Christian Horner: "It didn't work out for us today. We seemed to have understeer and then losing that position at the start and conceding back to Lando affected us. We tried giving an overlap to give Max the pace but to no avail. The middle sector, in parts of the race was where we were looking competitive but there is plenty for us to look at to try and see how we can improve and come back stronger next weekend. Checo drove a good race today and his strategy, getting the undercut on George, worked well. He also showed good pace, made good overtakes and hopefully would have taken some good confidence from that for a strong performance in Spa."
Lewis Hamilton finished third and George Russell eighth in Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix. Lewis made it five races in a row with one of the team's cars on the podium and took his 200th top-three finish overall in F1.
Starting from P5, Lewis ran a two-stop Medium/Hard/Hard strategy. He moved up to P4 on lap one, passing the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, before completing a successful undercut on the Red Bull of Max Verstappen at the start of his second stint. He fought off the Dutchman in the closing stages, with contact between the pair at turn one fortunate not to conclude with any race-affecting damage.
George meanwhile also ran a two-stop strategy, starting and ending on the Hard tyre whilst taking the Medium compound in his middle stint. He worked his way through the field but was unable to catch the Red Bull of Sergio Perez in the closing stages, having to settle for P8.
George was able to take the fastest lap of the race for an additional point, securing the 100th fastest lap for the team since returning to the sport in 2010.
A McLaren 1-2 made it the 18th podium lockout for Mercedes-Benz power, a new record for a Power Unit manufacturer in F1. Mercedes-Benz power has also now surpassed 600 podium finishes in F1, with today's result securing numbers 600, 601, and 602
Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO: Claiming a podium finish, our fifth race in a row doing so, feels good. The McLarens were very strong today and out of reach for us in these hot conditions. Congratulations to them and Oscar; they deserved today's victory. We were able to maximise the result with Lewis though and that is encouraging. To see Lewis get his 200th podium in F1, and his 151st with our team, was great.
Yesterday's setback with George meant he had to fight through the field. In the end, it was a good recovery from where he started. It was a challenging race for him with plenty of traffic in his pit window throughout much of the afternoon. Without that, he may have been able to claim one more position, but it was still a solid effort. We now head to Spa where the conditions will likely be cooler and hopefully that will suit us a little more.
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director: Firstly, well done to McLaren and Oscar. A 1-2 finish is a very difficult result to achieve, and they are setting a very high bar at the moment.
It was great to see Lewis on the podium today. Going from P5 to P3 was a good achievement considering we had to get ahead of Verstappen to achieve that. We were able to maximise the result with him today as, without incidents, we simply didn't have the pace to race McLaren.
With George we qualified well out of position yesterday. That denied him the chance to race for much more than the minor points positions. He made a good recovery, coming close to chasing down the Red Bull of Perez, but we'll make sure we take the learnings from yesterday and perform better in future.
We now look ahead to Spa. We've still got work to do to be right at the front every weekend, but we're moving in the right direction. The energy and enthusiasm in the team is palpable. We've got a few days to regroup and prepare; it will be interesting to see how the W15 responds to cooler conditions than we experienced here in Hungary this weekend.
Scuderia Ferrari HP leaves Hungary with 20 points in the bag courtesy of a fourth place finish for Charles Leclerc and a sixth for Carlos Sainz. So, the podium proved to be just out of reach at the end of one of the most thrilling races ever seen at this circuit in its 39 years on the calendar, proving that Formula 1 is in great shape at the moment. Apart from the points, there are positives to take away from the weekend, such as the solid race pace on the Medium and especially on the Hard, while the SF-24 proved capable of fighting on equal terms with Mercedes and Red Bull for much of the race. The McLaren one-two finish with Oscar Piastri taking his maiden win ahead of Lando Norris, means the Scuderia is now third in the Constructors' championship but it has actually reduced the gap to Red Bull and made up one little point on Mercedes. There are still many races to go this season and in Maranello, the work continues to improve the car in race trim, but especially for qualifying, looking for the few tenths that separate the SF-24 from the top of the classification.
