Hungarian GP conclusions: McLaren team orders, Piastri rise, Red Bull’s Perez failure

McLaren driver Oscar Piastri claimed his first victory of the F1 2024 season at the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest.

Piastri passed McLaren team-mate Lando Norris in the closing laps after a team orders drama to secure his maiden Formula 1 win, with Norris coming home second and Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton third. Here are our conclusions from the Hungaroring…

Conclusions from the 2024 Hungarian Grand Prix

Lando Norris saw the light and saved McLaren from themselves – but is the damage done?

You know the problem with Lando Norris?

He’s too nice. Too much of a pushover. Not aggressive enough. Not ruthless enough. Not enough belief in himself. Can’t handle the pressure.

All these accusations have been levelled at Lando for some time now, wrapped up in the perception that, talented driver though he may be, he is not a natural-born winner.

He’s had to listen to it more than ever lately as victories have kept slipping through his fingers in Canada (ill-timed stop), Spain (bad start) and, worst of all, his home race at Silverstone (poor stop compounded by the wrong tyre choice).

And you know what? He’s had enough of hearing it. Sick of having to explain what went wrong – again – and why.

He’s out there these days to not only try and win some more races, but also to change how the watching world – fans, rivals, maybe even some within his own team at McLaren – views him too. He wants to be taken more seriously as a competitor of substance.

That’s why his willingness to finally stand up to Max Verstappen at the recent Austrian Grand Prix – having previously been accused of being a soft touch against, perhaps even a little intimated by, the World Champion – seemed so significant.

Oscar Piastri and Sergio Perez under the microscope at 2024 Hungarian Grand Prix

? The day Oscar Piastri sent Formula 1 into epic Twitter meltdown

? Eight times Sergio Perez has been the perfect team-mate for Max Verstappen

Bombarding Verstappen with a series of late-braking lunges right up until the inevitable collision, Austria heralded the launch of ‘Operation: No More Mr Nice Guy.’

And the final stint in Hungary, as he flirted with the dark side once more – the devil sitting on one shoulder, an angel on the other – was merely a continuation of it.

Norris had to wait until Miami this year, his 110th F1 start, to secure his first win, yet his maiden victory should really have come far earlier – at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix to be precise.

The dramatic race-ending collision between Verstappen and Hamilton at the first chicane opened the door for McLaren to claim a one-two finish at Monza that day and Norris, as he had all season, had the pace and a tow to his advantage over team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.

Yet hold position, he was told, as the team aimed to lock down their first victory in nine years.

And Norris obeyed, dutifully following Ricciardo home and celebrating the win as if it were his own, putting aside his personal ambitions to recognise the collective achievement; quietly confident, maybe, that his own time would come soon enough.

Then two weeks later came Sochi and heavy rain late in the day. And then what?

Nothing.

Not even a sniff of victory for the next two-and-a-half years, leaving him to often wonder aloud if it was destined to never happen for him.

It was an important lesson for Norris – a reminder to seize the day, to take opportunities to win whenever they present themselves and to hell with everything else, because who can say for certain when the next chance will come along?

He knows more than most how difficult it can be just to get into a position to win a grand prix, that victories are not to be given away freely.

That was the dilemma he was wrestling with in those crucial laps in Budapest as the McLaren pit wall – massively overcomplicating things as usual in pitting Norris first to cover a rival who ultimately finished 15 seconds behind – fretted that they had grabbed a different sort of defeat from the jaws of victory this week.

For some laps it looked as though Lando really was going to follow through with it too, ignoring the increasingly emotive pleas of his race engineer.

And then, just in the nick of time, he saw the light, remembered who he was and slowed on to the pit straight to let Piastri past.

“If I want,” Norris had said earlier this weekend, “I can be a lot more of a d**k and act like an idiot, have that persona and make people think [I’m ruthless].

“But I don’t need to and I don’t want to.”

It meant they could laugh about it in the end and play it all down, Lando breaking in to that cheeky little grin of his as he and Oscar caught eyes in parc ferme.

He had saved McLaren from themselves, but not before he made his point.

