The Hungarian F1 Grand Prix on Sunday was set to be a thrilling spectacle, promising a departure from the norm with Lewis Hamilton starting on pole, followed closely by Max Verstappen and Lando Norris. 

However, the race quickly took a turn as Hamilton found himself run wide in the first corner, dropping to fourth place. In Hamilton’s own words, “Max was on the inside and he ran me wide and I got done by the two McLarens.”

This unexpected twist set the stage for a strategic battle for the remaining podium places, with Mercedes and McLaren eying 2nd and 3rd (once Max checks out…). 

The question on everyone’s mind was whether Hamilton and Mercedes could leverage their race pace and strategy to reclaim the podium positions from McLaren. Additionally, there was anticipation around whether Sergio Perez, starting in 9th, could make his way up to the podium.

Mercedes Strategy

Typical of Mercedes strategy over the last few years, they often give up track position thinking they can outperform their rivals later in the race, but alas, apart from getting past the solid but sedate-looking Piastri, Lewis couldn’t reach Perez (and definitely not Norris) by the end of the race.

RedBull and other teams NEVER give up track position with the hope of claiming it back. The results speak for themselves.

It is worth noting George Russell had an excellent race finishing 6th from his 18th starting position, using the classic “stay out longer” on your first and second stints than those around you.

On paper, and also in the eyes of Toto Wolff, Mercedes had the 2nd fastest race car on Sunday, so why didn’t they get on the podium? How did the 2nd fastest car start on pole and end in 4th?

What could have been for Mercedes?

All told, you really have to say that Red Bull, as usual, had their race strategy in place and delivered, McLaren delivered with the race pace they had and ran a solid race strategy, and Mercedes, with Lewis, made life just harder than it needed to be for Lewis with their pit strategy. 

Mercedes could have had a podium with the right strategy and they didn’t. The days of pitting Lewis and him chasing the win from miles away are long gone, the speed differential between teams just isn’t there.

Mercedes need to think a little more in the moment, become stronger strategically and tactically. This issue has deep roots going back to and affecting the 2021 season and losing Hamilton the 8th title he so coveted.

Ferrari strategy even worse than Mercedes

Whilst Mercedes strategy for Hamilton wasn’t on point again, a team carrying on with poor strategy over the last few years is Ferrari, who managed to ensure they ended 7 and 8 instead of 6 and 8. 

Not only did Ferrari make a mess of one of Leclercs pit stops, but the team have got lost in politics between the two drivers, pitting them out of sequence and holding Sainz back to pacify Leclerc, which allowed Sainz to fall into Russell’s grip in the latter stages of the race, they ensured Russell had enough time to take both Sainz and also reach Leclerc, as Leclerc was known to have a 5s time penalty to be applied at the end. 

Ferrari need to stop trying to please their drivers (particularly Leclerc) and make calls for the team! If Ferrari had let Sainz through, Sainz may well have had 6th and left Russell in 7th.

All in all, these strategy calls may seem to make only a small difference in a race, but each place equals points, and over many races they can make a big difference in the constructors championships and therefore financial rewards and status for the teams.

Race Summary 

In the top 4 of the race, McLaren had two cars, those of Norris and Piastri, whereas George Russell in the other Mercedes was starting from 18th due to what Russell believed was a strategic error by the Mercedes team (Q1 qualifying, by putting him out to do a hot lap with too much traffic on track.)

The first stint of the race saw little real action, but the first pit stops brought about a significant change. Norris, who was around 3 seconds ahead of Lewis, ended up around 9 seconds ahead after pitting one lap earlier. This point was not picked up on or discussed by the pundits, even Lewis questioned his team over the radio how that had happened. Norris overtook his teammate Piastri through the pit stops and Lewis had the job of trying to catch the McLaren of Piastri instead, who had also gained several seconds on Lewis through the pits tops even though he pitted later.

In the second stint, Perez did an excellent job of coming through the field and was right behind Lewis, who was also getting closer to Piastri. It was at this point Red Bull and McLaren pulled the strategy advantage on Mercedes. 

Red Bull and McLaren pulled their drivers in for their 2nd pit stop. At this point, with Hamilton being on the same bit of tarmac as Perez and Piastri, the natural thing to do would have been to call Lewis in and give him a chance at racing with Perez and chasing Norris for 2nd place. As it happened, Mercedes opted to leave Lewis out running far slower lap times on old tyres and dropping away from Perez and Piastri, giving both McLaren and Red Bull a distinct advantage over Mercedes.

When Mercedes did finally pit Hamilton, he had a much larger gap to Piastri (who had now been overtaken by Perez), and Lewis had a huge amount of work to do to catch the leading pack up.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/f1-hungarian-race-mclaren-outdoes-mercedes-yet-again-strategy

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