Christian Horner: "I remember as a boy, watching Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost race with McLaren-Honda and they achieved 11 consecutive victories. I knew then what an incredible achievement that was. To think that we have bettered that is testament to the exceptional talent and dedication of the team, from the race track here in Budapest and back at the factory in Milton Keynes. It's an historic moment and one that means so much, we certainly don't take this for granted. Checo drove a great race today. It was a statement drive, showing everyone exactly what he's capable of and a race like this will give him a huge amount of confidence going into the next race. Max was typically phenomenal once again. He's at one with himself and the car. He has total confidence and trust in the team. What we're witnessing with him at the moment is a sportsman at the very top of his game. It truly is exceptional."
Scuderia Ferrari leaves Hungary having secured seventh place with Charles Leclerc and eighth with Carlos Sainz. The race itself did not produce any great drama, although for Leclerc there were some unforeseen incidents in the pit lane.
Charles was on used Mediums for the start and got ahead of Guanyu Zhou for fifth place, while Carlos got away really well on new Softs, passing no fewer than five cars to tuck in behind his team-mate. The SF-23s had good pace in the first stint, matching the McLarens and Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes, but at his first pit stop to switch to Hard tyres, Charles' race got complicated: a wheel gun did not work and he lost around seven seconds, dropping several places. Charles soon made up ground, closing on Carlos, so that they were sixth and seventh and their pace on this compound was also consistent. Leclerc came in for his second stop on lap 43, taking on another set of Hards, but he exceeded the pit lane speed limit on his way in, for which he was given a five second penalty to add to his total race time. Carlos tried to extend his stint, but he and the team decided on the next lap to come in for another set of Hard tyres. In the closing stages, the SF-23 lost pace and Russell, with fresher tyres on his Mercedes was able to pass Sainz for seventh and then got to within under five seconds of Leclerc, thus taking sixth place without having to pass him on track.
The championship is back in action immediately next week, on the very different Spa-Francorchamps circuit for the Belgian Grand Prix, which is the final round prior to the summer break.
Frederic Vasseur, Team Principal: Our result is rather poor today. It was a complicated race with Charles, chiefly because he lost around seven seconds at the pit stop, which was a massive delay, because of an issue with a wheel-gun. This also put him in traffic and then there was also the 5-second pit lane speeding penalty.
With Carlos, we took the risk of starting him on Softs and it was a good move in the early stages, as he made up places. But we knew it would be quite tricky for him as he would have to do a lot of tyre management, switching earlier to the Hard compound. However, starting eleventh and finishing where he did, ahead of Alonso, I'd say was not too bad a result.
I have the feeling that we are not that far off the pace in terms of performance, but we did not put everything together over the whole weekend. We showed we had the potential on Friday, but then we did not build on it for Saturday or today in the race. Now we really need to focus on Belgium, because it is always important to go into the summer break with a good result, find more pace and minimise mistakes.
Lewis Hamilton finished fourth and George Russell sixth in the Hungarian Grand Prix. After an intriguing qualifying session, Lewis lined up on pole position starting on the Medium tyre with George, who had been eliminated in Q1, in P18 on the Hard tyre.
Off the line, Lewis was pressured by Max Verstappen and lost positions to both the Red Bull and the McLarens of Piastri and Norris through the first few corners. George meanwhile gained several places with our drivers running P4 and P15 after the opening tour.
Lewis boxed for the Hard tyre on lap 16 whilst George continued on with his first stint. That triggered several other stops and, with Lewis struggling with car balance in those early laps on the new compound, he lost time to those ahead.
George came in on lap 28 for the Medium tyre and began moving up the field and into the points paying positions. Lewis meanwhile was busy defending net P4 from Perez who ultimately undercut him; Lewis continued on before stopping on lap 49 for the Medium tyre.
The Medium tyre proved a useful compound and George took a second set for his final stint. He closed on the Ferraris ahead, ultimately taking P6 by passing Carlos Sainz and benefitting from Charles Leclerc's five-second time penalty.
Lewis meanwhile used the Medium compound, and a slightly fresher set, to pass Piastri for P4 and close to within 1.531s of Perez for the final podium spot.