It won’t be forgotten – by any of them, not by Norris and least of all Piastri and Andrea Stella, whose authority as team principal was questioned so publicly across those tense will-he-won’t-he laps – in a hurry.

Will life at McLaren ever quite be the same again? Has the trust been damaged irrevocably?

Will this episode be quietly filed away for now, only to raise its unseemly head the next time the team ask one driver to move aside for the other?

Watch this space.

Oscar Piastri: Let the floodgates open

Whatever they say about Lando Norris, that’s what Oscar Piastri is not.

If Norris has always needed some convincing that he belongs at the front in Formula 1, Piastri has always carried himself with the quiet certainty that characterises the most remarkable athletes.

The similarities to Verstappen since he arrived on the grid at the start of last year have been striking, not just in terms of his talent, technique and temperament – Max’s highly unusual immunity to pressure seems to apply to his clone from Australia too – but the ruthless way he has mapped out his career to date.

Like Verstappen, who chose to remain free from the tentacles of an F1 junior scheme for as long as he possibly could in order to keep control of his own destiny, Piastri took his future into his own hands almost exactly two years ago by walking away from an Alpine outfit who had funded his career to pursue a better opportunity at McLaren.

Disloyalty? Call it doing whatever needs to be done in order to give yourself the best possible start in life.

And just like Verstappen, Piastri has had a former F1 driver, in his case Mark Webber, by his side every step of the way – Mark, like Jos, learning from the mistakes of his own unfulfilled career to keep his prodigiously gifted protege on the right path.

(Have no doubt that Webber, the victim of the infamous Multi-21 controversy with Sebastian Vettel in 2013, will be tweaking Piastri’s ear after this race, advising him on how best to react when a team-mate dares to go rogue…)

Piastri’s peaks over the first 18 months of his career – making a habit of outqualifying Norris at those traditional drivers’ circuits Spa, Suzuka and Monaco, as well as pushing him hard in low-grip conditions – have hinted strongly that his ultimate potential could exceed that of his team-mate, if only he could master the art of tyre management.

Look beyond the team orders nonsense and this was the true mark of his maiden win, Piastri pacing his Pirellis to perfection when it would have been so easy to overdo it on this baking-hot day at the Hungaroring, turning what until now had been his one glaring weakness into a strength.

If this really is a breakthrough moment in Piastri’s understanding and treatment of the tyres, prepare for the floodgates to open.

Because, pit-stop priority or not, Norris won’t be able to contain him for much longer.

Max Verstappen is struggling to come to terms with Red Bull’s new reality

The stage was set for the empire to strike back in Hungary.

Verstappen had spent the last few weeks calling for upgrades, convinced that the RB20’s instability over the bumps and kerbs at places like Monaco was merely the tip of the iceberg when it came to Red Bull’s problems.

Of far greater concern to him was how the team’s dominance had now “completely gone” at circuits like Barcelona, where he had won comfortably only last year.

An upgrade was what Max wanted, so an upgrade was what Max got.

The sweeping changes to the car, most strikingly around the sidepods and engine cover, had been specifically designed to excel at slower circuits like Hungary (so much so that Red Bull are considering alternating between it and the previous spec, set to return at faster tracks, for the rest of the season).

Yet far from restoring the team’s advantage of old, as some feared, at first glance the new-look car did not seem to have much material effect.

If this was the first true test of the Adrian Newey-less Red Bull technical team led by Pierre Wache, it does not bode well for the rest of F1 2024 and beyond (even more food for thought as Max considers his best bet for the long term?).

Verstappen was simmering throughout the weekend, visibly shaking his head after his fastest lap in final practice left him almost three tenths off Norris, locking up heavily at the start of his next run and punching the air in anger when he could only manage third on the grid a few hours later.

Did his frustration with the Red Bull – and the feeling that his hopes for the race hinged on getting between the McLarens at the start – result in his outrageous off-track pass on Norris at the first corner, followed by his stubbornness in defending the indefensible over team radio?

In a sign that the dramas behind the scenes at Red Bull in F1 2024 are now floating to the surface, Verstappen has been noticeably snappier in his public criticism of the team over recent weeks.

