Hungary to Spa and all the drama in between
Let's see what I missed by accidentally scheduling my vacation a week before summer break!
Okay, let’s start with Hungary
Daniel Ricciardo was the star of the weekend thanks to efforts by F1TV and SkySports broadcast team, and he didn’t disappoint! He made it into Q2 in the AlphaTauri (first time an AT made it to Q2 in 4 races) and finished where he started, in P13, despite being hit in the rear into T1.
Qualifying in general was a nail-biter thanks to the new format: some teams performed better on one tires than others, meaning you never knew what car would shoot to the front. Both Alpha Romeos made it into Q3! Checo Perez made it into Q3 (though he did qualify behind both Alpha Romeos)! But the general excitement was between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton. Max was P1—until Lewis’s last flying lap, where he finished 0.003s ahead. Insane.
Of course, Red Bull’s struggles in qualifying didn’t exactly translate to the race. Max took the lead into T1 and finished 33s ahead to take his 44th win. Lando Norris finished P2, and Checo finished P3 after fighting with Oscar Piastri and Lewis Hamilton for the position. Finally, Charles Leclerc had another no-good, very-bad race where his water tube was broken, he had a nearly 10s pit stop, and got a 5s penalty for speeding in the pitlane.
A 70 lap race, at times it felt like it had gone on for literal days. But the rest of the weekend more than made up for it!
And now on to Spa
A sprint race at a wet Spa was, predictably, nervewracking, but luckily everything went well! In a wet qualifying, Max Verstappen predictably took pole but Perez actually pulled out P3 and Ferrari seemed to come alive when Leclerc got P2. The next day, at the sprint shoot-out, Ferrari continued to look good with a P3 and P4. But it was Oscar Piastri who looked the best, putting his Mclaren in P2, right behind Max Verstappen.
During the sprint, the rookie Piastri actually led the race from Verstappen. It was incredible to watch. Of course, Max won, but Piastri’s second was a great showing! Alpine also got a mircale result when Gasly got P3. During the race an incident took both Piastri and Carlos Sainz out of the race. Perez and Leclerc swapped their qualifying positions, fininshing P2 and P3 respectively. It was Lando Norris people were watching, though. When it was a dry race, the Mclaren looked absolutely terrible and Lando at one point felt to P19. But after a brief rainshower the Mclaren was able to light up, and he managed to finish in the points at P7.
Spa was an excelent time, with the most overtakes of the season so far! A great race, and a perfect send-off to the first half of the season.
Alpine had two big weeks—for all the wrong reasons
The week of Hungary, we got the news that Alpine’s CEO Laurent Rossi, had been moved elsewhere and replaced. This was interesting! Rossi has been vocally critical about the F1 team’s performance, and it’s likely this was a saving-face move with the new investment coming in from the Hollywood money. Of course, it would be easier to disregard Rossi’s previous comments if, well, Alpine weren’t doing so poorly.
Aside from Esteban Ocon’s miracle performance in Monaco, Alpine have had two double-DNFs this season. They’re 6th place in the Constructors’ Championship with a measly 57 points, having recently fallen behind a much improved Mclaren. The teammates don’t seem to like each other, there’s no clear leader, and the only notable PR story recently was Pierre’s weird beef with Carlos.
Then, the week of Spa, the bottom fell out. Their team principle, Otmar Sznafnauer was fired (or, as the PR spin put it, left by “mutual agreement”). This was strange because, despite their struggles so far this season, he did lead Alpine to 4th place in the Constructors’ Championship last year.
Less talked about is the departure of their sporting director Alan Permane. To me, the sporting director is one of the most important members of a team. While Permane hasn’t been in the media as much as Szafnauer, it can be assumed that his departure was due to the same performance timeline issues as Szafnauer since he also wasn’t fired.
Ultimately, it seems like the higher-ups at Alpine want the team to compete with the big three before 2026, a feat Szafnauer and Permane don’t seem to think is possible. This seems to be a case of out-of-touch executives demading something and then firing the people who tell them its impossible.
Ferrari. What in the world is happening to you?
I know I have a section like this almost every week, but almost every week Ferrari does something that astounds me again. The week of Hungary, it was somehow more than one thing that astounded me, and unfortunately for Ferrari, all were absolutely awful.
We can start with Carlos. The SF23 is now lucky to be in the lower edges of the points each week, but it was steadily making it into Q3—until Carlos got knocked out in Q2 on Saturday. Then, during the race, Ferrari kept him in Charles’s dirty air despite the tire difference (Carlos started the race on softs, a completely different tire strategy to Charles). A pity of a race for Carlos.
While the race was a pity for Carlos, it was a disaster for Charles. It was the race when everything fell apart for him. To begin with, his water tube wasn’t attached, meaning he drove the entire two hour race—one where the cockpit of the car reached around 50c/122f—without water. Then, he had a nearly ten second pitstop (god, Ferrari, what in the WORLD). And finally, he got a 5s penalty for speeding in the pitlane!
If it’s not bad strategy, it’s bad luck. If it’s not bad luck, it’s bad teamwork. Ferrari are in a deep, deep hole, one I’m not sure if Fred Vasseur can pull them out of. At least, for once, the hole wasn’t dug any deeper by race performance at Spa. Carlos Sainz just took the shovel himself with a PR mishap.
Qualifying went well. Leclerc inherited pole from Verstappen after he took a gearbox penalty, and Sainz was close behind him in P4. Things are looking good, they’re only split by Perez and Hamilton, and it sets them up well for the race on Sunday. But before that, they have the sprint shoot-out and the sprint on Saturday.