Carlos' race was somewhat compromised by the fact he dropped to seventh off the line, while Charles was able to get away well, tailing Lewis Hamilton at the first corner in fifth place. Sainz soon passed Fernando Alonso to get back to sixth and then both Ferrari drivers were able to go longer than others on their first stint. Leclerc in fact was the last of the leaders to pit to switch from Medium to Hard tyres and even led for a few laps. On the hardest compound, the Monegasque was for a long time the quickest driver on track, so that he was able to fight with Hamilton and Max Verstappen for third place behind the two McLarens. This three-way fight continued after the pit stops when Charles reverted to Mediums. On lap 56, the Dutchman got ahead but seven laps later the Red Bull driver collided with Hamilton which put him behind Charles. Sainz finished behind the reigning world champion, having had a linear and solitary race once he had retaken sixth place.
The world championship continues at breakneck pace with one last effort before the holidays, the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, next weekend.
Fred Vasseur, Team Principal: First of all, congratulations to McLaren for its great weekend in a Grand Prix that was a wonderful advertisement for Formula 1. On our side, we had a good fight with Mercedes and Red Bull. We got the most out of our package that we could this weekend. We have made a good step in terms of the car's driveability but now we need to come up with a step forward in performance to close the gap of two to three tenths to McLaren.
Charles got a good start moving up a couple of places early on. We had a very strong pace in the middle stint on the Hard tyre while it was a bit more difficult at the end on the Medium. With Charles we tried to undercut Verstappen but Hamilton pitted at the same time so we were blocked behind him.
Carlos didn't have the best of starts and then he had quite a solitary race bringing home the best result in the circumstances. If we look at the points scored, we were second today behind McLaren. Of course we cannot be happy just with this, but I think we are back on the right track.
Andrea Stella, Team Principal: "Today is a brilliant day for the team. To finish first and second is a testament to the hard work of every single team member at McLaren, for which I would like to thank them for their efforts and contribution to this incredibly positive result.
"The order of the drivers was altered for the final stint to make the safest call in terms of tyre life and to protect our P1 and P2 finish in case of any problems in the pit stops. Lando giving the position back embodies the values of what it means to be part of the McLaren Formula 1 Team and the culture we instil of being one team and putting the interests of the team first.
"We now keep our feet on the ground, keep building and will not get complacent. There is still a long season ahead and we need to continue to maximise every opportunity available to ensure we keep consistently scoring points and improving the car. We now look to Belgium for one final race before the summer break."
Mike Krack, Team Principal: "We leave Budapest with a hard-earned point, but there seems to have been potential for slightly more today. Lance and Fernando drove well, making strong overtakes across their stints. The focus now shifts to Spa and we will continue pushing hard to be more competitive next weekend and have a positive finish before the summer break."
Bruno Famin, Team Principal: "After yesterday's compromised Qualifying, we decided strategically to introduce a new battery to Pierre's Power Unit pool, which meant he started from the Pit Lane. Pierre did a solid job on his first stint to be in sync with the cars who finished close to the points at the end of the race. We had a hydraulic leak and we absolutely need to get rid of these recurring problems. On Esteban's side, we were in line with the early stoppers but track position is key at this circuit but we were not able to manage the tyres as well as planned. We have an immediate chance to do a much better job in Spa-Francorchamps next weekend where we must target a positive end before the summer break."
Sven Smeets, Sporting Director: With the cover of clouds disappearing slowly before the race start and the high track temperatures appearing again, we knew it was going to be crucial to find free air and stop at the right moments. Alex had a great start and found himself stuck behind the Astons. Unfortunately, we couldn't get past Fernando after the first stop, who was working to help his teammate's race. From then, it became a difficult race for Alex finally finishing in P14. Logan had a difficult start and lost positions, finding himself constantly in dirty air after every stop but showed flashes of good pace throughout his stints. A disappointing afternoon but we have learned a lot again in these hot conditions, making progress since Barcelona which is promising. Now we turn our heads to Belgium which should suit our car much better.
