The final race before the summer break was one to put behind for Scuderia Ferrari, as the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday yielded a second consecutive disappointment for the Italian team. Having qualified second and third on the grid, and with their Oracle Red Bull Racing rivals starting in tenth and eleventh; Budapest should have gone Ferrari’s way – but poor strategy cost them a potentially big haul of points.
Charles Leclerc started well on the Medium tyre, following his team-mate around as they chased after George Russell, who took his maiden pole position on Saturday afternoon. The Monégasque was able to jump Carlos Sainz Jr. in the first round of pitstops, overtake Russell on track and take the lead of the race, however, the call to switch to Mediums would turn out to be a mistake.
A charging Verstappen would attempt an undercut, and pit early for his second stop (which was the Medium tyre, having started on the Softs and switched to the Mediums in his first stop). Ferrari would keep Sainz out in the lead, but pit Leclerc for a set of Hard tyres, as the Softs would not make it to the end of the race. A handful of drivers had already struggled to bring the Hard tyres up to temperature with the cooler track conditions, and Leclerc had the same struggle. After being overtaken by Verstappen twice in the race, the number sixteen driver would pit a final time for a set of Soft tyres in the dying laps, and cross the line to finish sixth.
“It’s a shame we didn’t bring home a better result, because the car felt good and we had a strong pace on Medium tyres today. Unfortunately, the Hards just did not work in these conditions,” said the Ferrari driver, who was the fastest car with the Medium tyre attached.
“We now need to see what we could have done better, recharge our batteries over the break and be ready to fight in the second part of the season.“
“Today was a tough day for the whole team” – Carlos Sainz
While Leclerc pitted early in an attempt to cover the Red Bull of Max Verstappen, Sainz and Lewis Hamilton stayed out on the Medium tyres to extend the stint and use a fresher set of Soft tyres at the end. Sainz would pit on lap forty-eight of seventy, while Hamilton pitted on lap fifty-two. The Spaniard suffered with graining sooner than expected, and Hamilton quickly caught Sainz, passed him and ultimately took second place.
Sainz had to settle for fourth place, while Mercedes enjoyed another two-three finish.
“Today was a tough day for the whole team. We expected to have a strong pace for the race, but it’s clear that with these lower temperatures and track conditions we were simply not fast enough to fight,” Sainz explained.
“There are some things to look at and learn from today. We will regroup, analyse and come back stronger after the summer break.“
Verstappen would end up winning the Hungarian Grand Prix, despite starting tenth on the grid, spinning and even passing Leclerc twice in one race. At a track where Ferrari should have capitalised on Red Bull’s Saturday misfortunes, the team still lost points overall as a result of putting Leclerc on the Hard tyre, instead of extending the second stint. The Maranello-based team need to improve their strategy calls if they want to be in with a chance at fighting Red Bull and the rapidly improving Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team in the second half of the season.
