Five Formula 1 Winners & Losers: Hungarian Grand Prix

Photo from Getty Images

We head into the summer break, and it’s been a, let’s say “interesting” year in Formula 1.

But who won and lost in Hungary?

Losers

5. Cadillac

Another race, another double DNF.

And now that Aston Martin made upgrades, it looks like they are far and away the worst team in the sport.

Which isn’t unexpected, but still stinks.

4. George Russell

Russell just keeps getting beat easily by his teammate.

He needs this break terribly, and he needs to use it to get his head right.

Otherwise, his title fight is over.

3. Oscar Piastri

Piastri had an awesome race, and was on pace to get the win, until he ran into issues with lapped cars, and eventually had to retire from the race with a gearbox issue.

Just a very unfortunate weekend, in a very unfortunate year in Formula 1 for Piastri.

2. McLaren

But some of that fault does fall to McLaren, who pitted the race leader having him come out behind lapped traffic that was battling, when even one more lap would have had Piastri free and clear and without worry.

Strategy plays a huge role in this sport, and they got it wrong.

1. Carlos Sainz

But the hefty majority of the blame goes to Carlos Sainz, who drove into Piastri while a lap down.

Sainz claimed it was due to the blue flags system on his steering wheel malfunctioning.

Maybe it was.

But that’s why there are lights around the track, and Sainz passed 7 blue flag lights without getting out of the way.

It’s a level of incompetence I haven’t seen from a driver since Esteban Ocon in Brazil in 2018.

Just no excuse.

Winners

5. Aston Martin

They were a lot faster! These upgrades made a huge difference!

They were still outside of the points, but they were faster! And Fernando Alonso made Q2!

Woo!

4. Racing Bulls

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but the Racing Bulls secured another double points finish.

Becoming quite a theme for the best team in the midfield.

3. Kimi Antonelli

It was far from Antonelli’s best race, but that doesn’t really matter when you have the championship lead.

All that matters is that you need to beat your rivals, and Antonelli did that once again with another podium finish.

He goes into the summer break with a 50 point lead.

Not insurmountable, but not bad at all.

2. Max Verstappen

A second place finish for Verstappen is good, but you know what was better?

An awesome double overtake to get by Lewis Hamilton.

It was nice to see a classic divebomb pass in F1 again.

1. Lando Norris

I said last week that I felt Norris was better this year when he isn’t in the title fight compared to last year when he actually won the title.

He decided to reward my belief in that with a pole win, and a race win.

I’d say I nailed that one.