Guillaume Dezoteux (Head of Vehicle Performance): "Yuki finished P9 and brought us two precious points which reward the hard work the team has put in overnight repairing his car from the crash yesterday in qualifying. Both cars had a good start but lost positions to the soft runners in the opening laps. Some cars started to pit early, and we reacted with Daniel, which put him in heavy traffic and did not allow him to use his pace. Anticipating his second stop allowed us to gain a few positions back and Daniel could show good lap times, but it wasn't enough to end up in the points for him and he finished P12. With Yuki, we decided to extend the first stint. His good tyre management and the consistency of lap times opened the possibility of doing a one-stop race, which is what we went for. This strategy allowed us to beat the two Aston Martins which is a great achievement, concluding this weekend on a high note."
Laurent Mekies (Team Principal): "Over the past few weeks, everyone in Faenza and Bicester worked hard and effectively, delivering the upturn in performance we witnessed here in Hungary. Getting both cars into Q3 was proof of that, once again heading the midfield and the points we picked up today are a well-deserved reward for all that effort. Yuki's race was sensational, and we were the only car daring to do a one-stop race, which allowed us to beat not only the midfield runners but also both Aston Martins. Yuki's tyre management was second to none, and he made it stick to the end. The team also did a truly remarkable job in a short space of time by rebuilding Yuki's car around a new chassis following his Q3 crash. Unfortunately, we got it wrong with Daniel and pitted him too early in heavy traffic, which lost him a chance to fight for points. His pace had been extremely strong all weekend long, and he demonstrated that again in the final stint of the race when he was finally able to find some free air and fight his way back. We certainly share his frustration, and we will learn and come back stronger next week. Now we move on to Spa, a very different challenge to the Hungaroring. We go there with the positives of our strong weekend here and will push very hard to get our car to work as best it can at this fast and flowing track."
Stake F1 Team KICK Sauber fought hard in the Hungarian Grand Prix, but unfortunately had no points to show for its effort. Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu delivered solid races, but struggles in race trim meant they weren't able to fight for a place in the top ten. Still, with the updates brought to the car showing their worth and an uptick in one-lap pace, the team is showing improvements.
With one race left before the summer break, the team will head to Belgium to continue making progress and fight its way back into the mix for points.
Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Team Representative: "Today's race has been quite a difficult one for us: we unfortunately had the confirmation that both our race pace and our consistency across different tyre compounds are not sufficient to fight for the points right now. We knew this from Friday, when the race simulations showed that, compared to our direct competitors, we had more degradation and that we were lacking pace. Today's race was just not as good as we wanted, although we tried to differentiate the strategies of our drivers, pitting Zhou earlier to potentially create gaps for Valtteri. After the positives we saw in qualifying thanks to the new updates, there is still performance to be found in race trim and especially in dirty air. We saw Valtteri do some overtaking maneuvers, on Ricciardo at the beginning of the race and on Sargeant and Ocon at the end, when he finally ended up chasing Magnussen. It didn't change the end result for us, but we saw we could fight with our rivals on track. It was hard for Zhou: we chose to pit him earlier to cover Magnussen, Ocon, Alonso and Ricciardo: we knew the second and third stints would be hard for him, but in the end, pace wasn't there for him either. On a positive note, all four pit-stops today have been consistent and fast: it is testament to the hard work done by our people, mechanics here at the track and design office in Hinwil, to fix the issues we had earlier in the season. With this spirit, which shows we can react and improve with the work of everyone in the team, we need to look forward to the next races. There is still a lot of work ahead of us, but it's work that will pay dividends not just after the break, but also in 2025."
MoneyGram Haas F1 Team finished with Nico Hulkenberg 13th, and Kevin Magnussen 15th, at the Hungarian Grand Prix, Round 13 of the 2024 FIA Formula 1 World Championship, held Sunday at the Hungaroring.
