F1 Hungarian Grand Prix Notes: Just another Record-Setting Day for Verstappen, Red Bull

Max Verstappen continued his cruise to a third world title with a record seventh consecutive win, this time at the Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix. Autoweek rounds up the best of the action from the Hungaroring.

Seventh Heaven for Verstappen

Before Sunday’s race, the whispers could be heard: Could pole starter Lewis Hamilton break Max Verstappen’s hegemony? Could McLaren upset the apple cart?

Emphatically, no.

Verstappen may have stewed after missing out on pole position at the Hungaroring, but he executed a flawless getaway to grab the lead from Hamilton into Turn 1. Those few hundred meters on the run down to the first corner were the closest anyone got to Verstappen as he pulled away from the pack, completed a formulaic two-stop strategy, and won by a mammoth 33 seconds.

Just three drivers—runner-up Lando Norris, third-place Sergio Perez and fourth-place finisher Lewis Hamilton—finished within one minute of Verstappen in his latest runaway.

The win, Verstappen’s seventh in succession, enabled Red Bull Racing to set a new team record of 12 consecutive victories, surpassing McLaren’s 11 from the 1988 season. Verstappen now leads teammate Sergio Perez, who recovered from ninth on the grid to third place, by 110 points in the championship.

breaking, f1 hungarian grand prix notes: just another record-setting day for verstappen, red bull

Just four cars finished within a minute of Max Verstappen in Hungary.

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Even by Verstappen’s lofty standards, in 2023 Hungary proved a particularly high point.

“It’s very rare, days like this, where it’s that good,” said Verstappen. “Spa last year was pretty similar, normally it’s not that easy or straightforward. People probably forget how tough it is to win 12 in a row, even when you have the fastest car, it’s easy to make mistakes and have an off weekend.”

Red Bull boss Christian Horner was delighted as the team marched on.

“We had put more focus into the higher temperatures of today and the race pace, as oppose to single lap pace,” said Horner. “And while Max was frustrated to not get the pole yesterday, he went into this race fully fired up.

“Max got a very good start off the dirty side of the grid and it was old school down to the first turn and once he emerged out of the first turn he really stamped his authority all over the race and really controlled the race from start to finish. Checo (Perez) was outstanding as he came through from ninth. Today we had a phenomenal race car and were able to convert that into a 1-3.”

Lando Norris put McLaren on the podium with a solid second-place finish.

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Norris on the Podium Once More

McLaren continued its strong form since it introduced its heavily updated MCL60 in Austria as Lando Norris scored a stunning runner-up place for the second successive race while Oscar Piastri claimed fifth.

That was despite the rookie suffering from rear damage after hitting a curb heavily during the race. The only mistake Norris made all day was on the podium. He performed his traditional champagne bottle bounce, and the vibrations from the bottle hitting the ground caused Verstappen’s winning trophy to roll off the rostrum and smash in two.

McLaren had adopted a cautious approach after its Silverstone display, expecting the Hunagroring to highlight more of the MCL60’s flaws, and was consequently left upbeat by the performance.

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We are so, so sorry… @redbullracing and @Max33Verstappen! 🫣#HungarianGP 🇭🇺 pic.twitter.com/eXTC4dLdMO

— McLaren (@McLarenF1) July 23, 2023

“We certainly come out of this event encouraged,” said boss Andrea Stella. “We have made progress in medium speed (corners), that’s what we see with a comparison from our competition. We also see that we do lose time in the slow speed corners.

“The other important confirmation is we made progress in terms of tire degradation and we see having improved the car actually brings an improvement in how you use the tires at the same time. It was good to confirm it once again and this makes us a bit more optimistic for the future than we were after Silverstone.”

McLaren Gains Unsettling for Ferrari, Aston Martin

McLaren’s recent progress has turned the spotlight on Ferrari and Aston Martin, with both teams following up subdued showings at Silverstone with a dreary display at the Hungaroring.

Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz finished only seventh and eighth respectively, though Leclerc would have been sixth without a pit lane speeding violation and subsequent 5-second penalty.

“Honestly, it’s frustrating overall because I felt that, the pace we had today, even as a driver when you are feeling like you are doing a good job with the car you have, nobody really notices it,” said Leclerc. “When you are doing a bad job, everybody notices it. It’s difficult but in the end, it’s part of the game and it’s just up to us now to do a step forward as McLaren did. Now we are on the back foot, it’s been confirmed through the last three weekends. There is a lot of work to do.”

Fernando Alonso was only ninth, his worst result of the season, while Lance Stroll followed him home to collect the final point.

“At Silverstone, we did expect to struggle a little bit but in Budapest we thought we would be a bit stronger but it was not the case,” said Alonso.

“Today, ninth is probably our pace: behind the Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren, which is more or less what we saw in qualifying and the race.”

Daniel Ricciardo returned to the F1 grid, replacing Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri.

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No Unlucky 13 for Ricciardo

Ricciardo spoke of feeling “pretty comfortable” in the AT04 from the outset of Friday’s practice sessions. In qualifying he beat team-mate Yuki Tsunoda by just 0.013 second in Q1, which proved the difference between making it to Q2 or not, and went on to take 13th place on the grid. That was a decent result given AlphaTauri’s limitations and Ricciardo’s lack of 2023 seat time. And the time off has allowed him to hit the reset button.

“If we even forget the result, just the way I feel, I just feel a bit lighter and a bit more bubbly, kind of like myself,” he said. “And just the driving, I was driving a bit more with a smile.”

In the race Ricciardo was an innocent party in a first-turn clash that dropped him to the back but he went on to take 13th place, replicating his grid slot, which was a respectable outcome.

“I can’t ask for more on the first weekend, and it gives me confidence,” Ricciardo said. “I got hit in turn 1, and dropped to the tail of the pack. After that, we got stuck in traffic, but once we got some clear air, I could settle into a rhythm and from then on, I was happy. Our pace wasn’t bad, maybe we could’ve been in the points today, I don’t know, but our strategy was good, we were just a bit unlucky. On the other hand, the contact at the start could’ve ended my race, so I’m grateful the car was still ok, and I was able to do 70 laps to learn as much as possible. I’ll learn from the mistakes I made to get better and better, and I made little mental notes, which I will share with the team.”

Alpine’s Esteban Ocon (31) and Pierre Gasly (10) make contact early at Hungary.

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Alpine’s Awful Afternoon

Alpine was hardly in contention after qualifying at the Hungaroring, with its drivers Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly starting 12th and 15th on the grid, but it only got worse from there as neither driver made it past the first corner unscathed.

A slow-starting Zhou Guanyu nudged the back of Daniel Ricciardo’s AlphaTauri into Turn 1, resulting in Ricciardo sliding into Esteban Ocon, who walloped into Pierre Gasly. Both A523s sustained terminal damage in the clash and were swiftly retired. It marked the second successive event in which Alpine failed to take a single point and it is now sizeably adrift of McLaren in sixth place in the championship.

Max Verstappen added to his points lead with a seventh consecutive Formula 1 victory.

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