You couldn’t find two venues more different than Silverstone and the Hungaroring.
Whereas F1 shivered through an English summer a few weeks ago at a drizzly high-speed Silverstone, this week the sport is sweating through a Hungarian heatwave at a tight, twisty circuit that could totally rewrite the form guide.
But even in the dramatically different conditions, the battle between McLaren and Red Bull Racing continues.
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Lando Norris topping FP2 was a shot in the arm for McLaren up against the upgraded Red Bull Racing RB20, but the headline time is a little deceiving.
The Briton finished the session 0.243 seconds ahead of Max Verstappen, but that margin is more than accounted for by a single snap of oversteer by the Dutchman on his fastest lap exiting turn 2.
Verstappen had been 0.017 seconds ahead of Norris when they hit the brakes into the corner. He was quicker through the long left-hander but then got too eager with the throttle powering out, forcing him to save a swapper on exit.
It cost him on the run all the way to turn 4. By the time both cars hit the brakes again, Verstappen was 0.247 seconds behind.
That’s a 0.264-second turnaround, which would have put the Dutchman at the top of the time sheet, albeit by just 0.021 seconds.
In other words, it’s tighter than it looks.
The race simulation runs paint a similar picture.
Race simulation pace
1. Red Bull Racing: fastest
2. McLaren: +0.03 seconds
3. Mercedes: +0.28 seconds
4. Ferrari: +0.51 seconds
5. Alpine: +0.90 seconds
6. RB: +0.90 seconds
7. Haas: +0.92 seconds
8. Williams: +1.13 seconds
9. Aston Martin: +1.15 seconds
10. Sauber: +1.51 seconds
Sergio Pérez was the faster Red Bull Racing car over a race run — more on his day below — albeit by taking a different approach to bringing in his tyres that’s unlikely to pay dividends over a full race stint.
McLaren, meanwhile, is down some data because Oscar Piastri carried out his simulation with a damage floor after running over some kerbs.
That damage left the Australian an unrepresentative 13th and 0.83 seconds off the pace by the end of second practice.
But there’s almost nothing between the two leading teams heading into Saturday qualifying.
‘The stopwatch doesn’t lie’ | 00:58
PÉREZ HAS BEST FRIDAY IN MONTHS
Pérez responded to weeks of mounting pressure with a decent and uneventful Friday, clocking in fourth fastest by the end of FP2 and only 0.224 seconds behind teammate Verstappen.
That said, Verstappen’s corrected lap without that snap through turn 2 would have blown out the gap to 0.488 seconds.
But Pérez had some mitigating factors of his own counting in his favour.
Red Bull Racing rushed an upgrade to the car that had been due to arrive after the break at the similarly slow-speed Zandvoort circuit in the Netherlands.
It has almost enough parts for both cars, but the Mexican has missed out on the new engine cover and sidepods, parts specifically designed for hot, high-downforce circuits like Budapest.
The team hasn’t put a number on the expected performance difference.
Nonetheless, Pérez looked far more at ease in Budapest than he has done recently, triggering praise from team boss Christian Horner.
“It’s been a positive Friday,” he told Sky Sports. “I would say probably Checo’s best Friday since possibly China.”
The question of Pérez’s regular form slumps has bedevilled the team for years. Horner suggested his turnaround this weekend — if it persists — would be down to both the car and a new mental approach.
“I think the car’s working quite well, and when the car works well, you see that gap diminish between the two of them,” he said. “Hopefully he’ll have taken quite a bit of confidence out of that.
“The car, whilst it’s been performant, it’s been on a bit of a knife’s edge, and I think we’ve seen Max just cope with that a little better than Checo certainly has.
“Hopefully with the steps that we’ve made here, we’ve got the car in quite a nice window.
“I think he’s been in a bit of a head spin the last few races, but hopefully today was a sign that he’s coming out of that.
“I sat down with him in the kitchen at my house and said, ‘Come on, what’s going on? Is there something else?’. He was like, ‘No, I think I’m just overthinking things a bit too much’.
“I think almost ignoring what’s going on on the other side of the garage will do him a favour, which is the approach that he’s taking now, just focusing on his own performance.
“The team are working very hard with him to support him and make sure that he does re-find his form, because we desperately need it.”
Of course we’ve heard this all before — for the last two years in fact — so it remains to be seen whether this can genuinely break the dive that’s putting the Mexican’s seat at risk.
FERRARI UPGRADES WORK — SORT OF
Ferrari brought its Barcelona-spec floor back to the car this weekend with some crucial modifications it expects to reduce the debilitating bouncing that cost it so many points over the last three weekends.
Charles Leclerc then crashed it early in FP2, denying the team half the data it had hoped to collect in the crucial second practice hour.
The Monegasque suffered a snap through turn 4 and ended up whacking the steel barriers on the outside of the track.
Fortunately the damage was worse than initially feared, meaning his weekend shouldn’t be compromised.
