strong drive. But they all know what’s at stake, and while Perez had remained defiant that he was not going to be replaced, it was refreshing to see Ricciardo acknowledge his own place in the wider situation.
It never rains but it pours for McLaren
Three races ago, McLaren suffered a fire in its hospitality unit at the Spanish Grand Prix and was left without it for the rest of the race weekend, as well as the following round in Austria.
Norris duly put the car on pole later that same day in Barcelona, but it was far from ideal and a major challenge for the team when it came to looking after its guests and personnel.
McLaren’s hospitality unit didn’t fully survive a Wednesday night storm
Kym Illman/Getty Images
Ahead of just the second race since the ‘Team Hub’ was returned to action, McLaren was still setting up at the Hungaroring when a massive storm unexpectedly struck the circuit, with huge hailstones battering the paddock for a spell. With McLaren’s unit not complete at the time, the roof wasn’t in place properly yet and more damage was suffered, again limiting the team’s ability to use it.
The sight of the damaged and incomplete motorhome has been an unusual one during the race weekend, but Piastri joked about how the previous incident had been followed by a pole position, and the drivers went one better with the one-two on Saturday and Sunday. After leading home the one-two in the race, I almost wouldn’t be surprised to see Piastri sabotaging his own building at some stage in the weekend at Spa…
Poor Verschoor
There was major interest in the F2 feature race press conference after Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s first main race victory, and second win in four races. But it wasn’t just the victor who was receiving plenty of attention.
Richard Verschoor was sitting in third, having been on the top step a day earlier after winning the Sprint race. But the Dutchman had refused to be drawn on his emotions or how special his win on Saturday had been, because he had twice won in the past in F2 and then been disqualified post-race – including in Jeddah this year – while also seeing a certain win in Monaco disappear due to reliability issues.
Verschoor on the top step of the podium after Hungarian sprint race
Joe Portlock/F1 via Getty Images
“It’s not special at all no,” he said on Saturday night. “Many times in Formula 2 the race it got taken away. In Monaco… I will keep it nice, I wanted to say some words I cannot, but somehow I feel like I cannot really be happy until it’s certain so I’m just going to wait for one hour or two to see if I really got the win and then I will celebrate.”
You can see where I’m going…
Verschoor was disqualified later on Saturday for excessive plank wear and saw another win disappear, admitting he then didn’t attend Trident team meetings on Sunday morning before the feature race.
That feature race did see luck on his side — as it was on Antonelli’s — as Verschoor benefitted from a late safety car to finish third, but once again he was in no mood to celebrate straight away.
This bit has a happy ending, at least, as he does get to keep that trophy, with the result now official.
