Race Recap: Hungary and Spa

After an eventful first half of the season, we have also been enjoying our much-needed R&R this summer break.

That said, I bet we were all surprised to have such an interesting season, given how we all felt after the chequered flag during the season opener. We've seen McLaren dictating the field with their all-around performance package, with Mercedes in second. Red Bull has lost the advantage earned from the start of the season as their rivals begin to close in.

For this Race Recap, we're reverting to the old format to allow more storylines and delve deeper into each race. Usually, there are only three storylines, but we're adding five for this and the next edition of Race Recap to adapt this content format with the new calendar.

From the strategy battle and controversial team order that revealed a new race winner in Hungary to a dramatic disqualification that promoted a driver to his 105th win in Belgium, let's break down the key storylines that occurred during these weekends as we wrapped up the first of two triple headers in 2024.

(All image credits go to Formula One)

McLaren won, but at what cost??

Since Miami, McLaren has cemented itself as a team capable of challenging Red Bull and Max Verstappen. When the Papaya team locked out the front row, both drivers were eager to bring home another victory for the Woking-based team.

At the start, Piastri jumped Norris to take the lead in the race. After the round of pit stops, Norris found himself in a position to undercut Piastri after McLaren made the call to box him to cover off Hamilton from behind, who was attempting the undercut.

What followed shortly after was a bizarre chain of radio messages between Norris and his race engineer to return the position to Piastri. Having lost out on the chance to win on a position, Norris initially refused to budge and looked set to secure his second career victory — but the British driver eventually yielded his spot on Lap 68 before Piastri secured his maiden victory in F1.

While it is "tough" to hand over the race like that, Norris stated, "I know what Oscar's done for me in the past". With this, the British driver has once again failed to convert his third career pole into victory.

The Goat strikes again

Hamilton’s third-place finish earned him his 200th career podium

After a much needed confidence boost from his victory at the British GP, Lewis Hamilton was rejuvenated and eager to keep a strong momentum leading to the summer break.

Hamilton qualified in fifth and had an excellent start to climb into third before Norris took the place back. With an undercut, the seven-time world champion clawed that position and worked hard to defend the final podium spot against a rapidly charging Max Verstappen.

An intense wheel-to-wheel battle saw two former rivals clash with each other, but the Dutchman lost out and dropped down to fifth. As for Hamilton, he cruised home to the chequered flag for his 200th podium — which saw him extend his podium streak into two.

A bad day in the office for a reigning World Champion

Since this new regulation cycle started, it has become increasingly clear that Red Bull no longer have the best package.

Things quickly turned downhill after Verstappen lost his third place at the start and had to hand over the position back to Norris. Throughout the race, the Dutchman was extremely unhappy with being undercut twice by his rivals — going so far as to criticise the team's strategy through his radio messages.

Colliding with Hamilton was the nail in the coffin as he lost any chance to finish on the podium. When asked whether he should apologise to his team, Verstappen — with his usual clear cut no nonsense demeanour —simply said, "I don't think we need to apologize. We just need to do a better job."

RB’s strategy denied Ricciardo a points-finish

RB’s strategy cost them a potential double-points finish

Hungary and Spa were two crucial races for the Honey Badger to prove his worth and secure a drive for 2025 and beyond. Daniel Ricciardo was tipped to finish in the points after a strong performance in Qualifying, which saw him start from ninth.

While the Australian lost a few positions at the start, things went south when his team decided to bring him for an early pit stop to bolt on a new set of Hards. After being released into traffic, Ricciardo lost out on any performance advantage and struggled to make an impression.

During his last stint, he gained momentum before his tyres started to wear out and finished 12th. His teammate Yuki Tsunoda, on the other hand, finished ninth and scored the sole points for VCARB. Asked about his afternoon in a post-race interview, Ricciardo was quick to point out that it was a “long old frustrating race where I had a lot of anger.”

Pérez’s inconsistent form continues

With Red Bull rapidly losing its lead in the constructors’ championship, the Milton Keynes-based team is desperate for Sergio Pérez to bounce back and return to form. However, Hungary was anything but.

He started from 16th following a crash during qualifying. He gradually recovered to finish the race in seventh place following a series of undercuts on George Russell.

His inconsistency has led to rumours that Red Bull is searching for an alternative if the Mexican can’t shake off this drought.

McLaren building their momentum in the constructor’s championship

It’s not a secret that Oscar Piastri is a reliable hot prospect who can score podium finishes when there’s an opportunity, an ability that sets him apart from his teammate Lando Norris is his great race starts.

Over the course of the 44-lap race, Piastri was looking very competitive albeit it wasn’t all smooth sailing due to a slow pit stop. Nonetheless, the Australian finished the race in third before being promoted to second, earning him his second consecutive podium finish.

Mercedes’ glory in Belgium comes with a cost

Russell was originally classified as a winner before being disqualified; promoting teammate Hamilton as the winner

Alongside McLaren, Mercedes finally appeared to understand their W15 machine and brought home two victories — that's more tally than the team had ever managed from the 2022 and 2023 seasons. With Verstappen starting from 11th, the team fancy their chances for victory.

After a brilliant getaway, Lewis Hamilton led most of the race's early stages and made short work of pole-sitter Charles Leclerc and the Red Bull of Sergio Pérez. A win was on the cards for Hamilton until Russell's gamble on a one-stop strategy paid off and the seven-time world champion settled for second.

That, however, wasn't the end of it.

A couple of hours after the race, the stewards had to disqualify Russell from the classifications because the car was deemed underweight. As a result, Hamilton took his 105th victory. Had it not been for the disqualification, Mercedes would have their first 1–2 in three seasons.

Another DNF is a reflection of Sauber’s season

Sauber remained the only team yet to score points before the summer break. The closest they got was an 11th-place finish in Bahrain courtesy of Zhou, but the team struggled to catch their rivals as the season progressed.

After qualifying at the bottom, Zhou’s race only lasted for five laps before retiring due to a hydraulics issue. The Chinese driver didn’t hide his disappointment at another frustrating weekend and summed up his DNF as a “summary of our season”.

A weekend to forget for Haas

Despite performing strongly in the last couple of races, Haas left Belgium empty-handed

Haas has had a couple of standout performances in the races leading up to the summer break, but the Belgian GP was a weekend for the American outfit after both drivers were knocked out of Q1 and finished the race outside the points.

Kevin Magnussen was the highest-placed Haas driver with P14 despite running in the points at some stage. The Dane labelled the race “the worst race we’ve had in a while”, while Nico Hülkenberg was disappointed that he was the last of the running cars.

Williams’ “disappointing” first half of the season

It was a reality check for Williams after the Grove-based team had only scored four points across 14 races — all of which were netted by Thai-British driver Alex Albon. At the same stage last season, the team already had 21 points to their name.

With the lack of upgrades in the first half of the season, the former Red Bull driver is hoping for a “first proper upgrade” for the second half after a “disappointing” start to their campaign to build off the strong momentum they had from 2023.

What are your thoughts about the Hungarian and Belgian GPs?

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This newsletter was written by Ghazlan Atqiya Firmansyah and edited by Hew Hoong Liang (Nathan).

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