Hulkenberg took the start on Pirelli P Zero Yellow Medium tires from 11th position but endured a challenging first lap, falling to 15th place, and boxed at the end of Lap two to take on White hard tires. Hulkenberg set a string of fastest laps to gradually elevate up the order before coming in on Lap 29 for another set of hard tires. Hulkenberg took the checkered flag in 13th position.
Magnussen started on Red soft tires from 15th position and made a strong getaway to slot into 10th position, before coming in on Lap six for a set of Hard tires. Magnussen subsequently mirrored Hulkenberg's two-stop strategy in boxing for another set of Hard tires on Lap 33 and preserved that set through to the finish of the 70-lap race, fending off Valtteri Bottas by just a tenth of a second to scoop 15th place.
Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: "It was quite a tough afternoon. Kevin had a pretty decent Lap 1, whereas Nico lost positions in the opening lap. From that point on, we needed to get Nico back into the points and try something different, so we pitted early, but ultimately we didn't have the pace. On Kevin's side, because his position was P15, we needed to try something different and he had a brilliant lap one getting to P10, but because he was on the soft tire he still had to pit early. I don't think it worked really and when you see competitors execute a brilliant one-stop strategy, finishing in the points, we need to look into it. Onto the next race in Spa, and with the level of downforce there, it hopefully will suit us better. We need to regroup and finish the first half of the season on a high before the shutdown."
A McLaren one-two in qualifying yesterday and the same again today in the race. That's the headline from the Hungarian Grand Prix in which Oscar Piastri secured his maiden Formula 1 win, while Lando Norris started from pole and finished behind the Australian. Lewis Hamilton made it to the third step of the podium, recording his 200th top-three finish from 345 Formula 1 Grand Prix starts, a hit rate of 57.97%.
This was McLaren's second win of the season, its 185th in total and the twelfth at the Hungaroring, while their tally of one-two finishes is now 49, the last one dating back to the 2021 Italian Grand Prix when Norris was again second behind an Australian driver, on that occasion Daniel Ricciardo.
As expected, the Medium was the preferred compound for the start: 13 drivers opted for the C4 for the first stint, while four went with the Soft and three, including Gasly who started from pit lane, chose the Hard. Almost the entire field went with a two-stop strategy, with just three drivers doing something different. While the three-stop delivered no benefit for Ocon and Sargeant, as the final pit stop for Soft tyres came when there was no longer anything to lose, it was a different matter for Tsunoda who was on a one-stop and finished ninth mainly due to his managing the tyres well in both stints, (first for 29 laps on the Medium and then 41 on the Hard). Following their choices made during free practice, the two Aston Martin drivers were locked into planning a strategy using all three compounds in the order Soft/Medium/Hard which yielded just one point courtesy of a tenth place for Stroll, who finished one place ahead of Alonso.
The longest stints (41 on the Hard) were completed by the two Racing Bulls drivers, Ricciardo and Tsunoda, while the longest Medium stint went to Stroll on 31 laps and he also did the most laps (14) on the Soft.
Mario Isola: "I think the 310,000 spectators who came to the Hungaroring this weekend and the millions watching on TV and through other channels around the world must have enjoyed themselves. The weekend began like a game of chess and then reached its peak with a very closely contested and open race in which the lead changed hands seven times.
"With temperatures pretty similar to those we had seen in Friday's second free practice session, the Medium probably turned out to be the most efficient compound overall: if it had not been for the collision with Hamilton, Verstappen would almost certainly have finished third. But the Hard, which was definitely the most used compound, was also competitive, not just on the two Mercedes, but on other cars too. In the end, I think this race once again demonstrated how important it is for the teams to carefully work out which are the compounds best suited to their cars, as well as showing how the current range of tyres lets us see how different strategy choices work out on track. After all, that is actually the main objective set for us every year by the FIA, Formula 1 and the sport's other stakeholders, namely to provide tyres that are first and foremost a guarantee of the maximum possible safety, while allowing the teams and drivers to exploit their potential to the full. That what we try our best to achieve, not just in Formula 1, but also in the two junior categories, for which we are the sole tyre supplier."