The source of his annoyance after Austria, for instance, was not his collision with Norris but Red Bull’s “awful” execution of the race – “we did everything wrong that we could have done wrong” – and there were moments over the radio here when his back-and-forth with Gianpiero Lambiase risked developing into a full-blown domestic.

Less than a year since they looked for all the world like the perfect partnership, there appears to be a growing friction between team and driver in light of their recent stumbles.

And if Max really is starting to seriously question his surroundings, doubting whether a Red Bull without Newey can satisfy his needs into the future, he’s doing little to hide it.

When he’s in this sort of mood, wanting to take on the world, the last thing Verstappen wants to see is the Mercedes of his old rival Hamilton, the two great Champions almost magnetically drawn together whenever they have met on track since 2021.

The more partisan factions of the British motor-racing media were way over the top in their criticism of Verstappen’s driving after his clash with Norris in Austria, but this was the Max – an angry and petulant young man, reckless to the point of dangerous – many had hoped had been left behind.

The sight of the Red Bull landing heavily was an ugly way to end a weekend of discontent.

Now with just two wins from the last six races, Verstappen’s spikiness both on and off the track in Hungary revealed a driver struggling to come to terms with – and far less willing to accept – Red Bull’s new reality.

Sergio Perez: What now?

Sergio Perez thought his future was secure when he agreed a new contract with Red Bull a few weeks ago.

What he actually signed, in fact, was his own exit warrant.

It has become public knowledge over recent weeks that his revised deal – initially presented as a two-year contract but, tellingly, soon revealed by Christian Horner to be merely a one-plus-one arrangement – contains strict performance clauses, chiefly one that gives Red Bull the freedom to drop him if he is in excess of 100 points behind Verstappen at the time of the summer break.

Perez was 62 adrift of his team-mate at the time he signed his new contract between the Monaco and Canadian grands prix.

The difference now after yet another miserable weekend, defined by yet another inevitable error on a damp track in qualifying? 141.

His future is well and truly out of his hands and few now seriously expect him to still be occupying the second Red Bull seat when F1 returns from its summer shutdown at Zandvoort late next month.

Yet even had he finished a dutiful second to Max at every single race after Monaco (not including the Austria sprint), however, Perez would still have found himself 104 points down come the chequered flag at Spa next weekend.

Did he ever really stand a chance?

Red Bull’s decision to hand him a new contract felt premature at the time, coming after the first little warning signs that Perez was once again entering what has become his traditional mid-season slump.

If the team truly thought that a little extra security would jolt him back into life, it was a move at odds with everything Red Bull thought they knew about him.

More than once over recent years Helmut Marko has shared his theory that Perez tends to relax and ease up when his future is resolved, based on the way he soon faded after signing a new contract around the time of his 2022 Monaco Grand Prix victory.

The way to get the best out of him, Marko realised? Make him work for it. Keep him on his toes, focused and fully engaged.

This, after all, was a driver whose first F1 victory at Sakhir 2020 – all grit and defiance and, yes, a stroke or two of good fortune – came when he was still without a seat for the following season.

To ‘reward’ him with a new deal after Monaco, then, days after he had lapped slower than Logan Sargeant’s Williams in Q1, seemed counterintuitive.

And if you did not know any better, you might even reach the conclusion that the only reason to extend Perez when they did would be to insert those very performance clauses, allowing Red Bull to take him out at the earliest convenience if his season really did hit the skids once again.

Perez has taken a kicking for his performances over recent weeks, yet Red Bull’s role in this mess – another number-two driver left to drift aimlessly until the situation became untenable – is not something they can be proud of either.

That Perez’s 2024 season has been allowed to follow an identical pattern to 2022/23 (and, to a lesser extent, 2021) has exposed Red Bull’s failure to really understand – let alone address – the root of the problem.

Verstappen may be the point around which Red Bull’s world revolves, yet the F1 law of natural convergence meant the lack of contribution from the second car was bound to become an increasingly pressing issue the longer they kept ignoring it and pretending everything was fine.

It was fine for as long as Red Bull remained the dominant force, but now Verstappen needs more support in the face of a rising threat from the likes of McLaren something just has to give.

