Hungarian Grand Prix

[N. Jones]

Wet practice was interesting. I'm curious to see what qualifying will bring.

[journeyman racer]

Qualifying crucial for Bottas regarding the win and championship.

When he's a bit behind Hamilton during the race, he tends to stay there. When Hamilton is behind, he's putting himself in contention.

Last year's race was a graphic example. Bottas had the right attitude at the start, but overdid it and got caught up in contact that ruined his race. Hamilton drove normally, and the team got him a win.

[truefan72]

Well done Williams for an excellent Q1!

[Nitrodaze]

Well done Williams for an excellent Q1!

Williams has made great progress this season. They have leapfrog Haas and Alfa Romeo. And they are in the mix with Renault and ahead of one Redbull with no rainfall in sight. Both Williams in Q2 suggest that they may have turned a corner and may be on the way back up the grid. Russell showed what a brilliant racer he is. He would be quite something in a competitive car. Lattifi was quite in the zone as well. The lone rookie shows he is a talent to watch.

But what happened to the Redbulls. Albons Redbull was all over the shop. It seemed to handle like a forklift truck. But Verstapenn showed why his is Redbull's future as he managed to get on top of the issue to ensure the car was in the top ten.

The Ferrari ran better at this track but are clearly well off the pace of the Mercedes. Even the Pink Mercedes was faster than them.

The battle for the championship hots up as Hamilton stamps an authoritative pole position on his 90th career pole and 8th Hungarian pole position, leaving Bottas with work to do tomorrow. Bottas has impressed me this season. He has shown that he is championship winning material in the right conditions, but Hamilton remains a tall benchmark.

Mclaren comes into this race, second in the constructors point table with Racing Point hard on their heels. It is going to be a facinating fight for 2nd and 3rd place in the constructors title as Racing Point ramps up their performance.

I think Redbull has a real fight on their hands from the midfield for the first time in years. To be fair, Racing Point is outside the midfield now, they are in the sharp end really.

But what do we really think of this copycat philosophy. I think it takes the Haas idea one step further. At least Haas designed their own chassis on their own. What do you think?

[The Black Knight]

That Mercedes - whew - what a car. Flat out through turn 11 - turn 5 amazing onboard - unbelievable stuff Jeff!

The improvement they have made to that car over the winter - they’ve found around at least a second per lap it appears. Incredible how that team keeps raising the bar. We’ve never seen anything like it before in F1.

As for Ferrari, it seems clear to me that they were cheating last year. Zero sympathy.

This may be the best prepared RBR have been since 2013 but the car looks doggid.

Love the way Renault are losing the plot over Racing Point. The resources Renault have vs the heap They’ve produced. Alonso won’t be winning any championship with that team.

[truefan72]

But what do we really think of this copycat philosophy. I think it takes the Haas idea one step further. At least Haas designed their own chassis on their own. What do you think?
TBH i grow tired of the constant snickering and annoyance at the Racing point car.
So what if it is similar to the 2019 mercedes. they have proven to the FIA with sufficient evidence that they have built their own car. Even if they decided to copy design elements from the 2019 Mercedes, this is 2020 and Mercedes has gone on a different route with their design. which is significantly more efficient and better than Racing point. With all their complaints etc. in the first 2 races, Mclaren, RBR and to a point Renault have shown to be just as competitive if not slightly better, looking at the results.
At this point it is embarrassing to watch renault file useless protests after protests.
Also horner needs to keep his mouth shut. For years the STR was pretty much a hand me down RBR, with the two teams sharing many IP and design elements. In fact didn't STR get special dispensation to use their 2008 car in 2009 with a promise to turn down the engine etc?
Ferrari pretty much gave Haas a condensed version of Their car and in the past and now again somewhat did/do the same with sauber.
The only difference between mercedes and the other guys is that Mercedes actually provide their customers with competitive engines and parts unlike Ferrari who ensure that their customers will not outperform them etc.
I have zero qualms with what Racing point did (even though I can;t stand papa stroll) and I think it is more a case of jealousy or anguish by the other teams complaining for not following similar design philosophy.

[Nitrodaze]

TBH i grow tired of the constant snickering and annoyance at the Racing point car.
So what if it is similar to the 2019 mercedes. they have proven to the FIA with sufficient evidence that they have built their own car. Even if they decided to copy design elements from the 2019 Mercedes, this is 2020 and Mercedes has gone on a different route with their design. which is significantly more efficient and better than Racing point. With all their complaints etc. in the first 2 races, Mclaren, RBR and to a point Renault have shown to be just as competitive if not slightly better, looking at the results.
At this point it is embarrassing to watch renault file useless protests after protests.
Also horner needs to keep his mouth shut. For years the STR was pretty much a hand me down RBR, with the two teams sharing many IP and design elements. In fact didn't STR get special dispensation to use their 2008 car in 2009 with a promise to turn down the engine etc?
Ferrari pretty much gave Haas a condensed version of Their car and in the past and now again somewhat did/do the same with sauber.
The only difference between mercedes and the other guys is that Mercedes actually provide their customers with competitive engines and parts unlike Ferrari who ensure that their customers will not outperform them etc.
I have zero qualms with what Racing point did (even though I can;t stand papa stroll) and I think it is more a case of jealousy or anguish by the other teams complaining for not following similar design philosophy.

