Scuderia Ferrari HP leaves Hungary with 20 points in the bag courtesy of a fourth place finish for Charles Leclerc and a sixth for Carlos Sainz. So, the podium proved to be just out of reach at the end of one of the most thrilling races ever seen at this circuit in its 39 years on the calendar, proving that Formula 1 is in great shape at the moment. Apart from the points, there are positives to take away from the weekend, such as the solid race pace on the Medium and especially on the Hard, while the SF-24 proved capable of fighting on equal terms with Mercedes and Red Bull for much of the race. The McLaren one-two finish with Oscar Piastri taking his maiden win ahead of Lando Norris, means the Scuderia is now third in the Constructors’ championship but it has actually reduced the gap to Red Bull and made up one little point on Mercedes. There are still many races to go this season and in Maranello, the work continues to improve the car in race trim, but especially for qualifying, looking for the few tenths that separate the SF-24 from the top of the classification.
The race. Carlos’ race was somewhat compromised by the fact he dropped to seventh off the line, while Charles was able to get away well, tailing Lewis Hamilton at the first corner in fifth place. Sainz soon passed Fernando Alonso to get back to sixth and then both Ferrari drivers were able to go longer than others on their first stint. Leclerc in fact was the last of the leaders to pit to switch from Medium to Hard tyres and even led for a few laps. On the hardest compound, the Monegasque was for a long time the quickest driver on track, so that he was able to fight with Hamilton and Max Verstappen for third place behind the two McLarens. This three-way fight continued after the pit stops when Charles reverted to Mediums. On lap 56, the Dutchman got ahead but seven laps later the Red Bull driver collided with Hamilton which put him behind Charles. Sainz finished behind the reigning world champion, having had a linear and solitary race once he had retaken sixth place.
One more before the break. The world championship continues at breakneck pace with one last effort before the holidays, the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, next weekend.
Charles Leclerc #16
We turned it around today. We had a solid race, with the right tyre management and a good pace. A P4 is not the result we want of course and we know that we have lots of work ahead, however, we were in better form than expected.
It’s difficult to overtake on this track and we had to manage overheating, being just behind Lewis (Hamilton) on the last stint, which was tricky. We took all our opportunities today and it’s good to bring home these points for the team.
Carlos Sainz #55
A tough race for me. The start was not good and here in Hungary it’s quite crucial. That compromised the first two stints, having to overtake cars to get to P6, and from there onwards it was quite a solitary race. The last stint I could push a bit more after extending with the Hard tyre but overall, as we saw yesterday, we were lacking pace compared to the cars at the front this weekend.
Belgium is a completely different track and we have to think what approach we want to take there with the car to try to finish the first half of the season with a good team result.
Fred Vasseur
Team Principal Scuderia Ferrari HP
First of all, congratulations to McLaren for its great weekend in a Grand Prix that was a wonderful advertisement for Formula 1. On our side, we had a good fight with Mercedes and Red Bull. We got the most out of our package that we could this weekend. We have made a good step in terms of the car’s driveability but now we need to come up with a step forward in performance to close the gap of two to three tenths to McLaren.
Charles got a good start moving up a couple of places early on. We had a very strong pace in the middle stint on the Hard tyre while it was a bit more difficult at the end on the Medium. With Charles we tried to undercut Verstappen but Hamilton pitted at the same time so we were blocked behind him.
Carlos didn’t have the best of starts and then he had quite a solitary race bringing home the best result in the circumstances. If we look at the points scored, we were second today behind McLaren. Of course we cannot be happy just with this, but I think we are back on the right track.