Tag: Hungarian Grand Prix

Strategy, not pace key to 200th podium – Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton says his landmark 200th podium in Formula 1 doesn’t overshadow the fact that Mercedes still struggles in high temperatures, after finishing third in the Hungarian Grand Prix. McLaren took a one-two for the first time in three years …

Lewis Hamilton says his landmark 200th podium in Formula 1 doesn’t overshadow the fact that Mercedes still struggles in high temperatures, after finishing third in the Hungarian Grand Prix.

McLaren took a one-two for the first time in three years with Oscar Piasti leading home Lando Norris, and Hamilton crossing the line nearly 15 seconds adrift of the race-winner. Although Hamilton was able to fight with Max Verstappen and finished ahead of the Red Bull after a late collision between the two, he says it was strategy that put him in that position and the raw performance was lacking in the latter parts of the race.

“I think out of pure pace, we weren’t [quick enough],” Hamilton said. “Unfortunately, we’re still not, in hot conditions particularly… You saw in Austria and here, we’re not able to keep up with these guys.

“But in stint one, I was really surprised to see that I was able to hold on to Max. And I wasn’t even having to push too hard to stay around a second behind him. So I thought at that point that maybe I was in for a chance of at least fighting for that place.

“But then in the second stint, it was a bit of a disaster, it didn’t feel good. And the true pace of the car started to show, on those tires. But we obviously got the undercut and track position is clearly key on this track. And I think that really ultimately made the difference.”

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

The result sees Hamilton become the first driver to achieve 200 podium finishes in Formula 1, extending a record he currently holds over Michael Schumacher. While the 39-year-old says the milestone isn’t important to him, he says it was a special podium result in terms of reflecting on the two teams that have helped him reach such a number.

“The number doesn’t, no. I just think about these two [Piastri and Norris] and how young these guys are. They were in nappies when I started!

“No, honestly, it just makes me think about the whole journey and all the great people I’ve had the chance to work with.

“I got signed by McLaren when I was 13 and so there was always so much love for that team and through the journey that we had, where I had my first world championship and then they went through a really difficult time. So to see them back up there is really, really great. I’m really happy. That’s my old family, so really, really grateful to be up here with them.

“Then ultimately I think it was a tough race and I definitely didn’t think I would be having 200 podiums but what have I done? Like 340 something races? So, not too bad a score but I couldn’t have done it without all those great people that I’ve worked with in both these teams.”

Tense pit strategy chosen to avoid errors – Stella

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella says the order of the final pit stops that led to a tense ending to the Hungarian Grand Prix was to reduce the chances of a pit crew error proving costly. Lando Norris was running second on the road to teammate …

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella says the order of the final pit stops that led to a tense ending to the Hungarian Grand Prix was to reduce the chances of a pit crew error proving costly.

Lando Norris was running second on the road to teammate Oscar Piastri – who had led from Turn 1 – but was given priority to stop first for the final stint of the race, with the powerful undercut resulting in him taking the lead. Norris debated with the team before giving the place back to Piastri in the closing stages, and with Norris having had a relatively comfortable buffer to Lewis Hamilton in third place Stella says it was one the team didn’t want getting any smaller.

“We knew that by going first with Lando that could have been the situation, but we wouldn’t have done it if we weren’t sure that this would be fixed,” Stella said. “I think because we are at the Hungaroring and because it was so hot, there were two variables that we really wanted to get right.

“The first one, we didn’t want to pit too early because the tires were degrading a lot and we didn’t want to run out of tires should [Max] Verstappen become a problem at the end of the race. And therefore, we just wanted to delay the pit stop as much as possible.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

“And the second element is that you can have a problem at the pit stop, so you need to go safe from a pit stop point of view. Do you want to pit only when you have three seconds [safety net]? Because then what happens is that all the pressure goes on the pit crew. And I don’t want in a race [like that] that the responsibility goes to the pit crew.

“I’d rather take the responsibility at the pitwall, secure the P1, P2 and then we manage the situation between the pitwall and the drivers because we talk about this situation and we know how we go about this situation.”

Norris emerged from his final stop over four seconds clear of Hamilton, but Stella says an extra lap for Hamilton on fresh tires would have made that gap smaller and added risk that wasn’t necessary.