And assuming it will over the coming weeks, what could be next for the man who declared his ambition to finish his career with Red Bull just six weeks ago in Canada?

The damage done to his reputation at Red Bull will surely not prevent Perez from emerging as the joker in the F1 2025 driver market pack.

Williams, in particular, has the feel of a safe – if potentially short-term – landing spot after team principal James Vowles told media including PlanetF1.com at Silverstone that the team are “open minded” to and are “continually evaluating” the possibility of replacing Sargeant mid-season.

And with the exception of Mercedes, Perez should feature prominently in the plans of every team – from Williams and Haas to Audi/Sauber and Alpine – yet to finalise their F1 2025 driver lineup.

Every career as Max Verstappen’s team-mate ends in failure.

If Spa does prove to be the end of the line at Red Bull, Perez deserves the opportunity to finish his F1 stint on a happier note elsewhere.

Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda stance is protective, not unfair

So why won’t Red Bull give Yuki Tsunoda a shot? What more does he have to do? How much more convincing do they need?

PlanetF1.com revealed ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix that Red Bull are most likely to turn to reserve driver Liam Lawson if they decide to drop Perez, with Tsunoda not being seriously considered for a promotion.

Yuki made his feelings clear in Budapest, claiming it would be “weird” if Lawson, a veteran of five F1 starts, were to be chosen ahead of him and declaring himself “ready” to become Verstappen’s team-mate.

Yet a comment by Perez, just days after his new Red Bull contract was announced, offered an insight into why the likes of Horner and Marko remain so reluctant to promote Tsunoda.

“Red Bull is a team that really takes everything out of you,” Checo said in Canada.

“It’s something that [I’ve found] since I came here, how intense everything is on track, off track, it’s a challenge you don’t have anywhere else. I haven’t had that sort of challenge [before] in my career.”

If a seasoned pro and multiple grand prix winner of Perez’s calibre has struggled so much with the demands of life at Red Bull, what chance would a driver of Tsunoda’s temperament have of dealing with that scrutiny?

Don't shoot the messenger…

PF1 understands that Yuki Tsunoda is NOT being seriously considered for a Red Bull promotion.

Liam Lawson is more likely to be given the nod if Sergio Perez is replaced.#F1 #RedBull #SergioPerez #YukiTsunoda #DanielRicciardo pic.twitter.com/FFCm5GWokM

— PlanetF1 (@Planet_F1) July 18, 2024

With Perez on the brink of joining Ricciardo, Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon on the list of drivers to have the light taken from their eyes by Max, it is clear by now that being Verstappen’s team-mate is the hardest job in F1.

More accomplished drivers than Tsunoda have melted in the face of that consistent excellence and struggled with the brutal realisation that even their best will never be good enough.

First impressions? They count in F1 and stick more tightly than in any other sport.

And for all the maturing Tsunoda has done lately, he has never fully shaken off the perception that he is a fundamentally spiky driver (and therefore more susceptible to mistakes, even without the added complication of psychological pressure, than the more manipulative drivers) prone to emotional outbursts over team radio.

Compare and contrast his wild arrival in 2021 to that of Lawson, who coolly stepped into Daniel Ricciardo’s car at desperately short notice in mid-2023 as if it were the most natural thing in the world and quickly delivered the team’s best result at that stage of the season.

Not only did that five-race cameo strongly hint that Lawson has a higher ceiling than Tsunoda, but it also indicated that he is more emotionally equipped to swim if thrown in at the deep end too.

Indeed, it was telling that Tsunoda’s weakest performance of 2024 so far came at an unfamiliar venue in China, where he qualified 19th for both the sprint and main race on F1’s first visit to Shanghai since 2019, two years before he arrived on the grid.

It provided confirmation that while he has improved almost beyond recognition over recent years, those old, familiar frailties are still not far from the surface when Tsunoda is taken out of his comfort zone.

Exposing him to the Red Bull Racing environment, exposing him to Verstappen, would run the risk of ruining all the progress he has made.

Why do keep Red Bull ignoring him, you ask?

They’re not. They’re protecting him.

Read next: Revealed: Every message as McLaren desperately pleaded with Lando Norris to obey team orders