F1 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix Review (Undercutters Ep 31 transcript)

Hello, everyone. This is the 31st Undercutters podcast, looking back at the Hungarian Grand Prix. I’m your host, Morris, and you can find me on Twitter or Blue Sky as MorrisF1.

Hungary’s the last race before the summer break in a season that’s been dominated by McLaren so far. But there’s still plenty of racing to come.

 

Hungarian Grand Prix Qualifying 00m27s

Qualifying at the Hungarian Grand Prix was very much on the tasty side for spectators. For Tsunoda, Gasly, Ocon, Hulkenberg, and Albon it was a bit more rubbish because they were all eliminated in Q1 while their faster team mates escaped to Q2.

All through practice McLaren looked dominant and that was maintained in Q2. Unfortunately, it was dreadful for Hamilton, who has more poles here than everyone else put together, and he went out, right behind Bearman and ahead of Sainz, Colapinto and Antonelli. The Italian rookie’s also having a tough time of it, with four DNFs in the last seven races, before Hungary, and a single points result in that time.

Hamilton sounded incredibly despondent in his post-qualifying interview, saying there was nothing wrong with the team and suggesting they just needed a better driver than him. While very self-critical, this perhaps isn’t a surprise. After his British win in 2024 he admitted to feeling unsure at times if he was ‘good enough’, which to an outsider might sound shocking coming from the most successful driver of all time. It’s also worth remembering 2024 saw him often qualify relatively poorly but have great races.

Heading into Q3 with the track getting ever cooler, pole was McLaren’s to lose, and they duly lost it. Leclerc put in a fantastic lap to snatch pole from nowhere, and relegating Piastri and Norris to 2nd and 3rd on the grid. Russell’s Mercedes also liked the cooler temperatures and he put himself into 4th. Alonso led Stroll on an Aston Martin row three, ahead of a brilliant Bortoleto in 7th and Verstappen, whose Red Bull clearly didn’t like the circuit much. Lawson outqualified Hadjar to lead row five.

With passing being rough here, could Leclerc hold on for the win as Russell did in Canada? Could Bortoleto and Aston Martin grab a bundle of points? Perhaps. If the weather played nicely.

Hungary Race Review 2m45s

Before the Hungarian Grand Prix started there was one grid change, Tsunoda opting for a pit lane start. Almost everyone was on medium tyres, the only exception being Hamilton on hards and Hulkenberg and the Williams drivers on soft tyres.

Off the line Leclerc and Piastri held position while Norris had a bad start, losing out initially to Russell and Alonso. He was able to get past Alonso pretty rapidly but ended up stuck back in 4th.

Alonso was an effective backstop, splitting the race into the four frontrunners, and those behind him. Right behind him was Bortoleto, who had gotten ahead of Stroll at the start. 

As is common in Hungary there was not a huge amount of passing when drivers were on similar tyres so we had to wait for pit stops for this to change. Hulkenberg boxed early for mediums and made decent progress, being very quick before passing a few cars, only to get a questionable 5s penalty for jumping the start. 

Verstappen was also making some progress, and his car looked better than it had in qualifying, but an early stop put him in traffic and nobody else seemed inclined to do likewise.

At the front, Leclerc built up a few seconds advantage over Piastri, and no passing seemed likely. After the first round of pit stops Leclerc stayed ahead of Piastri and Russell, but Norris stayed out for a while longer. And it soon became clear Norris was going to box once, and once only. 

Leclerc had been complaining, cryptically, about some sort of problem in the middle stint but his pace still looked good. This changed drastically after his second stop when his pace dropped like a stone. He was easily passed by first Piastri and then Russell, despite some uncharacteristically dodgy defending against Russell. 

There was no rain and no safety car, but the variable strategy saw Piastri chasing down Norris. With about five laps left he was in DRS and having a go, but his best chance was overcooked with a lockup and Norris defended very nicely despite looking slower. 

In the end, Norris held on for the win, with Piastri 2nd. Russell completed the podium, a return for him after three races since his Canadian win. 

Leclerc had to settle for 4th and did not sound at all pleased over the radio. Not sure what his problem was but he looked a match for the McLaren in the first two stints and way slower in the last. Alonso was way further back but got a tasty 5th place, with Stroll in 7th making this a fantastic result for Aston Martin in their midfield battle. Bortoleto was the meat in the sandwich, backing up his excellent qualifying with a great race result. I said pre-season that Sauber had a very good lineup, and between him and Hulkenberg they’re doing rather nicely.