That result sees the Team extend the gap over third in the Constructors' Championship to 39 points ahead of the final race before the summer break.
Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO: I think we had the second quickest car today, but the result doesn't show it. If you look at the lap time profile and George's progress, there was opportunity for more, but we didn't monetise it. That is obviously disappointing. In the final stint, Lewis reeled in over 10 seconds to those ahead and we finished just 1.5 seconds shy of the podium. I think if we had executed our race slightly differently, we would have had that margin. We need to analyse and see what we could have done.
We were far off a pole position at the start of the year, and we've started to comprehend the car more. Having said that, Max looked tranquil up front and we're not here to race for second-best. Getting to the front is the objective and of course, that was far off today.
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director: Starting from P1 and not even making the podium is always going to be disappointing. We never believed we had the pace to beat Verstappen, but we could have been second had more gone our way. The opening lap wasn't great for Lewis, dropping to fourth, but as the race went on our pace seemed to get better. At one point it looked like we'd be a distant fourth, but he did a good job closing Perez and Norris down in the final stint. It was frustrating that we couldn't get on the back of them sooner.
Our expectations with George were to just make it into the points. For him to come sixth is a very good result. We were nursing engine temperatures, which cost both cars a lot of race time, as the ambient temperature was slightly higher than expected. We've made small gains to Ferrari and Aston Martin in the Constructors' Championship, which is some consolation. Overall though, we leave here thinking we could have done a much better job as a Team.
BWT Alpine F1 Team suffered an unfortunate double retirement for both Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly in today's Hungarian Grand Prix after an unavoidable Turn 1 collision on the opening lap to the race.
After a strong start off the line, Pierre looked to make a move on the outside of Turn 1 as he pressed towards the top ten. With a slow start, Alfa Romeo's Guanyu Zhou clipped the Alpha Tauri of Daniel Ricciardo under braking who in turn hit Esteban. The Frenchman was shunted, momentarily going airborne, before making contact with Pierre on the outside.
Both cars were severely damaged with Pierre retiring at the end of the first lap and Esteban at the end of the second.
The team looks ahead to next weekend's Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps.
Otmar Szafnauer, Team Principal: "We're all very disappointed by today's race with both our cars on the receiving end of an unfortunate, lap one, turn one incident. There was a concertina effect with one car hitting another leading to our two cars coming together in an unavoidable circumstance. Right now, it's a bitter feeling for all of us, a tough one to take, but we must keep our heads down and bounce back. We have another race next weekend in Spa, the final one before the summer break, where we will work for better fortune and a stronger team result."
Andrea Stella, Team Principal: "Following on from Silverstone, another strong result for our team with Lando on the podium again and Oscar finishing P5.
"On Oscar's side, the first stint was very strong. In the second stint, we need to look at the impact that some car damage had, in terms of performance and interaction with the tyres, because we seem to have lost the ability to sustain tyre life over the stint.
"On Lando's side, it was a very strong race, especially the final stint in which he kept consistency in his tyres with Pérez chasing hard, and he was able to bring home another trophy with another P2 finish.
"It was important to gain this confirmation that the improvements to our car work in hot conditions, and work on tracks with low-speed corners. My thanks again to all the people at McLaren who have laboured so hard to bring these upgrades trackside. I hope they are enjoying the moment - but only today: tomorrow we refocus and get ready for the Sprint weekend at Spa."
Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake went from the high of yesterday's strong qualifying performance to the challenge of a difficult race at the Hungarian Grand Prix, as the team didn't get to build up on the solid performances shown on Saturday. Zhou Guanyu, starting in fifth position, suffered an issue with the brake system strategy which caused a fail-safe on the engine side and severely compromised the start of his race, losing key positions on the opening lap and receiving a five-seconds penalty for an unfortunate collision with Daniel Ricciardo, before finishing 16th. The events ended up affecting team-mate, Valtteri Bottas, as well, who lost ground as he avoided Zhou in front, and fought hard to climb back through the grid, eventually finishing in 12th place.
A though Sunday at the Hungaroring for Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake: the team will now regroup and analyse today's events, as it heads to Spa-Francorchamps for the second and final leg of this back-to-back, and the last race before Formula One heads into the summer break.
Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Team Representative: "After yesterday's strong performance in qualifying, we are of course disappointed not to convert good starting positions with both cars into a double-points finish; occasions like this can't be missed, so we will need to properly go through what went wrong today. Zhou's car suffered an issue with the brake system strategy during the starting procedure, and that ended up jeopardising not just his race, but both of our drivers'. Zhou lost 11 positions right before the first corner, and subsequently hit Ricciardo while braking, for which he received a five-seconds penalty that was executed during his first pit stop. Valtteri had to avoid Zhou at the start, thus losing important positions he didn't manage to recover. All of this resulted in both cars being outside the top ten from the start: we tried to recover with an aggressive strategy, changing earlier from Medium to Hard tyres, and attempting to undercut those in front of us, but eventually didn't have enough pace to climb back into the top ten. Today's result is upsetting for the team, but there is at least one major positive from the weekend: our overall performance improved from the previous races, and we must carry it with us as we head to Spa next week, for the final race before the summer break."
Mike Krack, Team Principal: "Getting two cars home inside the points was the maximum today. It was a quiet and uneventful race, and the results were in pace order as we finished behind our direct competitors. Both Lance and Fernando performed very well, but we are missing the performance to challenge higher up. Lance did particularly well to finish just behind Fernando from his initial grid position. Today is a reality check. We need to keep our heads down, keep working hard, and push through the developments to get back to where we were in earlier in the season."
MoneyGram Haas F1 Team drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen finished 14th and 17th respectively at the Hungarian Grand Prix, held Sunday at the Hungaroring - Round 12 of the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship.
Hulkenberg started from 10th position on Pirelli P Zero Yellow medium tires and gained one position on a chaotic opening first lap in the mid-pack. Hulkenberg held ninth through the early stages and went on to execute a two-stop strategy, pitting on lap 16 for White hard rubber before coming in once more on lap 39 for another set of the harder compound. Hulkenberg brought the car home in 14th, beating AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda to the line by just two-tenths of a second.
Magnussen took the start from 19th on medium tires and picked up five positions on the opening lap to hold 14th spot. Magnussen also ran a two-stop strategy, coming in on lap 14 for hard tires and then again on lap 42. Magnussen preserved the VF-23 through to the checkered flag to take 17th and register a double finish for MoneyGram Haas F1 Team.
MoneyGram Haas F1 Team maintains eighth position in the Constructors' Championship on 11 points.
At the head of the pack Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen racked up his seventh successive victory of the season with McLaren's Lando Norris and Red Bull Racing's Sergio Perez rounding out the podium celebrations.
Guenther Steiner, Team Principal: "Going into the race we knew that we'd be struggling with the heat with our tire degradation issues. I mean, it was a tough race, but I think we got the best from it that we could. At the moment this is what it is for us. We can't do anything else but keep working on the car and trying to resolve our problems. A lot of other people are picking up the pace - at the moment we can't, but we're working on it."
Claudio Balestri (Chief Engineer - Vehicle Performance): "For today's race, we decided to split the cars in terms of starting compounds. As for Yuki, we decided to go aggressive and use the softest compound, while for Daniel we opted for the medium tyre. At the start, Yuki gained many positions and got close to the top ten, but Daniel was hit by Zhou, finding himself in P18 at the end of lap one, after the two Alpines retired. After ten laps, the cars that had started on the soft tyres pitted, so we did the same with Yuki, fitting the hard tyres to go long for the second stint. Unfortunately, the pitstop was longer than normal, and we lost some positions, ending up behind Albon, who was on the same compound. Daniel was on a different strategy, completing a longer first stint, after which we decided to fit a set of hard tyres on lap 18, the best compound to be flexible for the remainder of the race. In the second part of the race, with both drivers on the hard compound, we decided to extend Yuki's stint, while cutting Daniel's short, to have free air for the last stint on medium tyres. This paid off because Daniel was able to be fast and consistent, and this was enough to regain the positions lost in the first lap, finishing the race in P13. Yuki was fitted with medium tyres in his last stint, but this wasn't sufficient to move him up, and he finished in P15, just two tenths behind Hulkenberg. We'll focus on the next race, where we believe we'll be in the position to fight for points."
Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance: Today was exciting and both drivers were able to mount a very strong recovery from yesterday. Both followed aggressive strategies that allowed us to be on the attack and whilst it made for a difficult final stint, both dealt with it very well and showed good pace whilst also managing their tyres.
Although we didn't score any points, Alex finishing in 11th place was a very strong result at a circuit that we expected wasn't ideally suited to FW45. We have held on to 7th place in the Championship and collected another 11th place finish in the process.
It was a shame that Logan didn't finish the race, but with a spin a few laps before the end, we opted to retire the car rather than risk further damage. Until that point, he was having another strong day and he can continue his good form into Spa.
We now head to Spa for the final race before the summer shutdown. It is another sprint event, which will be very interesting given the weather and general nature of Spa. The car will be in quite a different configuration than it was this weekend and we hope that at as a result it will work well in Belgium.
The strong result today was due to some excellent teamwork at the track and in the factory. We put together a good strategy and although it asked a lot of the drivers, they delivered strongly.
Max Verstappen took his ninth win of the season, taking his total number of Formula 1 victories to 44. For Red Bull it was their twelfth consecutive win, a new outright record. Although he missed out on pole position yesterday afternoon by just three thousandths, the reigning world champion still managed to lead across the line for all 70 laps of the race. He made the most of the fact that polesitter Lewis Hamilton did not get the best of starts and also came off best in a thrilling duel with Oscar Piastri in the McLaren. From then on, Verstappen was in dominant form, winning by over 30 seconds from Lando Norris, who secured his second consecutive podium finish. Rounding off the podium trio was Sergio Perez, who staged a great climb up the order from ninth on the grid.
As widely predicted all the drivers opted for two stops, although there were several permutations. For example, the top two finishers opted to go Medium/Hard/Medium, while Perez started on Hard before twice fitting Mediums. Four drivers started on Softs: Sainz, Gasly, Stroll and Tsunoda. Making the best use of the extra grip afforded by the C5 was Ferrari's Spanish driver, who crossed the line sixth at the end of the opening lap, having started eleventh. AlphaTauri's Japanese driver used all three available compounds, while in the Williams, Alex Albon did the most consecutive laps (38) on Hard tyres. Sainz drove the longest stint on Softs (15 laps) while Ricciardo did no fewer than 40 laps on one set of Mediums. The most used compound was the C3 (770 laps, 61.5%), followed by the C4 (448, 35.78%) and the C5 (34, 2.72%).
The Belgian Grand Prix takes place next week at Spa-Francorchamps, one of the historic Formula 1 venues, where tyres are subjected to significant lateral and vertical forces. Pirelli will bring the C2 compound as P Zero White hard, C3 as P Zero Yellow medium and C4 as P Zero Red soft. The Ardennes circuit hosts another F1 Sprint weekend, following on from those in Azerbaijan and Austria. Saturday is given over to the Sprint Shootout and race, while qualifying for Sunday's race takes place on Friday afternoon.
Mario Isola: "It was a very interesting weekend which saw a trial of a new tyre allocation format, as well as evaluating bringing a trio of compounds one step softer than in the past. As for the ATA, first and foremost, it should be pointed out that it will be trialled again at Monza this coming September, on a track with completely different characteristics to this one and the data will be analysed very carefully. Apart from that, I'd say the two salient points from this weekend were that yesterday's qualifying was more unpredictable than usual, because it presented the drivers with new challenges: the need to adapt quickly to the change of compound and the fact that having two sets of each compound for the race introduced greater flexibility in terms of strategy.
"The fact that all the drivers made two stops in very hot conditions with a track temperature that was 53 degrees at the start, with no high degradation problems confirms that the three compounds we chose to bring here were the right ones, given that four drivers even used the Soft for their first stint, showing that it was not out of the question to race with it.
"Now we come to the final round before the summer break, at Spa-Francorchamps, one of the most fascinating tracks on the calendar, with totally different characteristics to those of the Hungaroring, both in terms of its layout and when it comes to the sort of weather we can expect. Belgium will be the third round of the season to feature the Sprint format, which should ensure an even more exciting show."
