2023 Hungarian Grand Prix Weekend Recap

July 25, 2023

Hungary was all smiles, except for Alpine, as the paddock welcomed Daniel Ricciardo back. There was a lot riding on this weekend with Ricciardo’s return, the testing of Alternative Tire Allocation (ATA), and teams learning to adapt their new cars to different track conditions. Here is you 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix weekend recap: 

Free-Practice: July 21-22, 2023

Sergio Perez's shunt in FP1

After testing their upgrades on a series of cooler, high-speed circuits, teams were eager to use the weekend’s three practice sessions to see how their changes fare on a warmer and slower track. Unfortunately for many, these plans were thwarted by heavy rain in FP1. George Russell was able to set the pace before the rain came, but after a Red Flag was called for Sergio Perez’s crash at Turn 5, conditions became much worse and many drivers opted to stay in the garage. As a result, six drivers failed to set a time for FP1. FP2 saw clearer conditions in which Charles Leclerc went fastest, followed by Lando Norris and Pierre Gasly. Surprisingly, the two Alpines went P3 and P5 with their practice Qualifying runs. Yuki Tsunoda also shocked with a lap time worthy of P4. Both Red Bulls and both Mercedes were toward the back of the pack as neither team set any flying laps. By Saturday morning’s FP3, conditions were perfectly dry and hot as Lewis Hamilton went P1 with the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Perez in tow. Nico Hulkenberg somehow managed to go P4 and Lando Norris was P5 after setting his best time on Medium compound tires. It looks like this weekend’s fight for P2 will most likely be between the McLarens and the Mercedes. 

Qualifying: July 22, 2023

As previously mentioned, F1 was testing Alternative Tire Allocation during Qualifying this weekend. This new Qualifying format reduces the number of tires used in a weekend by mandating the use of Hard compound tires for Q1, Mediums for Q2, and Softs for Q3. 

Q1:

• It was once again track limits galore as Kevin Magnussen, Oscar Piastri, Alex Albon, Logan Sargeant, and Zhou Guanyu all had lap times deleted for exceeding track limits. Still, Zhou somehow went fastest overall with his second lap. 

• As teams adapted to using Hard tires in Quali, many teams ended up using two sets in their efforts to get out of Q1. 

• Eliminated: Albon (P16), Tsunoda (P17), Russell (P18), Magnussen (P19), Sargeant (P20)

• Mercedes sent George Russell out on track at an inopportune time, forcing him to encounter traffic that compromised his final flying lap. 

Q2:

• McLaren’s impressive performance on Medium compound tires was seen once again as Lando Norris went fastest in Q2. 

• Eliminated: Sainz (P11), Ocon (P12), Ricciardo (P13), Stroll (P14), Gasly (P15)

• Charles Leclerc’s final flying lap unfortunately pushed his teammate Carlos Sainz into the elimination zone.

• Pierre Gasly’s fastest lap was deleted for track limits, setting him back at P15. 

Q3:

• In an incredible lap, Lewis Hamilton took his first pole position since 2021. Verstappen was second and the McLarens took the second row with Norris P3 and Piastri P4. 

• Both Alfa Romeos had an amazing Qualifying as Zhou took his career best Quali result in P5 and Valtteri Bottas went P7. 

• Sergio Perez finally reached Q3 for the first time since the Miami Grand Prix in May, but couldn’t put the lap together and only qualified P9.

Race: July 24, 2023

With many drivers out of position due to ATA, tire strategies were all over the place. Most drivers started on Mediums while Sainz, Lance Stroll, Gasly, and Tsunoda took softs. Russell and Perez went for Hards, presumably aiming for the overcut. 

Verstappen aced the start and almost immediately got the lead from Hamilton while Piastri took advantage of the pole-sitter going wide at Turn 1 and slotted into P2. As Hamilton tried to pick up the pieces from his poor start, Norris made a move around Turn 2 to take third. 

Zhou had a worse start when a brake system issue prevented him from getting off the line. When he finally got moving, he hit the back of Daniel Ricciardo in an effort to make up for lost time. Ricciardo then hit Ocon, who went airborne and tagged his teammate Pierre Gasly. This led to Alpine’s second consecutive double DNF and a 5-second penalty for Zhou. Poor Estie Bestie and Pedro Gaseoso’s races were over before they even reached Turn 1. 

Ocon hitting Gasly

The midfield began to pit quite early in the race when Alex Albon stopped for Hard tires on Lap 8. Stroll, Bottas, and Tsunoda followed in suit.

On Lap 15, Perez began to catch Sainz for P7. Ferrari, oddly enough, chose to keep Leclerc ahead of Sainz even though the Spaniard was on Soft compound tires and could probably get closer to Hamilton in front. Since Ferrari didn’t swap its drivers, Sainz was left exposed to Perez on his worn, Soft tires. Sainz ultimately pitted on Lap 16 to avoid fighting the Red Bull and Perez was up to P7. 