Both he and Carlos Sainz — the Spaniard finished third and 0.397 seconds off the pace — gave the new floor positive reviews, suggesting the team really has turned a corner.
But the race simulation data above suggests it still lacks over a long run, albeit having had only one car to analyse.
This circuit was never likely to bring out the car’s weaknesses anyway. There are very few genuinely fast corners at the Hungaroring that would trigger bouncing, and the traction-dependent characteristics play to the SF-24’s strengths.
The car also prefers warmer weather, as we learnt from its abysmal performance in chilly conditions in Canada and, to a lesser extent, Silverstone.
Therefore the effectiveness of the new floor will remain unproven until next weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix at the high-speed Spa-Francorchamps.
And on the evidence of Friday in Hungary, Ferrari still has work to do to close the gap to the leaders.
MERCEDES OVERCOMES CROWDSTRIKE COLLAPSE BUT CAN’T BEAT THE HEAT
Friday wasn’t a great day to have Crowdstrike as a major sponsor.
The cybersecurity company had brought much of the online world to its knees ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix with a botched software upgrade.
Formula 1, more data driven than ever, was always going to be at significant risk of being affected. Mercedes, with the Crowdstrike logo on its shirt and car, was uniquely exposed.
The blue screen of death was spotted afflicting the team’s pit wall monitors shortly before first practice, potentially putting the team’s session at risk.
“There was a bit of work that we had to do,” trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin said. “We’ve got a lot of computers around the garage and in pit walls and things here, and those all needed updating.”
Fortunately the fix was rolled out with just enough of a buffer for the team to get up and running in time for FP1.
“The impact in FP1 was minimal, if not nil,” he said. “It created a bit of work, but we’re back where we need to be now.”
What it learnt during practice, though, wasn’t especially exciting.
“Today wasn’t our best day of the season so far,” Lewis Hamilton said, having finished seventh and 0.575 seconds off the pace. “The car set-up didn’t feel great, and we weren’t on our best form.
“We’ve got some ideas as to why the car wasn’t at its best though, so we will work hard on it overnight looking to make improvements ahead of tomorrow.”
Hot weather has been Mercedes’s Achilles heel this season. While it excels in the cold — think Canada, Britain — in the heat it struggles to keep its tyres alive.
Qualifying will present teams with a different prospect to Friday, however. While the ambient temperature is expected to be similarly warm at around 30°C, cloud cover should keep the track temperature lower. That in turn will make it easier to manage the soft tyre around the lap.
Keeping the rubber alive around the busy lap was half the battle on Friday, with car balance clearly changing by the time drivers reached the final sector and its two long bends to get onto the front straight.
Starting position is historically crucial to a race result here given the narrow, twisty circuit makes overtaking difficult, though in recent years this generation of cars has tended to produce better racing.
If Mercedes can just get its single-lap pace right, it could yet score big.
“If we can make a bit of progress, we should be in a strong position for the rest of the weekend,” Shovlin said, hinting at a sliver of optimism.
Mercedes certainly isn’t contemplating a Silverstone-style performance, but given its form around this track, it’s too early to say all is totally lost.
WILLIAMS DENIES OCON MID-SEASON PLOY
The 10 days between Silverstone and Budapest were consumed by rumblings over Pérez’s future, giving cover to one odd story that was finally ventilated on Friday in Budapest.
According to the Italian edition of Motorsport, Williams got close to signing Esteban Ocon for the second half of the season in place of the out-of-favour Logan Sargeant.
The plan was so advanced that Williams had the Frenchman visit its factory in Grove — around 40 minutes down the road from Alpine’s Enstone base — for a seat fitting.
Jack Doohan would have then replaced Ocon at Alpine for the second half of the season, giving the Aussie a fighting chance at arguing his case for the full-time drive in 2025. The team is courts Carlos Sainz’s signature in the meanwhile.
Motorsport reports that initially Alpine was in favour of the deal given its cooling relationship with the Frenchman, who it’s already confirmed will leave the team at the end of the year.
But team boss Bruno Famin has reportedly since changed his mind. Ocon would be an upgrade on Sargeant, and Alpine is in a fight with Williams in the lower reaches of the constructors championship, with millions of dollars at stake.
Speaking to Autosport, Williams boss James Vowles admitted a seat fitting had taken place but denied it was to replace Sargeant before the end of the year.
“Esteban came in for, not a real seat fit, but I wanted to evaluate him for 2025 and 2026,” Vowles said.
“I needed to do that because I need to actually ascertain whether he fit in the car or not. Because he’s, as is Alex [Albon], a tall chap, but his dimensions are a bit difficult in certain dimensions.”
Both Albon and Ocon measure in at 186 centimetres.
It’s an explanation that certainly raised eyebrows in the paddock, particularly given Vowles refused to deny only a few weeks ago that he was contemplating a mid-season switch.
In any case the story will end here, with Ocon expected to be announced as Kevin Magnussen’s replacement as soon as next week.