Poll: Official 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix Race Thread - Hungaroring, Budapest - Race 14/24

[Ninco!]

I've always admired Damon Hill, his resilience to lead the team after Senna's death, to only be robbed in Adelaide was dreadful. Hill bounced back. In 1997 when Schumacher tried to blantantly rob Villeneuve at Jerez but rightly penalised, I thought a similar blantant cheating would never happen again.

Then we have 2021. I do think Hamilton should have retired to make a point but he didn't. However, to come back from that blatant cheating was something, it must run deep. Seeing the likes of Eccestone putting the boot in now, Ecclestone hated Gilles Villeneuve, who was just like Hamilton; a megastar of the day.

Hamilton's race pace is there, for the last few years he has partnered with two of the quickest qualifiers, unlike Verstappen or Alonso.

Pressure and awe when racing for Ferrari is likely adding to his state of mind, also as posters have said, ground effect cars are not to Hamilton's strength.

 

[Slam62]

It would seem though that Lewis and Leclerc very much know where Ferrari are nearly always wrong. Ferrari need to sort the team out and stop the old heads at the top from having any say.

I find it hard to imagine who is actually making the decisions at Ferrari, it seems Charles and Lewis are reacting to banging their heads against a brick wall.

I also think something has been physically wrong with the car from the start and just can’t be fixed.

 

[adam cool dude]

Everyone else isn't measure by 100th of a second live on TV all the time.
And Jenson knew the expectation of the team. That a very different place mentally.
Annoyed at himself for a poor show vs always been mentally weak for as long as he's raced against the drivers he's faced at different time over his career is just an utterly stupid thing to say.

Schumacher in 1996 was in an even more dire position than Lewis but he rolled up his sleeves and worked with the team to become a winner. Lewis just expects to walk into a winning team without putting in the hard hours behind the scenes..

 

[CaptainRAVE]

Schumacher in 1996 was in an even more dire position than Lewis but he rolled up his sleeves and worked with the team to become a winner. Lewis just expects to walk into a winning team without putting in the hard hours behind the scenes..

That was a very different Ferrari team though with a very different culture.

You just have to look at how Ferrari once again messed up today and Leclerc’s reaction.

 

[cu3ed]

Schumacher in 1996 was in an even more dire position than Lewis but he rolled up his sleeves and worked with the team to become a winner. Lewis just expects to walk into a winning team without putting in the hard hours behind the scenes..

Now you're talking more rubbish.
Jean Todt took the brunt of pushing back to Ferrari top heads and made sure they stayed out of his way in developing the team. And it's what's sorely needed now.
To say Lewis doesn't put in the hours etc is nonsense as well.

 

[[timko]]

That was a very different Ferrari team though with a very different culture.

+100% to this. During the mid 90s and onwards of the 3 way partnership, Brawn and Todt would have had the final say on every pit call/strategy and more with regards to Schumacher. This is why Luca Di Montezemolo eventually pulled all the power he had to bring Kimi in to replace Schumacher in order arrest some amount of control over the team, despite the success that particular trio afforded them.

 

[t2na]

He was beat quite comfortably by GR last season so even then it would take something going bad for Leclerc.

Didn't he win 2 races to GR only winning 1?

Don't get me wrong, I don't think Hamilton is anywhere near his best at this point but lets act like he's an OAP trundling around.

 

[KiNgPiN83]

It feels like he has just given up. Just a few races back is race engineer was literally having a huff with him during the race and Lewis was just left to it. Which brings me onto my second point, Lewis is a driver that will need an arm put round his shoulder virtually or otherwise sometimes and this new race engineer relationship doesn't seem to be about that... Even the other side of the garage seems to experience this to an extent. Charles has lost his **** loads of times with them when trying to get some actual useful info. Car wise, i don't think Lewis is like Max for example who can extract the max from a car even if its ****. He's undoubtedly the fastest of his generation but he needs to know he has the car under him as well as being able to stop the thing. (His brake manufacturer issues..)

If i was him, i'd go and have my holiday, zone out for the rest of the year race wise, smash a load of sim time on next years car and see what that brings in 2026. If the Ferrari car and the Ferrari team are still the same, go and do one of his other hobbies instead. Maybe him and Max can go sim racing together in pre ground effect Merc F1's so they don't have to think about their current cars anymore?

 

[Kanpai]

Didn't he win 2 races to GR only winning 1?

GR won in Austria and Vegas, Lewis in Silverstone and thereafter Belgium after GR DQ.

If you look at all the stats of 2024 GR had him beat head to head, 19-5 in qualifying, 4 poles vs 0, and finished ahead in 15 races but given their final standings you could argue LH racecraft kept it close.

 

[[timko]]

I don't think Hamilton is anywhere near his best at this point but lets act like he's an OAP trundling around.

You are definitely missing a "not" in your sentence.

 

[Kanpai]

You are definitely missing a "not" in your sentence.

Yeah not sure why he insinuated that but there's nothing wrong with admitting if a legend of the sport is past his prime days and it's easy to see when his team mates are performing better than him. He's still got some of that excellence but he's gonna have to dig deep for it after this summer break.

 

[koolpc]

I did hear today that they have asked Lewis to remove more of his jewelry before racing to make the car lighter!

 

[Jimbeam3678]

Everyone has plenty on their mind and plenty in this world have far more hardships than he has but they get on with it. He has had the best car on the grid for close to a decade and now he has a real tough season and he buckles. Walking around like he has been shot. Never saw Button for example feeling sorry for himself when he was a back marker at Honda. He just got on with it.

Jenson did feel sorry for himself and openly admitted he need counselling from his PA & trainer. Let’s not rewrite history

 

[Jimbeam3678]

Alonso is another one that comes to mind. Absolute terrible luck for years but still has the passion to race and fight.

This is the same guy who sat on a deck chair and cried like a baby saying his engine was F2?

 

[Feek]

I'm sure this thread is more about this actual race weekend than the history of some drivers, right?

 

[adam cool dude]

Now you're talking more rubbish.
Jean Todt took the brunt of pushing back to Ferrari top heads and made sure they stayed out of his way in developing the team. And it's what's sorely needed now.
To say Lewis doesn't put in the hours etc is nonsense as well.

He has given up after half a season so looks like it.

 

[rp2000]

Has he spent too much time on the F1 movie and not enough on the real F1 this season? Pretty big distraction, potentially.


rp2000

 

[Emlyn_Dewar]

This is the same guy who sat on a deck chair and cried like a baby saying his engine was F2?

Sitting on a deck chair means he has no passion to race? Complaining quite publically about how **** the engine was (have you forgotten quite how bad that engine was?) is a sign he lost the passion to race?

I don't recall Alonso ever saying a team should replace him as the driver, to get better results...

I'm glad that there was nothing more done for that investigation. Hamilton was properly scared off the road. There was no need for the dramatics. This is surely one of the worst weekends in his career?

 

[Jimbeam3678]

Has he spent too much time on the F1 movie and not enough on the real F1 this season? Pretty big distraction, potentially.


rp2000

I guess you’ve forgotten Max’s comments the other week about the 2 drivers who are the first to arrive and last to leave…

Back on topic, thought the race had enough going on to hold my attention. I suspect the title will come down to reliability, they are so closely matched. I think Oscar has more headroom to improve on the next few years.

 

[jonneymendoza]

I guess you’ve forgotten Max’s comments the other week about the 2 drivers who are the first to arrive and last to leave…

Back on topic, thought the race had enough going on to hold my attention. I suspect the title will come down to reliability, they are so closely matched. I think Oscar has more headroom to improve on the next few years.

Who are the first and last to leave?