The unexpected cold weather conditions at the Hungaroring racetrack in Mogyorod, in total opposition with the conditions encountered a few days earlier at the French Grand Prix and that are seen in most part of Europe in this period, made it difficult for the teams to correctly evaluate tyre behaviour ahead of Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
And while some teams (Ferrari, Alpine, Alfa Romeo) made some bad choices before the race start or during the Hungarian GP, it is quite clear that the Red Bull technicians have carried out a strategic masterpiece, showing who the world championship team is and who is not yet ready (Ferrari). Max Verstappen was about to start with the Hard tyres when – as the pit lane opened – collected the data in the classic race preparation laps and as a result decided to change its plan.
Starting with the Soft was a calculated risk by Red Bull, in any case a better option than its original option, also considering the fact of having to recover many positions and take advantage of a possible early stop to try to force an undercut on who was running in front. Basically the choice was between going very long in the first phase or attacking immediately, knowing that they had a rather short first stint but two sets of medium tires, the best, to use well on the distance. If on the one hand it is clear that Red Bull had also evaluated hard compounds, on the other hand it was quick to change its mind. Furthermore, a technical fact that is easy to interpret should not be underestimated. That is, if a car like the RB18 does not bring a tire in the window, it means that there is something fundamentally wrong with the setup, something that Red Bull had already discarded since Saturday thanks to a RB18 well above expectations, or that it is not the right rubber to use.
Although the F1-75 had underperformed compared to what the technicians of the Italian team had expected, Charles Leclerc had shown an excellent pace and better than that of his teammate by almost 3 tenths, both on medium tires and more generally in the race as a whole. However, he finished 1.5 seconds behind the Spaniard with an additional stop, when he could have finished 21 seconds ahead. The Monegasque driver could not be dominant, however he was much faster than the Mercedes at least on the yellow tyres, especially compared to Russell’s W13, and in a strong enough position to be able to fight for victory with Max Verstappen having the advantage at the start and therefore with the consequent gap accumulated in favor.
Ferrari are still slightly more negative even now, speaking of a possible P2 or even P3 if they had used the same strategy for Charles Leclerc as they did with Carlos Sainz, according to formu1a.uno. However, this is still an admission of guilt for using the Hards, as was clearly also the third forced pit stop.
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The Dutchman’s recovery was faster than expected, which pushed Charles Leclerc’s box to a premature cover action – limiting too much the use of the C3 especially in the second stint when it should have been lengthened as done by Mercedes with Lewis Hamilton. Once the decision to stop was made, it was clear that the Hard was the only solution, also because from the pre-race data there was the hope that the C2 could be faster in the last 20 laps of the stint. But it remained just wishful thinking. The truth is that the technicians of the Italian team did not trust what they saw in the first part of the race both on the Soft compound and especially on the Hard compound, looking at the times of the cars that put less energy on the rubber than the F1-75. In fact, neither the Alpine nor Magnussen before, on a Haas not very much different from the F1-75, had given encouraging signs about the use of white band compound.
Charles Leclerc made an incredibly slow out lap with the Hard, losing 6 seconds compared to Max Verstappen’s out lap, who on the mediums made an incredible and unapproachable time for anyone with a 1.39.5, which shows all the difference in being able to bring the tires into the ideal working window especially in those extreme conditions. On equal terms, with both drivers on the yellow tyre, the difference was 1.5 seconds in favor of the Dutchman. It should be noted that when Ferrari mounted the Soft, in the last stint, Charles performed a better but not so extraordinary out lap. For this reason, what Mattia Binotto said is true, namely that the full performance of the F1-75 was somewhat lacking compared to expectations, however it cannot be omitted that much more could be done to compensate, through a strategic intuition in knowing how to read the race, something that the Maranello men clearly still lack, and a greater technical knowledge of the conditions in the race, especially when there was a good advantage to manage.
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