The Formula 1 Hungarian GP race can be summed up in one sentence: Verstappen’s display after the umpteenth gift from Ferrari. When we thought it was impossible for those from Maranello to give away more points to Red Bull and the Dutchman, an embarrassing blindness came that has made Leclerc go from leading to a miserable sixth position , leaving the distance at 80 points between the two candidates for the title.
With Verstappen starting 10th and Pérez two positions behind, we said after qualifying that Ferrari’s opportunity was practically perfect and, barring a catastrophe, they had the opportunity to start cutting back on the fight for the two titles at stake. The rain has not come in the Budapest race, but from the Italian wall they have been in charge of creating their own perfect storm.
The initial strategy of starting with the media did not seem the best, but at least Leclerc’s victory and the podium seemed attainable. But they did not expect Verstappen’s comeback and this has caused a crisis in which they did not know if his rival was the Dutchman himself or was still George Russell. For this reason, when the one from Red Bull has launched an undercat at them to overcome Sainz, they have rushed with Leclerc . They have entered him when he was escaping in the lead to put the hard ones. A suicide that we all saw except the Italians.
Laps before both Haas and Alpine have put the rubber harder, but with very cold conditions and the pace was lousy because it was impossible to get the tires up to temperature with such cold asphalt. Well, a whole stint of pilots like Alonso, Ocon or Schumacher has not been enough to see that the tire was a disaster. Perhaps they thought that with the Ferrari this was not going to happen. The thing is that in a matter of two laps Verstappen has removed the stickers from the Monegasque when the difference exceeded seven seconds before going through the pits.
Not even a spin from Max has prevented the massacre. The only one who was with the hard ones was Leclerc and of course, laps later it was Russell who regained the position. Before the bloodletting was more, they entered Charles to put the soft rubber. He has finished sixth and has not managed to do the fastest lap either. From winning with one hand, to losing a title because your team is not able to see something that absolutely everyone who was in front of the television with the race on has seen.
But it is that these gifts with Leclerc are not new and when he complains at Ferrari they get excited because no one should be above the team. But there comes a point where it seems that things are not done so badly on purpose. They already did a very bad strategy in Silverstone and Monaco when he was leading and in Baku and Barcelona the car let him down going first . What happened this Sunday was the last straw because they had everything on their face. We are not saying anything outrageous if we say that Charles is fighting with Max and against the Scuderia itself.
80 points separate Verstappen and Leclerc with more than half of the championship disputed. Only Vettel in 2011 took more advantage of the second before going on vacation. And the worst thing is that he is more to blame for that difference, the failures of Ferrari than the success of Red Bull. Verstappen has 8 wins, yes, but the speed is not much higher at all. He just doesn’t fail. The Drivers’ World Championship is practically ready for sentencing and the teams’ World Championship is going the same way . If heads don’t roll in Maranello, who knows when there will be more reasons.