Sainz’s pitstop opened up the pit window for the front-runners as Hamilton stopped on Lap 17. In response, Norris and Leclerc both stopped on the next lap and while Norris came out ahead of Hamilton, Leclerc suffered a slow stop and rejoined the track behind his teammate. McLaren then pitted Piastri from P2 and even though he had a 2.0 second stop, the undercut had worked and the Australian was overtaken by his teammate. By Lap 23, Verstappen already had such a great lead that he stopped for Hards and still led the race. Perez and Russell, both running Hard tires, were the last to pit as they stopped around Lap 29 for Mediums. Perez came out behind Sainz and Russell, but managed to quickly clear them to get back up to P5. 

Piastri and Perez kicked off the second round of pit stops on Lap 43. After his impressive 1.9 second stop (WOW!), Perez came out just behind Piastri and after a few laps of hard racing, the Mexican finally took the position on Lap 47. 

Hamilton and Verstappen then stopped on Lap 50 and with fresher tires, Hamilton managed to catch Piastri for P4 down the straight on Lap 57. The other McLaren of Lando Norris, who had pitted on Lap 45, was also at risk as Perez chased him for P2. After clearing a number of backmarkers, Norris managed to rebuild a healthy gap and Perez settled into his spot in P3. 

Had there been two more laps in this race, Hamilton might have caught Perez for P3 and made it the same podium as Silverstone. But in the end, Verstappen and his 33 second lead won to bring home his 44th career win and allow Red Bull to break the record for most consecutive race wins by a single team. Norris made it McLaren’s second consecutive podium as he finished in P2 and Perez showed everyone that he’s back with his P3 result. Hamilton came in P4 ahead of Piastri and Russell, who was promoted to P6 through Lecerc’s 5-second penalty for speeding in the pitlane. This penalty put Sainz in P7 and Leclerc in P8, while the Aston Martins finished off the top ten. Everything I said in the Pre-Race article about having five top teams came true: we did have all ten of the best cars finish in the points, leaving no room for any of the “midfield” teams. I guess I’m finally getting the hang of this predicting and analyzing thing!

2023 Hungarian Grand Prix podium

Daniel Ricciardo finished his first race with AlphaTauri in P13, right where he started. Since this is better than Tsunoda and not at the back of the grid, it seems as though Red Bull and AlphaTauri might have made the right decision by replacing Nyck De Vries. And while this is not what I wanted to be saying after this race, I think congratulations are in order for Ricciardo. It looks like he could be quite successful at AlphaTauri. 

Logan Sargeant was the third car to DNF after he spun on Lap 68 of 70. Although it was a disappointing end for Williams, their performance was much better than expected as Albon finished P11 – almost scoring points – and Sargeant was on track for P15 before his late spin. 

Hungary did not disappoint. We had another McLaren podium (my papaya heart is happy), a pretty interesting race, and an even more interesting Qualifying. Even after seeing it action, I am still not a fan of Alternative Tire Allocation. It wasn’t horrible, but I just don’t understand why  they can’t decrease the number of tires allowed without dictating which tires teams can use and when they can use them. There’s a way to save strategy and the Earth! 

I will be back soon to get you ready for the Belgian Grand Prix! 

- Divya

Where I got these

from:

• https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1215/hungary/practice-1.html

• https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.fp1-russell-heads-piastri-in-rain-hit-first-practice-in-budapest-as-perez.5C80g44YrUtaKC9niK7Vs7.html 

• https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1215/hungary/practice-2.html 

• https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1215/hungary/practice-3.html

• https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.fp3-hamilton-heads-verstappen-and-perez-in-final-practice-session-at-the.1xqA1A6TS4jYfH40ww5ZpD.html

• https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.hamilton-beats-verstappen-and-norris-to-hungarian-gp-pole-in-qualifying.7lm5joHPTDuciNjtgsza5f.html 

• https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.verstappen-dominates-hungarian-gp-to-give-red-bull-a-record-12th-successive.Y7z82iKtBfCKYRnYNUQsU.html 

• https://www.sauber-group.com/motorsport/f1-news/2023-hungarian-grand-prix-sunday/ 

• https://www.williamsf1.com/posts/5f716289-5246-4f06-a991-56fcbd405456/report-2023-hungarian-grand-prix

Pictures:

• https://d3cm515ijfiu6w.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/23142110/2023-hungarian-grand-prix-race-start-planet-f1.jpg 

• https://www.grandprix247.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/perez-crash-fp1-hungary.jpg 

• https://preview.redd.it/2023-hungarian-grand-prix-qualifying-results-v0-xsd5sdduejdb1.jpg?auto=webp&s=45eff1f21545351e2947f9b2939af9fefe03a8d6 

• https://i.redd.it/x55dy3pwsqdb1.jpg 

• https://firstsportz.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/IMG_COM_20230723_2205_01_0272-750x536.jpg 

• https://staticg.sportskeeda.com/editor/2023/07/76dae-16901257249883-1920.jpg?w=668