Aussie watch ahead of the F1® Hungarian Grand Prix 2024
Matt Clayton
Thursday, 18 July 2024
Oscar Piastri chases a change of fortune, Daniel Ricciardo’s full-term grades are in and a former giant is awakening as F1® hurtles head-long into its second half in Budapest.
What is this, 2021?
Mercedes arrives in Budapest for this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix (July 19-21) on a two-race winning streak after Lewis Hamilton followed up George Russell’s victory in Austria with his record-setting success at Silverstone. The last time the Silver Arrows won two Formula 1® races in a row was nearly three years ago, when Hamilton’s win in Russia was followed by Valtteri Bottas taking P1 in Turkey. Some of the sport’s newer fans wouldn’t likely know F1® visited either country – mostly because it hasn’t since.
So has F1® gone back to the past to reveal the direction of its future? That remains to be seen, but a season that began with most wondering whether Red Bull would even lose a race and made the Australian Grand Prix seem like such a black swan event has now turned into a genuine competition, six drivers and four teams standing atop the podium in its first half.
Could Mercedes make it a hat-trick at the Hungaroring? Absolutely. Consider that Hamilton set a record for the most wins by one driver at one circuit (nine) at Silverstone two Sundays ago – and could match that with a ninth win in Budapest this weekend – is testament to his sustained excellence, his prowess around the twisting 14-turn layout, and his longevity.
Hamilton’s first Mercedes win came in Hungary when the team was far from the sport’s standard-bearer in 2013; 11 years later, and in the last season of the most successful driver/team partnership we’ve ever seen, Silverstone was win number 83 for the dynastic duo – and might not be the last.
Ahead of Round 13, the first half of a back-to-back with Belgium before the (northern hemisphere) summer hiatus, here’s what we’re watching.
Piastri’s fortunes have to flip…
We don’t know for sure if Oscar Piastri has crossed paths with a black cat, wandered under a ladder or broken a mirror, but it sure seems like it. Piastri will pay it no mind – he’s far too practical for that – but his luck this season when in advantageous positions has been outrageously bad, and plays into what’s becoming a wider story for McLaren as it becomes a regular contender.
Piastri lost a front-row start at Imola because of a qualifying penalty, which came one race after he’d been hit by Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz in Miami and lost a likely podium while teammate Lando Norris benefitted from a fortunately-timed safety car to win. A track limits penalty in Austria meant he was out of his natural position to capitalise when Norris and Verstappen came to blows, while Silverstone's success was squandered when McLaren was running 1-2.
A decision to not double-stack Piastri behind Norris as the field changed to intermediate tyres – the Australian did one more lap before his stop – was made to not cost him two additional seconds in the pits; the pedestrian extra lap he had to do on slick tyres on a greasy track cost him 18 seconds, and meant he was well off the back of the podium fight by the finish.
Piastri has finished fourth four times this season, and if he’s to become F1’s seventh different winner this season, nobody will begrudge him a sliver of fortune if that’s what it takes. In Hungary, he’s due…
Ricciardo comes full circle
Who ends up driving for Red Bull or RB – or not – could all change by the time this sentence is written, let alone when you’re reading it, given the disappearance of Sergio Perez since Miami; in the six rounds since, he’s scored 15 points after managing 103 in the six weekends prior. All Daniel Ricciardo can do is keep his head down and his mind on reversing RB’s slide, with the upgrades the team brought to the Spanish GP in Round 10 sending the team into a downward spiral.
Hungary, of course, was where Ricciardo’s half-year sabbatical came to a close in 2023; in the full calendar he’s completed since (minus the five races he missed with a broken hand), the 35-year-old has managed 17 points in 19 race weekends.
It’s not a set of statistics that demands a promotion to Red Bull’s ‘A-team’ on merit, which was his stated goal when he stepped back in. But that’s not in Ricciardo’s control nor his outlook ahead of Budapest, where he memorably won 10 years ago after a brace of late-race passes. Stopping the slump the Spain upgrades has prompted is a bigger box to tick, because…
Is Hulkenberg on the right track?
Back-to-back sixth-place finishes in Austria and Great Britain – completely on merit, without the hint of anything fluky – has Nico Hulkenberg in a bullish mood.
It’s no wonder – seventh-placed Haas has scored 20 points in the past two races to just 10 for Aston Martin (fifth) and three for RB (sixth), and the German thinks the American team is in the fight to be F1’s fifth-best constructor by season’s end.
Is he right? It would be a hell of a story to go with what Hulkenberg called “a hell of a comeback” after Haas managed only seven points from the opening 10 rounds, but as 2024 has shown at the front of the field (Red Bull) and in the mid-pack (RB), form and fortune can flip quickly.
The Hungaroring layout – with few straights of note relative to the Red Bull Ring and Silverstone – could pull the handbrake on one of Haas’ biggest strengths, but will equally reveal whether the team has turned a corner after years of Guenther Steiner and an open mic being the only reason to notice them.
The Formula 1® Hungarian Grand Prix 2024 will be available to watch live on Foxtel and Kayo. See our article What time does the F1® Hungarian Grand Prix 2024 start for Australians? for your local timings.