In the sprint shoot-out, they again did well, ending up P3 and P4 behind Verstappen and Piastri. Now, did they slide down a position during the race, which was drowned in rain, and end up finishing P4 and P5? Perhaps. But that’s still not bad! P4 and P5 are respectable. Then, on Sunday, we had the race.
Charles had a fine race. It was Carlos’s race where the trouble happened. On the first turn he squeezed Oscar against the wall, causing a collision and ending both their races. Ultimately, I agree with the stewards that it was a racing incident. It probably should’ve been left at that. Unfortunately, Carlos could not leave it at that.
Yes, Carlos blamed the rookie by name to the press after the race, and then again in his post-race statement on his Twitter. To say this wasn’t taken well would be putting it lightly. It was viewed as rude, especially after Piastri’s diplomatic approach and the vast majority believing the incident was mostly on Carlos’s shoulders.
We need to talk about DOTD (and other awards)
How did Perez win Driver of the Day in Hungary?? He had an okay weekend—emphasis on okay. He made it into Q3, but only qualified P9. In the RB19. So, not great. He managed to drag P3 during the race, but still finished 4s behind Lando Norris in the Mclaren, again not impressive.
Sure, he made some good overtakes. But he was in the RB19. The overtakes should’ve been easy, and he should’ve made them quickly, getting up to at least P2 before the end. But it wasn’t easy for Perez. In fact, he had to get the elbows out multiple times, at one point shoving Piastri off the track and damaging the Mclaren’s floor.
Is that worth Driver of the Day? Really? A few overtakes that only took place because he qualified poorly in a rocket ship, which were far more difficult than they should’ve been? I should point out that in this race were Lando Norris, who led the race, defended from Max Verstappen, and ended up P2; Lewis Hamilton, who took the most insane pole of his life and finished P4, behind only Perez and Norris; and Oscar Piastri, a rookie who qualified P4 and went wheel to wheel with Max Verstappen. But no—Perez was Driver of the Day.
I’d care less if this was the first time he’d done something like this. But it’s not! the same thing happened in Australia, where he crashed during Qualifying and started from the pitlane, finishing P5 in the race, a place he only reached on lap 41. Certainly a good race, but in the RB19? Not a great one. Yet he won Driver of the Day.
Sshould I be this upset about the sanctity of DOTD, or is it a personality contest more than any sort of stat and I should just give it up?
Beyond DOTD, there’s another stat people keep citing about Perez as though it’s good—the overtakes. He has 20 more overtakes than the next person on the “most overtakes” list. On its face, this sounds fine: he does a lot of overtakes! When you get down to it, though… WHY is he doing all these overtakes? Is it perhaps… because he keeps qualifying out of position?
All this stat means is that he does terribly in qualifying. He’s in the RB19, of course he can make his way through the field. He just shouldn’t have to. To celebrate this stat feels ridiculous. But we seem to always be celebrating Perez for something ridiculous. Just look at the other fan-voted award, Overtake of the Month.
How did Perez’s overtake on Piastri win Overtake of the Month? It wasn’t even the over take of that race! You can take everything I said about DOTD and apply it here, but somehow, this is even worse. Maybe because DOTD is voted during the race, when you’re watching it and adrenaline is high, while for Overtake is the Month, you have to stop and think, and maybe watch some videos.
Okay! Complaining over. I need to accept that I am the one wrong about this, but… I don’t want to. Please, voting public, I beg you: stop rewarding mediocre performances! Okay, moving on now.
Hungary
Dennis Hauger, a former F3 champion who once upon a time was expected to be a transcendent star, finally showed some of his flash when he led every single lap of the sprint race to a win. Ralph Boschung continued making everyone ask “how did he win in Bahrain again??” with another DNF after a collision caused by Novalak.
Ayuma Iwasa got P2, another great race for the rookie, and Ollie Bearman took P3 from Theo Pourchaire at the last second. This was a blessing for his teammate and the championship leader Fred Vesti, because it kept him ahead of Pourchaire in the championship standings going into the feature race—even if his lead was only one point.
For the feature race, all it took was me suggesting Jack Doohan wasn’t in the championship race anymore for him to pull one out and win. He went from pole to P1 without any real challenge. Fred Vesti finished P2, padding his previously one-point lead in the championship, with Victor Martins finishing P3 and hopefully stabilizing the F3 champion’s rocky season.
Ultimately it was a fun weekend! Lots of overtakes and huge implications for the championship standings.
Spa
At the sprint race in Spa, Enzo Fittipaldi got his first race win! Theo Pourchaire scored some valuable championship points with a P3. The most notable part of the sprint, however, was when Jehan Daruvala’s headrest came out of his car, forcing him to pull into the pits.
Ollie Bearman got pole for the feature race, but he finished P4—even if he didn’t stay there for long. For his teammate, Fred Vesti, this was an important race toward keeping his championship lead. Unfortunately, he didn’t get to race it. He crashed on his way to the grid thanks to the slick track, and was out before it even began.
Jack Doohan pulled a P11 to P1 challenge, an extremely impressive feat in an F2 car. Theo Pourchaire finished P2, which pulled him ahead of the unfortunately-unable-to-race Vesti in the championship standings. Finally Pourchaire, the favorite to win the F2 championship before the season began, had the championship lead.
Then came the penalty storm. Victor Martins technically finished P3, but he got a 5s penalty for speeding in the pitlane. This should’ve promoted Bearman, who finished in P4, to the podium, but thanks to a (frankly ridiculous) penalty for causing a collision, he was knocked back in the standings as well. That promoted the man in P5, Enzo Fittipaldi, onto the podium!
Sorry for going missing for so long! Vacation and classes combined to take up all my time. Summer has started, so I plan on having a few more fun articles come out before the season starts back up. Hope everyone is doing well and enjoyed my rants! I swear I have nothing against Sergio Perez—he’s just an easy example.