Oh, hi! Have you noticed that mathematically we reached the middle of the season one race ago in Silverstone? But let's be honest - psychologically it happened just a few moments ago at Hungaroring. Congratulations to all Ferrari fans, by the way! That was an impressive one-two for red cars in Budapest. It is hard to accept but Ferraris were definetely way better on this track and even the special engine mode Lewis used to overtake Kimi didn’t help.
What I noticed first the qualifying was quite different from what we used to see lately. Mercedes was struggling a lot the whole weekend what I cannot say about Ferraris. Baricello's track record (not beaten for many years) was beaten multiple times firstly by Ferraris. Both Seb and Kimi had enourmos pace so Kimi was blaming himself after the race for the mistake in quali which cost him a lot.
1. An ideal team player
What I noticed first the qualifying was quite different from what we used to see lately. Mercedes was struggling a lot the whole weekend what I cannot say about Ferraris. Baricello's track record (not beaten for many years) was beaten multiple times firstly by Ferraris. Both Seb and Kimi had enourmos pace so Kimi was blaming himself after the race for the mistake in quali which cost him a lot.
1. An ideal team player
As I said - congratulations to all Ferrari fans. If you know me you also know that I'm not a fan of those red cars even more than I am not a fan of Seb. I've been asked multiple times why. I couldn’t explain earlier but here at Hungaroring I came up with a concrete answer. I don’t like Seb as a Ferrari driver not for who he is or for how he behaves but mostly for the fact he COULD NOT be on top of the championship without team's help. Here I don’t mean the car, engineering, settings or whatever - here I mean team tactics, politics, strategy, priorities. Call it the way you like to. I am pretty sure there's some "rules" that do not let Kimi to fight against Seb (as it fortunately let Valtteri in Mercedes).
Hungarian GP was a bright example of what I called "rules" here. Kimi was for sure faster than Seb and had no steer problems from the beginning which German was struggling a lot. He couldn’t even attack curbs and was slower in that case. Kimi asked the team multiple times if they can give him a chance to fight for more as long as he had better pace, younger tyres and a few more advantages. But no reaction came on the radio in that case so he had to stay behind Seb to protect him from what Mercedes could do using his steer weakness. We have no official information on Ferarri's contracts before the summer break. But what I personally think is that we can be sure now that Seb IS SO HAPPY with his current teammate that he will do literally anything to make Ferrari keep Kimi for as long as it is possible.
2. A man of his word
Hungarian GP was a bright example of what I called "rules" here. Kimi was for sure faster than Seb and had no steer problems from the beginning which German was struggling a lot. He couldn’t even attack curbs and was slower in that case. Kimi asked the team multiple times if they can give him a chance to fight for more as long as he had better pace, younger tyres and a few more advantages. But no reaction came on the radio in that case so he had to stay behind Seb to protect him from what Mercedes could do using his steer weakness. We have no official information on Ferarri's contracts before the summer break. But what I personally think is that we can be sure now that Seb IS SO HAPPY with his current teammate that he will do literally anything to make Ferrari keep Kimi for as long as it is possible.
2. A man of his word
Another happy man this weekend was Valtteri who unexpectedly (in my opinion) got his podium back at the last turn of the race. Lewis starting P4 had the better pace from the very beginning of the race so we all expected him to attack Valtteri to fight for the win. The main issue was huge radio struggles Mercedes had in the middle of the race so they just couldn’t manage the actions of their drivers. Lewis asked the team to let him in front or to let him attack Valterri right when I (as a Mercedes fan) expected him to do. Being honest, I was pretty impressed with team's decision to ask Valtteri to put Lewis in front BUT if the champion couldn’t overtake Kimi in like 10 laps of special engine mode Lewis had to give the position back.
Knowing Lewis I could expect him to escape the last action and finish on the podium just in case. So I was super shocked but really happy when Lewis gave the position back at the very last turn making it clear that Max could not do anything to beat any of Mercedes. Lewis accepted that it was hard for him but he is "a man of his word" and a team player. After the race Totto Wolff would say that it definitely WAS one of the hardest team decisions and they all hope it won't cost them the championship title. Anyways, huge respect to Mercedes and their team values which made all of us so proud.
3. Max hitting the relationship with Daniel
Knowing Lewis I could expect him to escape the last action and finish on the podium just in case. So I was super shocked but really happy when Lewis gave the position back at the very last turn making it clear that Max could not do anything to beat any of Mercedes. Lewis accepted that it was hard for him but he is "a man of his word" and a team player. After the race Totto Wolff would say that it definitely WAS one of the hardest team decisions and they all hope it won't cost them the championship title. Anyways, huge respect to Mercedes and their team values which made all of us so proud.
3. Max hitting the relationship with Daniel
The other man who showed an incredible race and made it even more interesting was one and only Max Verstappen. Max was the one who made a huge start at Hungaroring and jumped from P5 to P3 immediately. Later on his teammate Daniel decided to fight for the position. Blocked left front made it all. Max hit Daniel and the honey-badger was out while Max got ten seconds penalty (unfair in my and Christian Horner's opinion) which for sure deprived him podium chances.
Going back to a few latest GPs I'll remind you that we already had some huge team argues like between Esteban and Checo in Force India or Daniil and Carlos in Toro Rosso leading to race collisions and some serious consequences. Thinking of all those "team battles" personally I was really happy to see Red Bull drivers' friendship or bromance (if I can say). After Max and Daniel's collision - I was so not happy with the words Dani used to describe the situation as blame on "immaturity and youth". Daniel definitely wasn’t nice to Max' actions. I hoped that the situation won't go further so it didn’t. Max claimed his appologies - Daniel accepted. For me that was the worst highlight of the weekend which hopefully will not ever happen again.