Fair point buddy :-)
There is some history between Renault and Racing Point. Racing Point got Renault's design tossed out last season, so Renault are probably returning the favour. I think Racing Point took the fast route to getting out of the midfield and l applaude them. But for Racing Point to earn the sort of respect we have for Mclaren, Williams, Redbull etc, they have to build their own car from the ground up.

[Nitrodaze]

That Mercedes - whew - what a car. Flat out through turn 11 - turn 5 amazing onboard - unbelievable stuff Jeff!

The improvement they have made to that car over the winter - they’ve found around at least a second per lap it appears. Incredible how that team keeps raising the bar. We’ve never seen anything like it before in F1.

As for Ferrari, it seems clear to me that they were cheating last year. Zero sympathy.

This may be the best prepared RBR have been since 2013 but the car looks doggid.

Love the way Renault are losing the plot over Racing Point. The resources Renault have vs the heap They’ve produced. Alonso won’t be winning any championship with that team.

I doubt this is RBR's best prepared outing. That car was all over the shop. It handled very badly. It appears to be both chassis and engine setup that was out of sorts.

[journeyman racer]

Great qualifying to watch imo. For the first time in a while, I don't even have a real sense of how the race will pan out today.

[truefan72]

So 9 laps into the race and the useless stewards have no decision on an easy bottas jump start, or Latifi unsafe release but they can hand a ridiculous penalty to kimi?

[truefan72]

Why did Ferrari put leclerc on softs?

[denkimi]

Give the mercedes their trophy's already. They are more than a second faster than their closest rivals.

[truefan72]

Also what stupidity did the RBR guys do prior to the start of the race by drying the track in front of Albon? Smh

[Nitrodaze]

Verstapenn is the man of the race for me. What a recovery from a crash getting on the grid. Hamilton did a demonstration of how to win a race with absolute domination. I don't understand the stop for Bottas as he was so close to catching and overtaking Verstapenn. They stopped Bottas in anticipation that Verstapenn would stop, which turned out not to be the case. Which essentially cost Bottas 2nd place, l think.

Albon had a great recovery to 5th to show what a great driver he is. Both Ferrari's lapped by the Mercedes cars, goes to show what a loss of pace the change to the engine has resulted. Great showing by Stroll, he might be from money, but he genuinely has talent.

[truefan72]

Verstapenn is the man of the race for me. What a recovery from a crash getting on the grid. Hamilton did a demonstration of how to win a race with absolute domination. I don't understand the stop for Bottas as he was so close to catching and overtaking Verstapenn. They stopped Bottas in anticipation that Verstapenn would stop, which turned out not to be the case. Which essentially cost Bottas 2nd place, l think.

Albon had a great recovery to 5th to show what a great driver he is. Both Ferrari's lapped by the Mercedes cars, goes to show what a loss of pace the change to the engine has resulted. Great showing by Stroll, he might be from money, but he genuinely has talent.

Yeah slowly coming around to Stroll. Still have my doubts but glad he is proving me wrong. ;)

[denkimi]

So 9 laps into the race and the useless stewards have no decision on an easy bottas jump start, or Latino unsafe release but they can hand a ridiculous penalty to kimi?
So the stewards seem to have decided that bottas can make jump starts without penalty.

Weird.

[Nitrodaze]

So the stewards seem to have decided that bottas can make jump starts without penalty.

Weird.

I agree, very weird. But l think they were reluctant to mess with the title fight between Hamiton and Bottas. I wonder if they would do the same thing if it was reverse?

To be fair, Bottas was punished enough by the consequential loss of places due to the false start.

[Nitrodaze]

Also what stupidity did the RBR guys do prior to the start of the race by drying the track in front of Albon? Smh

The stewards have yet to make a decision on that one as well. It could be quite costly to Albon personally that hios teams had broken the rules. Martin Brundle thought a kinder pun ishment was a 10 second pernalty. Now race is over, the only available punishment is that they may be disqualified from the race. We watch this one with interest.

[N4D13]

And both Haas cars got a 10-second penalty for driver aids - the reason being that they were told to pit for slicks before the start of the race, which apparently constitutes a driving aid.

What a ridiculous ruling. I hope they change the rules to allow this in the future.

[journeyman racer]

Even if you're inherently quicker than Hamilton. You pretty much hand the race to Hamilton when you flop the start. It those mistakes more costly than being outqualified by Hamilton all the time.

[airshifter]

Kind of a boring race overall, but some on track action that was at least interesting at times.

Sainz and Leclerc were really clean again, they will make a great pairing.

