Five things we learned from the Hungarian GP

We should be toasting Oscar Piastri’s first ever grand prix victory right now, as well as the seventh different race winner of what has transformed into an unexpectedly competitive season.

But no. Instead the spotlight is squarely on Lando Norris and McLaren, whose strategy in Hungary inadvertently handed the British driver the lead, forcing the team to spend the last 20 laps begging him to give it back.

Lando had been second best to the Aussie in the first phase of the race, losing the lead from pole in the first corner and falling almost five seconds behind at one stage.

But a brief moment off track cost Oscar valuable time, and with McLaren wary of being undercut by Lewis Hamilton behind, they opted to make Norris’s final stop two laps earlier than Piastri’s.

That vaulted him into the lead again, and what followed wasn’t a race but the F1 equivalent of The Archers. “We’d like you to re-establish the order at your convenience,” became “you’re using the tyres too much,” and eventually: “The way to win a championship is not by yourself… you’re gonna need Oscar, and you’re gonna need the team.”

With two laps to go Lando let him through, and to his credit he was very gracious afterwards: “It was fair just to give the position back, I don’t want to come across like a guy who’s not fair. Oscar’s done a lot for me in the past and helped me in many races… he drove a better race than I did.”

You can see his dilemma though. Might those seven lost points cost him in the championship at the end of the season?

The entire fiasco was created by McLaren doing everything it could to protect its first 1-2 finish since the Italian GP three years ago. When Hamilton stopped on lap 40, the team was worried that the seven-time champ would close up to Norris on fresh tyres, and thus be forced to overtake the Mercedes on track; not easy at the Hungaroring.

With the gap coming down - and with 20 seconds or so needed for a stop - McLaren called Lando in with 25-ish seconds to play with, giving him a comfortable buffer to emerge ahead. Extreme caution, basically. Imagine slapping on factor 50 for a cave dive and you won’t be far off.

But in avoiding the undercut from a rival, they undercut themselves instead, with Piastri losing out through no fault of his own. Had they stuck to convention and boxed their lead driver first, they probably would’ve been fine anyway.

It’s yet another debatable call from a team that has made several this season: it arguably missed out on wins at the Canadian and British grands prix because of pitting at the wrong time, and it gave itself another almighty headache in Hungary.

Still, it all worked out in the end and the team is now only 51 points behind Red Bull in the constructors’ standings. Game on!

…which is the nice way of putting it. The reigning champ appeared frustrated right from the off in Hungary when the team advised him to give up P2 in the opening laps, having gained the position off track as he and the McLarens had gone three-wide into Turn 1.

Then he complained about the strategy: being undercut by Lewis Hamilton (twice) saw him slip to fourth, and when he ran wide trying to overtake his old rival through Turn 2 there was some colourful language aimed at the car not turning properly.

Later on, when chastised for not being gentle with his fresh tyres, he replied: “No mate don’t give me that ****. You guys gave me this **** strategy, OK? I’m trying to rescue what’s left.”

Then came the collision with Lewis: Max dived down the inside into Turn 1 but locked up badly, and the tangle of wheels sent the Dutchman flying into the air. He claimed Hamilton had moved under braking (the stewards disagreed and neither was penalised), to which the despairing Gianpiero Lambiase - Verstappen’s usually oh-so patient race engineer - replied: “I’m not even gonna get into a radio fight with the other teams, Max. We’ll let the stewards do their thing. It’s childish on the radio. Childish.”

He finished in fifth, meaning he’s now winless in three races… which hasn’t happened since the Saudi Arabian GP in 2021. Sheesh.

Hamilton looks rejuvenated from his British GP win at Silverstone a couple of weeks ago, and a hard-earned P3 in Hungary was his 200th podium in F1. Wow.

That’s from 344 entries, and puts him 45 clear of Michael Schumacher in second place. Vettel is third on the list with 122, although Max Verstappen will surely overtake him in the not-too-distant future as he’s on 107 as things stand.

You’ve got to feel sorry for Sergio Perez, really. The guy’s desperate for a decent result but his weekend got off to the worst possible start on Saturday, binning the car heavily in qualifying and having to start from 16th on the grid.

To give him his dues he came up with a creditable recovery drive in the race itself, recovering to finish seventh less than a pit stop behind Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz in sixth. Decent effort, that.

But with Red Bull getting ever closer to throwing the constructors’ championship away - and that’s the one that pays out millions in prize money, don’t forget - you have to wonder at what point Red Bull will decide to try someone else in that second seat in search of more consistency. Perez is the only driver in the top four teams not to have won so far in 2024, and he’s not finished higher than P7 since Miami back in May.

The team has Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo on standby at RB, or there’s Liam Lawson - who the team tested recently at Silverstone - waiting in the wings. Who would you hire for F1’s toughest teammate gig?