“I just did not want to have a situation at the pit stop where there’s a problem with a nut, there’s a problem with the execution that puts us behind a Mercedes or a Ferrari. We have seen with Verstappen what can happen [colliding with Hamilton] and Verstappen would have had the tires much fresher than the guys ahead. So I think we would be talking something else if that was the case like it happened to Verstappen.

“So I know that for the media, I know that for watching on TV this becomes a story, but for us internally, this becomes part of the way we go racing. And that’s why we invest so much in culture, in values, and in the mindset because we want to be able to manage this situation if we want to be in the championship with Lando, with Oscar, and with McLaren.”

Stella also insists he was not angry at Norris for forcing the team to send multiple radio messages to convince him to return the place to Piastri, as he says it shows the right mentality but still ended with the outcome the team requested.

“Because he’s a race driver. Mention to me a race driver that would have not done it? Actually, I think you can mention to me many that would have not done it until lap 70. And I would be extremely concerned in the case of if Lando had not demonstrated ‘I’m a race driver here’ because that’s the ethos you need to fight hard. You need to fight when you are in contention with the likes of Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, and more and more, I guess, Oscar himself.

“So he demonstrated the ethos, the spirit of the race driver, but, while it could be something that is entertaining to talk about the controversial aspect, it would be unfair not to talk about the resolution which happened according to our way of going racing.”

McLaren advancing cautiously despite second straight podium

McLaren boss Andrea Stella is buoyed by McLaren’s second consecutive podium finish but isn’t willing to call his team a permanent front-running fixture without a bigger sample size of circuits. The team is enjoying a powerful resurgence from the …

McLaren boss Andrea Stella is buoyed by McLaren’s second consecutive podium finish but isn’t willing to call his team a permanent front-running fixture without a bigger sample size of circuits.

The team is enjoying a powerful resurgence from the midfield into the leading pack thanks to a major three-part upgrade package, the first phase of which was brought to the car at the Austrian Grand Prix at the start of the month.

Lando Norris qualified and finished fourth at the Red Bull Ring before leading teammate Oscar Piastri to a 2-3 qualification and 2-4 finish at the British Grand Prix on the following weekend.

The team remained cautious about the significance of the results at circuits it has traditionally performed strongly at, given their lack of slow-speed corners — McLaren’s weakness.

The Hungaroring was thought to be a much sterner test, and Lando Norris categorically ruled out another podium finish upon arriving in Budapest. McLaren locked out the second row, though, and Norris finished second again — in doing so, mounting an increasingly convincing argument that the MCL60 can be a regular frontrunner.

“Genuinely, I don’t think we expected to be here this weekend, especially in P2,” Norris said. “A positive surprise again to be where we are. We’re very happy because it’s my first time having consecutive podiums. To be P2 is a fantastic result in a car that probably shouldn’t be P2.

“It’s another podium in a place we probably weren’t expecting a podium, which probably makes it even more special.”

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

Team principal Stella echoes Norris’s comments, saying he was pleased for further confirmation of the car’s progress.

“We certainly come out of this event encouraged that we have made progress in medium speed,” he said. “That’s what we certainly see from comparison with our competition.

“The other important confirmation is that we made progress in terms of tire degradation, and we see that having improved the car actually kind of brings improvement to how you use tires at the same time.

“It is a kind of common knowledge — we know that having good load helps tires — but it was good to confirm it once again. This makes us certainly a bit more optimistic for the future than we were after Silverstone.”

Part of McLaren’s stronger-than-expected Hungary result it that the Hungaroring has been moved from the slow-speed column of circuits into the medium-speed bracket owing to natural increases in downforce under the regulations as well as a relatively new high-grip track surface.

Stella said that shielded some of the MCL60’s weaknesses, which were evident in only the slowest parts of the track.

“We also see that we do lose time in the three low-speed corners — in (Turn 1), in the chicane and in (Turn 12) — confirming there is still work to do in low speed,” he said.

That telemetry meant he remains cautious about the upcoming grand prix in Belgium despite, on paper, Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps being a very high speed track.

“Even if Spa is normally mentioned as one of the higher speed tracks, in reality the highest speed corner, which is (Turn 10), is flat in qualifying,” he said.

“There’s a lot of lap time in (Turn 1), which is 80kph, in (Turn 8), which is 100kph, and in the last chicane, which is 90kph.

“I don’t want to repeat myself, but I go with some care, because in these three corners, at the moment, we see that we lose time. That’s where we are.”