Those pink Mercs seem to have real pace.

Lewis had things in control all weekend.

Max got a break when Merc decided to pit Bottas again. What were they thinking? Without that move, I think Max would have been lucky to hold on to the 2nd spot on the podium.

A much better weekend for Albon, and they were cleared of the suspected pit box drying gate thinking.

I still don't quite understand the Haas penalty. From the F1 website, the penalty in a nutshell is "Teams can instruct their drivers to pit during the race, but not prior to the start.". It just seems strange, but then again I don't think I can remember the specific articles being tested in this way in past races. At least they still got a point.

[Nitrodaze]

Kind of a boring race overall, but some on track action that was at least interesting at times.

Sainz and Leclerc were really clean again, they will make a great pairing.

Those pink Mercs seem to have real pace.

Lewis had things in control all weekend.

Max got a break when Merc decided to pit Bottas again. What were they thinking? Without that move, I think Max would have been lucky to hold on to the 2nd spot on the podium.

A much better weekend for Albon, and they were cleared of the suspected pit box drying gate thinking.

I still don't quite understand the Haas penalty. From the F1 website, the penalty in a nutshell is "Teams can instruct their drivers to pit during the race, but not prior to the start.". It just seems strange, but then again I don't think I can remember the specific articles being tested in this way in past races. At least they still got a point.

I agree, the Haas penalty is dodgy to say the least. There was nothing wrong with reacting to the conditions as early as the start of the race. The rules is over bearing here. And l find it very questiionable that Redbull got away with drying the track for Albon. I am beginning to lose faith in the stewarding of f1. It is spoilling my enjoyment of the F1 racing.

It just seems very unbalanced how they dish out penalties.

[denkimi]

I still don't quite understand the Haas penalty. From the F1 website, the penalty in a nutshell is "Teams can instruct their drivers to pit during the race, but not prior to the start.". It just seems strange, but then again I don't think I can remember the specific articles being tested in this way in past races. At least they still got a point.
It is especially strange since it must have been the drivers who realised during the warm up that it was dry enough for slick tyres, and not the team.

[truefan72]

I agree, the Haas penalty is dodgy to say the least. There was nothing wrong with reacting to the conditions as early as the start of the race. The rules is over bearing here. And l find it very questiionable that Redbull got away with drying the track for Albon. I am beginning to lose faith in the stewarding of f1. It is spoilling my enjoyment of the F1 racing.

It just seems very unbalanced how they dish out penalties.

stewarding has been almost at joker levels for a while now. it was barely tolerable under charlie but Masi's leadership is abysmal.

[Nitrodaze]

stewarding has been almost at joker levels for a while now. it was barely tolerable under charlie but Masi's leadership is abysmal.

Masi is inconsistent and does not seem to have a handle on the stewarding of races. He says gloves off racing but his strewards dish out penalties for the slightest of things and do not seem to be on the same page as him. It is grossly unfair to deprive Haas of their sole point in a tough short season that this is. I was not impressed.

[journeyman racer]

Masi is a former supercars race steward. So no wonder he's ordinary and his role.

[Steve Boyd]

It is especially strange since it must have been the drivers who realised during the warm up that it was dry enough for slick tyres, and not the team.

They did but the radio message from one of them (can't remember who now) where he asked the team to confirm it was OK to come in was broadcast. I'm assuming that the team advising the driver on the regulations is what has been interpreted as the outside assistance.

[Bagwan]

They did but the radio message from one of them (can't remember who now) where he asked the team to confirm it was OK to come in was broadcast. I'm assuming that the team advising the driver on the regulations is what has been interpreted as the outside assistance.

So , then , Masi and the stewards got it right .

So , then , they aren't always evil or incompetent .
Whew , I was worried .

Thanks , Steve .

[Nitrodaze]

They did but the radio message from one of them (can't remember who now) where he asked the team to confirm it was OK to come in was broadcast. I'm assuming that the team advising the driver on the regulations is what has been interpreted as the outside assistance.

Giving the driver information regarding the regulations do not fall within aiding trhe driver to race. Besides the stewards are saying that it is against the rules to call the drivers in before the first lap has completed. The whole thing is confusing to say the least. What is wrong with either of the scenarios we are discussing? It would seem it is against the rules to act in a smart way by reacting to the weather information proactively.

There is no element of cheating in either of the points you or l have made. That the driver asked if it was ok to come in and the teams saying yes is normal car to pit dialogue. Neither is pitting before the completion of the first lap or before the start of the race for that matter.

Whichever way you look at it, the penalty seem very unfair.

[Steve Boyd]

I agree it's nonsense - but how often has that been the case in F1? If the position had been reversed and it had stared raining while everyone was on slicks, would they have forced them all to start without a tyre change?

[Nitrodaze]

I agree it's nonsense - but how often has that been the case in F1? If the position had been reversed and it had stared raining while everyone was on slicks, would they have forced them all to start without a tyre change?

Exactly! Go figure!