4. Failure in action
Going back to a few latest GPs I'll remind you that we already had some huge team argues like between Esteban and Checo in Force India or Daniil and Carlos in Toro Rosso leading to race collisions and some serious consequences. Thinking of all those "team battles" personally I was really happy to see Red Bull drivers' friendship or bromance (if I can say). After Max and Daniel's collision - I was so not happy with the words Dani used to describe the situation as blame on "immaturity and youth". Daniel definitely wasn’t nice to Max' actions. I hoped that the situation won't go further so it didn’t. Max claimed his appologies - Daniel accepted. For me that was the worst highlight of the weekend which hopefully will not ever happen again.
4. Failure in action
Hungaroring is famous for it's slow and consistent corners which make pilots to be very physical and cars very sensitive. In spite of some strong expectations we saw a few good overtakes but we also we saw some unfortunate retirements. I have mentioned Daniel's already but the most painful for me was the one for Roman. Mechanics' mistake was fatal and cost them not only retirement but also 5000$ fee for driving an unsafe car. Really sorry for Haas.
If you are close to F1 (which I am sure you are if you are reading this) you know about the breaking news happened on Saturday right before the quali. Felipe got really sick after both Friday sessions but doctors said he is still able to drive on Saturday so FP3 was taken by him also. Sadly Felipe felt really sick right after the session and former F1 driver and show presenter Paul Di Resta had to take place in the cockpit of the car he never drove before (I mean he drove cars 3,5 years ago, not in era of turbo engines). Incredibly he did really well in quali finishing P19 (not falling of 107% and not even P20) and he was doing pretty well in the race too but the team decided to retire probably because they just wanted to save the car or change some of the elements without any penalties.
5. Happy birthday, Fernando
If you are close to F1 (which I am sure you are if you are reading this) you know about the breaking news happened on Saturday right before the quali. Felipe got really sick after both Friday sessions but doctors said he is still able to drive on Saturday so FP3 was taken by him also. Sadly Felipe felt really sick right after the session and former F1 driver and show presenter Paul Di Resta had to take place in the cockpit of the car he never drove before (I mean he drove cars 3,5 years ago, not in era of turbo engines). Incredibly he did really well in quali finishing P19 (not falling of 107% and not even P20) and he was doing pretty well in the race too but the team decided to retire probably because they just wanted to save the car or change some of the elements without any penalties.
5. Happy birthday, Fernando
The last but not the least I probably should mention the special birthday gift which Fernando made for himself. Both McLaren drivers have finished in points. Sorry, you didn't know? Well, Fernando made it to the FASTEST RACE LAP at Hungaroring - 1.20.182. IT IS so impressive considering the fact that he drove McLaren Honda (you probably remember their engine problems) beating everyone and finishing P6 the next day after his birthday.
Fernando made it even more interesting fighting with another spaniard Carlos pushing to the limit. Anyways, nice finish for both McLarens (even though Stoffel could probably do better). And what about the upcoming holidays - F1 made an interesting idea to picture Fernando next to the sea shore in his racing suit posing on a deckchair next to the real Fernando doing the same.
Fernando made it even more interesting fighting with another spaniard Carlos pushing to the limit. Anyways, nice finish for both McLarens (even though Stoffel could probably do better). And what about the upcoming holidays - F1 made an interesting idea to picture Fernando next to the sea shore in his racing suit posing on a deckchair next to the real Fernando doing the same.
6. Quali and other surprises
What's more Q3 was definetely quite surprising for me as long as we haven't seen any Force Indias or Williams there (since Williams updated their car it just became worse I must say) but we saw both McLarens and even one Toro Rosso of Carlos. By the way, Daniil got one more penalty point and three positions on the grid for blocking Lance which I just don’t feel like commenting. Blame on his team for sure.
Nico keeps showing amazing results since Renault updated the car. The same wasn’t that common for McLaren and especially Stoffel who also did great in quali. Unfortunately Nico got the five-positions-gearbox-penalty so it wasn’t his best race comparing to what he could really do. His teammate Jolyon also received the new bottom but managed to crush twice on Friday which puts him under pressure even more remembering all the rumors and the fact that Kubica is driving Renault tests probably right now. Anyways, Jolyon wasn’t the one to provoke multiple red flags on Friday. It was Antonio Giovinazzi who managed to crush Kevin's car (depriving him two FP sessions) and also Pascal (no comments).
What's more Q3 was definetely quite surprising for me as long as we haven't seen any Force Indias or Williams there (since Williams updated their car it just became worse I must say) but we saw both McLarens and even one Toro Rosso of Carlos. By the way, Daniil got one more penalty point and three positions on the grid for blocking Lance which I just don’t feel like commenting. Blame on his team for sure.
Nico keeps showing amazing results since Renault updated the car. The same wasn’t that common for McLaren and especially Stoffel who also did great in quali. Unfortunately Nico got the five-positions-gearbox-penalty so it wasn’t his best race comparing to what he could really do. His teammate Jolyon also received the new bottom but managed to crush twice on Friday which puts him under pressure even more remembering all the rumors and the fact that Kubica is driving Renault tests probably right now. Anyways, Jolyon wasn’t the one to provoke multiple red flags on Friday. It was Antonio Giovinazzi who managed to crush Kevin's car (depriving him two FP sessions) and also Pascal (no comments).
At the end of this thing I just wanna put the amazing media fight between Nico and Marcus. No words - just go and look!
When F1 returns from summer break I am sure we'll know a looooot about contracts and team movements. Stay tuned to my blog. By the way, FOUR weeks without F1 can only mean one thing - historical GPs in action :)
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