Beyond The Score

And breathe…

The 2024 Hungary Grand Prix may not go down as a classic for wheel-to-wheel action but one thing is certain, we won’t forget it in a hurry. Whether it was Max Verstappen locking up and causing contact with his former championship rival Lewis Hamilton or the team orders that ensured Oscar Piastri his first win in Formula One, we have been left with a bucket-load of talking points.

So, it’s time to grade how each team dealt with their respective weekends:

Red Bull : D

At one point they seemed invincible, no longer is that the case. Hungary was a horror weekend for a team whose constructor’s championship title now looks genuinely in the balance. It’s now three races without a victory for the Milton-Keynes-based side and just one podium in that period.

The weekend started as it normally has for Red Bull as of late: a horror show qualifying for Sergio Perez. The Mexican exited Q1 yet again after an all too characteristic crash. The Mexican would have a decent race on Sunday showing a pace similar to that of Max Verstappen.

Verstappen also had a weekend to forget. He seemed irritated and flustered from the off, had a rash lock-up with a failed dive-bomb attempt on Lewis Hamilton, and was called “childish” by his own race engineer just to top it all off.

Erratic and fragile, it’s hard to believe the state that Red Bull has found itself in during recent weeks. Things can change quickly in the world of Formula One though, and boy they will be hoping for that to be the case.

McLaren : A

The only reason this isn’t an A+ is simply due to the sour nature in which the race concluded yesterday. After all, a one-two in both qualifying and the race is as sound as it gets for a team looking to establish themselves as a force to be reckoned with.

Norris started on pole, but was immediately overtaken by Piastri and Verstappen. He struggled to match the pace of Piastri in the turbulent air and found himself 4.5 seconds off by lap 33. It seemed as though the Aussie would sail off into the sunset for his maiden win.

Yet perhaps a lack of experience and nerves were eating away as he ran wide onto the grass and Norris approached closer. McLaren then pitted Norris to cover off any potential threat from Hamilton and Verstappen with the intention of recovering positions afterward. Yet, it became rather awkward as Norris pulled away and showed greater pace than Piastri and was reluctant to return position.

Although he did obey orders, it only came after some frustrated protests and took away a bit of the shine, whether you believe he was in the right or not.
Either way, it was still an ideal week which sees the gap between McLaren and Red Bull drop to just 51 points. Who would’ve thought that just a matter of weeks ago?

Mercedes : B-

The fact that a podium finish is regarded as just a satisfactory weekend for Mercedes shows the steps they have made after two lackluster years in the new regulations.

George Russel’s early qualifying exit put Toto Woolf’s team on the backburner from the start and was rather surprising as the twenty-six-year-old has outperformed his teammate over one-lap pace consistently this season.

Hamilton’s race craft revealed itself again though as he drove a faultless race to finish p3 behind the squabbling McLaren’s.

Considerable progress had been present at the Mercedes garage in previous weeks and they have real momentum heading into Spa next week.

Ferrari : C

The team that was billed to take the fight to Red Bull in the earlier part of the season has slumped into somewhat of an irrelevancy at the front. The signs were promising after topping practice one with a Carlos Sainz lap of 1.18.173, yet that was as good as it got for the Scuderia.

Both drivers got the maximum out of the machinery bringing home a p4 and p6 yet you feel that optimism has been drained from Vasseur’s team.

It’s as though there is a major wait until Lewis Hamilton joins next year when they may burst into life. Not to mention the rumours that they are in the strongest position of any team in developing a car for 2026 regulations according to The Race.

Aston Martin – C+

Lance Stroll has bettered Fernando Alonso for three straight races now. It seems to happen quite a lot with Stroll throughout the seasons, a couple of solid races will pop up to silence the critics.

A solid race in the midfield with a points finish, it’s really just a case of expectations for the Silverstone-based works team. With such a fall from grace since the start of last season, they have found themselves stuck in a midfield slot cut adrift from those above and below.

Perhaps they look ahead to the new regulations before a serious challenge at the top but you can’t help but feel that since they were already there they may have had their chance.

RB Visa Cash App : B-

It was a bizarre weekend for the Red Bull sister team. Truth be told, it’s hard to make heads or tails on whether it was positive or not.

Qualifying saw Daniel Ricciardo top the timing sheets in Q1, and then Yuki Tsunoda shunt out his car at the back end of Q3. Both started in points positions but a typically poor race start saw them fall down just outside the top ten. Ricciardo then ahead and pulling away from Tsunoda was brought in to pit off the mediums onto the hards after just eight laps. We saw with Norris and Piastri the difference clear air makes around Hungary, so to sacrifice laps in clean air on the medium tires and move straight to the hards seemed to make little sense. The whole purpose of being on the mediums is you make time up when those soft runners have to pit early.

On the other side though Tsunoda executed an excellent race, caressing his tyres to fit a one-stop strategy and finish in his seventh points position of the season.

In a race of so much chaos it’s a good weekend to come away with points, however, was it not for the strategic errors that left Ricciardo livid, you feel it could’ve certainly been a double points finish.

Haas – C

It’s hard to be critical of a team so shoe-horned in their budget. The fact that they find themselves consistently battling in the midfield is a credit to them.

Yet this was one of the many race weeks they will have which see them fill a mediocre spot near the bottom.

Hulkenberg and Magnussen drove a clean race but unfortunately for them, the pace just wasn’t there.

Alpine : F

After a run of points, Alpine looked as though they had got back on track after a horror start to the season.

Yet in recent weeks, it has been a return to the dark days of early April and March. For the second week running Gasly saw a DNF and Esteban Ocon was unable to get anywhere near the points. 19th and 20th in qualifying it’s yet another week when a works team with so much prestige emphasises how much the mighty has fallen.

A torrid week all around. They better hope Carlos Sainz wasn’t watching.

Williams : B

All things considered, a decent weekend for Williams.

Both cars out of Q1 and comfortably away from the backmarkers, there were signs of progress from another sleeping giant in the sport.

Logan Sargeant also had a solid weekend, just a tenth behind his teammate in qualifying and was more competitive in the race. You sense though that they have already moved on from the American and that his F1 career will come to a close.

Kick Sauber : D

Spare a thought for any Kick fans out there. Their team is truly woeful.

Spare a thought for Valtteri Bottas. It’s yet another week where he has qualified well, getting every inch of performance out of that machine and yet the first point still eludes him.

It seems to be as though Alpine and Kick are alternating who is the week’s biggest disappointments on the grid. The signs of things improving don’t seem to be there either. At least they have the most aesthetically pleasing car…