The F1x

• The In Lap

  • Perez keeps digging his grave

  • Max lets frustration shine through

  • McLaren pit strategy and team orders

  • Lewis reaches milestone

• A Quick Look Ahead

  • The type of Spa weekend F1 fans look forward to

The In Lap

While the Hungarian GP might not have been the most exciting race of the season, there is no shortage of talking points from the weekend.

Side note: Did we like the random 3-second drone shots throughout the race? We thought they made us a little dizzy.

Perez keeps digging his grave

With only one more race until the summer break, the absolute last thing Perez needed was another disappointing weekend… and yet here we are. Red Bull has been known to make changes at the summer break in the past, and after next weekend, we will have four weeks to speculate

Red Bull is notably growing less patient with Perez and his lack of pace and performance, and binning it into the wall in Q1 did nothing to help build confidence in his team.

After Q1 Helmut Marko confirmed that there “will be a meeting” after Spa with Checo to talk about his future with the team. Stating at the end of the day performance is the most important factor, especially in F1.

Verstappen’s frustrations build

Verstappen is continuing to show his building frustrations with both his car and team. It all started on the first lap when he overtook Norris off track and was advised by his team to give the place back before the stewards issued a time penalty.

Following what Max saw as bad pit strategy that put him on the back foot throughout the race, he let his race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase (GP), hear it. There was constant complaining about the car not performing as he wanted, along with critiques of the strategy calls.

In the past, the Red Bull radio has always been on Max’s side, known for deflecting blame. However, during this race, there were a few instances where they allowed Max to express his frustration following outbursts from the championship leader.

After the incident with Lewis, when Max was explaining what he saw over the team radio and attributing fault to Lewis, GP told Max they would leave it to the stewards and that it would be “childish” to hash it out over the radio. Now Horner has come out to clarify these comments, stating they weren’t directly calling Max childish, but the implications are there.

Red Bull: “Well that’s some gentle introduction.”
Max: No mate, don’t give me that ****. You guys gave me this **** strategy, okay? I’m just trying to rescue what’s left.

MV: “Shouldn’t you leave a cars width?”
Red Bull: “We think you were behind at the apex, Max.”
Max: “Okay, whatever, man.”

Max: “He moved under braking.”
Red Bull: “I’m not even going to get into a radio fight with the other teams, Max. We’ll let the stewards do their thing. It’s childish on the radio, childish.”

The F1 broadcast commentary kept bringing up the fact that Verstappen was acting like he had been up all night playing video games, and it turns out he was up until around 3 am doing his regular sim racing… We don’t think it’s fair to blame any of his performance on this; sim racing is something he regularly does, and any faults should be attributed more to the team's strategies.

When he's up at the front of the field fighting the McLarens, Ferraris, and usually both of the Mercs, I'm sure having his teammate up there to help with strategy would also improve his mindset.

To top off Max’s frustrations, he and Lewis came together and collided! Just like the good old times when rivals clash. If I were to give my opinion, I would say Max is more at fault because he locked up and couldn’t complete his turn… but I think labeling it a racing incident is fair. Besides Max dropping back a couple of places, there was no real damage done, at least to the cars

McLaren hurts my head

What should have been a big, happy celebration for Oscar’s first ever win in F1 (besides his sprint win) was overshadowed by McLaren not managing their drivers strategy appropriately.

Oscar did a great job by getting ahead of Lando at Turn 1 of the Grand Prix and held a good lead for the first stint of the race. Being the lead driver and having a good gap usually means you should get first dibs on pit strategy to optimize your race.

McLaren decided to pit Lando first, and then two laps later brought in Piastri. By the time the pit stops were over, Lando had a clear lead of a few seconds and was leading the race. Listening to the soap opera of team radios that followed was downright weird.

McLaren was pleading with Lando to give the place back to Piastri. They were emotional, playing on Lando’s feelings, portraying him as the antagonist in the situation. They warned that if he didn’t yield, it could lead to team issues for the rest of the season. This was happening even as Lando built a 5-second lead over his teammate.

Ultimately, Lando slowed down and gave Piastri the position back, but this should never have happened. Every race, McLaren seems to make poor strategy calls, and while this time it didn’t cost them a win (or second place), it still left a bad taste in the mouths of many fans.

Neither driver was at fault, and the blame rests squarely on the team for putting them in this position in the first place. Lando wants to catch Max in the drivers' championship, and Piastri wanted his first win.

Joining the McLaren drivers on the podium was Lewis who reached a 200 podium milestone with his P3.

A Quick Look Ahead

Next week we are racing for the last time before the summer break! The Belgium GP at the historic Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps awaits.

We will see you on Thursday with a news recap from the week! Maybe some more driver lineup news? All the talking points for the summer break are lining up.