Lawson drove well again for 8th. He’s had feast or famine form of late, either scoring or DNFing and this time he scored. Nice to see after his bad start to the year. Verstappen ended up 9th, one place lower than he started. For whatever reason, the Red Bull really did not like Hungary. Last in the points was Antonelli, who rose from 15th to 10th. Good result and one he needed after failing to score since his Canadian podium.

Highlights and Lowlights 6m06s

The Hungarian Grand Prix was not a classic but it did have some nice cagey strategy and the McLarens battling for the win for the last five laps. It’s ironic, but I think Norris buggering up his start and then being effectively forced into a one stop to get ahead of Russell and the rest helped deliver him victory. 

The McLarens got their fourth 1-2 finish in a row, and Norris has won three of those. The UK was perhaps lucky, but, in Austria, Norris was simpler the faster driver and put in some excellent defensive driving. This result cuts Piastri’s advantage to just nine points.

I’m not sure at the time of recording what Leclerc’s problem was but he went from seeming to have the win sewn up to tumbling off the podium entirely. It was clearly something serious to cost him so much pace, both Piastri and Russell were miles faster and easily drove away from him. A shame, as he’d done well until that reliability problem.

The temperature was cooler in both qualifying and the race than earlier practice, which seemed to somewhat reduce McLaren’s advantage. It also helped out Mercedes quite a bit. Russell had a good start and a solid race to get himself onto the podium, and for a long while held Norris behind him before varying strategy played out.

But, as I mentioned in the preview, it was not great for Williams. Just 14th and 15th for Sainz and Albon and they never really looked in the running. Not their type of circuit, but I imagine they’ll be looking forward to Monza early September. It was, contrary to my prediction, also awful for Alpine, who were slowest of the lot and ended up 18th and 19th. Haas also had a day to forget, with Bearman being the only driver to retire and Ocon in 16th.

Hungarian Grand Prix Predictions Assessment 7m51s

Ironically, the race didn’t turn out how I expected but I still got about half my predictions right.

I had Norris down for pole and the win, expecting him to be quickest overall, instead he started 3rd then went backwards off the line before using strategy for the win. I also had Piastri 2nd, which came off due to difficulty passing, so I got that more or less correct. Verstappen in 3rd was incredibly wrong, he was nowhere near the podium and barely even scraped into the points.

Speaking of points, Racing Bull had the potential to score, as Lawson proved, but Hadjar slipped down to 11th. That was a narrow miss, unlike Gasly who finished 19th and was the last man on the road after Bearman boxed to retire. On the plus side, my prediction of Hulkenberg qualifying badly then failing to reach the points was spot on.

I had planned to record a pretty long section on F1 standings, covering the entire field. However, as you may be able to hear from my voice, I’ve been under the weather recently. Instead I’m going to create a separate podcast that will cover the standings in some detail. That’ll be up roughly in the middle of the summer break.

F1 News 9m08s

F1 news.

There’s been much musing about Fred Vasseur, Ferrari team principal, perhaps getting the chop. Instead, his contract has been renewed.

I’m glad to see this is the case as, despite the team’s struggles this year, earlier on, at least, I think Vasseur’s been good for them. In 2024, Ferrari came very close to securing the Constructors’ title and it was only lost in the final race that year. Constant chopping and changing of team principals is no way to build consistent improvement. Ferrari have had more team principals than McLaren, Red Bull, or Mercedes in recent years, and it’s no coincidence those teams have enjoyed greater success.

I’m a neutral, but it’s a great shame Leclerc’s never really had a car to mount a title challenge across a whole season. We’ll see how the team do in 2026 when the regulations change substantially.

Another major piece of news that emerged ahead of Hungary was that Verstappen has confirmed he’s staying at Red Bull for at least 2026.

This makes perfect sense because the huge regulation shift could alter the pecking order a lot. Staying at Red Bull for one more year gives Verstappen the chance to see who the top dog is, and whether, as speculated, Mercedes are one of the fastest teams. For my money, I suspect McLaren and Mercedes will be at the sharp end next year.

This also means Russell and perhaps Antonelli will be trying to ensure a backup option is available for 2027. 

Thank you all for listening. If you enjoyed the podcast please remember to leave a positive rating. We’ve got a long break until the Netherlands, with the Grand Prix on the last day of August. As mentioned, I plan to put up a summer break podcast, perhaps including the betting odds, and how the midfield battle is stacking up. I might also revisit some of my season long predictions and see how well or badly they look at this stage.



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