No happy ending for Ferrari at the Hungarian GP

The Hungarian Grand Prix left negativity and resignation to Ferrari fans.
A GP that we can define as a real failure given the results of Friday and Saturday.

Redbull was not at the top: Sergio Perez hadn’t feeling with the car and Max Verstappen had complained of a problem with the Power Unit in Q3.
These premises had in fact given a hope of a comeback in the standings to the Ferraristi.

The conditions were certainly good for Ferrari, one step away from a front row lockout in qualifying (not reached due to a great lap by George Russell).
On Sunday the top 10 grid was therefore as follows:
1 Russell 2 Sainz 3 Leclerc 4 Norris 5 Ocon 6 Alonso 7 Hamilton 8 Bottas 9 Ricciardo 10 Verstappen.
On the 11^th position we find Sergio Perez, who unexpectedly went out in Q2.

It seemed to be a one-way race, with the threat quite far away, since the Redbull drivers had opponents ahead of them who were not easy to overtake such as Alonso and Hamilton.

Still, the race provided surprises.
The choice of tyres played a fundamental role in the outcome of the race, influencing it enormously.
Redbull, McLaren and Russell opted for a soft tyre start, while the Ferraris and Hamilton preferred the medium compound.

Verstappen and Russell were the first ones to stop, while Leclerc and Hamilton delayed their pit stops.
A few positions lower down we find Alpine, who after fitting the hard tyre at the pit stop, showed a drastic worsening in performance. Despite this, Ferrari chose the hard tyre for Leclerc’s car. Charles inevitably had difficulty defending its position and was forced to make another pit stop after a few laps due to the poor performance of the hard tyre.

The strategy was therefore decisive for the final result of the race, which was totally overturned.
Max Verstappen won, followed by Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.
The Scuderia from Maranello therefore finished the race with a fourth and sixth place respectively with the Spanish and Monegasque driver.

Team principal Binotto declared that strategy was not a determining factor, or at least not as much as the car, which he said was not fast enough to win the GP.
This was a contrasting opinion to that of Charles Leclerc, who said he was inevitably disappointed with the outcome of the race.

Surely the summer break will be a valuable opportunity to reflect on the many mistakes made by the Ferrari team in the first part of the season.
At SPA-Francorchamps we will find out whether these three weeks of holiday (not exactly for the engineers in Maranello) will have borne fruit.
Charles Leclerc, meanwhile, said he is ready and willing to start racing again to put behind him the disappointments that have come so far.

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