2024 Hungarian Grand Prix - Hungaroring, July 19 - 21

[Wouter]

A special helmet from Ocon for this GP:

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[Wouter]

Also Lando has a new helmet:

[SiLo]

Both beautiful helmets!

[AR3-GP]

It’s interesting the stories surrounding Red Bull noticing that McLaren haven’t been adhering to the rules of covering the front temp sensor holes after free practice.

Eyes like a hawk

Well, they claim they haven't. It's tight stuff at the front now so all the teams will be throwing --- at each other.

At any given moment, a team could claim that someone else is running traction control, interlinked suspensions, fuel flow meter bypass, active aero, sub-minimum tire pressures, and any other regulations breach. The problem with just making stuff up is that there won't be any evidence to support it.

[Jurgen von Diaz]

Terrible helmets.

[Sieper]

Fugly helmets. The reason other teams spot something is amiss is because something is happening, like Improved tire life, being able to push hard towards end stint. They know they can’t achieve that themselves as likely 2 things are trade off. So you are looking for ways around that trade off. You think of options yourself so when these options are not allowed those are the exact things you are keenly looking at your competitors at. This is why the FIA can get bye with so little technical people. The teams check eachother.

[chrisc90]

They look a similar design/pattern to the trophy.

[Paa]

Don't mind the text in strange language. There's a collection of pictures/videos of today's hail thunderstorm from Hungaroring.

https://formula.hu/f1/2024/07/17/ozonvi ... mclarennel

[cplchanb]

lando still trying to make amends for his podium antics last year...

[venkyhere]

Dominated by slow corners, softest tyre set allocation AND hot track temps.
If this isn't a slam dunk 1-2 for McLaren, I dont know where else it would be.
My prediction : P1-NOR, P2-PIA, P3-VER. Mercedes will be fast, but will chew tyres.

You forget Ferrari because speeds are low here.

oops !

Not forgetting that, but Max + the car are good enough to podium every race on merit.

Max+car good enough for podium ? I don't think so. Until McLaren and Mercedes finally came to the fore, the RB20 was hiding behind it's inherent foibles (which I think got worse with the Suzuka package).

As we have seen, every single Mclaren upgrade is giving them significant gains. Mercedes have finally 'unlocked' their car and are now going to go on a spree of 'actual upgrades'. Both those teams haven't hit the 'diminishing returns' zone of their concepts , which has finally exposed the issues with RB20.

RedBull are already asymptote-ing with performance - it's not because RedBull don't have the downforce from the floor or are struggling with aero-efficiency (in fact, quite the opposite, they have the best floor of all) , it's because their aero-mapping has changed from RB19-->RB20 which necessitated a change in suspension-mapping, which in turn has brought them into a narrow tyre-usage window. I think they have been having an 'oops' moment with their decision making to make the RB20 so different w.r.t RB19, and are now beating around the bush with band-aid jobs in their 'parc ferme setup', to 'somehow' make the car stay amongst the leading pack. That they have a driver who can 'adapt' really well and drive the car to whatever optimum possible, despite it's deficiencies, has been saving their face.

Of course, none of this would have been an issue if Pirelli stopped making their tyres with cheese instead of rubber ; but that is vide the deal b/w FoM and Pirelli, where the strategy to make the races exciting has always been to "have less durable tyres". It's the same for every team, so this isn't any excuse.

The other teams have to balance their driver politics and positions on the day to maximise team results. Look at Silverstone - McLaren could have had 2 drivers on the podium but left Oscar to the wolves (and messed up the final tyre call anyway). Red Bull can focus all of their strategy energy on Max (assuming Sergio is now a spent force and won't factor in to any of the races going forward). So Max should be able to get prime strategy calls at each race where the other teams are always going to be favouring one or other driver.

Redbull was on the podium in Silverstone only because Russel DNF-ed and McLaren were not proactive with their strategy and always were in reaction-mode (allowing being undercut), not because Redbull did anything spectacular. The 1 car v/s 2 car strategy advantage is a bit overstated, IMHO.

[PlatinumZealot]

lando still trying to make amends for his podium antics last year...

Yeah. Not sure what to make of it. Is it supposed to be "cute" or funny? Or some sort of Easter egg thing? I don't know. Guess it appeals to Gen-Z or something.

[erudite450]

lando still trying to make amends for his podium antics last year...

Yeah. Not sure what to make of it. Is it supposed to be "cute" or funny? Or some sort of Easter egg thing? I don't know. Guess it appeals to Gen-Z or something.

That was a shocking thing to do. I couldn't believe my eyes.

[Wouter]

lando still trying to make amends for his podium antics last year...

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Yeah. Not sure what to make of it. Is it supposed to be "cute" or funny? Or some sort of Easter egg thing? I don't know. Guess it appeals to Gen-Z or something.

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That was a shocking thing to do. I couldn't believe my eyes.

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What nonsense. Lando met the owner last year at Max's manager Vermeulen's house when he brought the new trophy.
They then agreed that Lando would be given a tour of the factory.
They decided together to apply the design of the trophy to the helmet.
Ocon also came up with that idea and designed something together with the owner.

[SiLo]

Well Ocons Helmet is an homage to his race win trophy. Lando clearly putting some effort in to seeing where the trophy that he broke comes from and also has an homage design. I think they look great.

Not entirely sure why people are hating on them, they are very unique. Most of the helmets on the grid look like terrible messes of RGB vomit.

[chrisc90]

Must be pretty bad weather at present.

McLaren don’t seem to have much luck with their paddock buildings. Can’t be very well put together if it’s another issue with it. Catching fire, roof blown off twice. Excellent building control standards it seems.