In a surprising turn of events at the Hungaroring, the contrasting race strategies discussed by Pirelli on race day seemed to diverge significantly from reality.
Lando Norris found himself navigated into a one-stop strategy due to a poor start, which ultimately favored him.
Similarly, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was deemed to have potentially finished higher than his eventual ninth place if he had opted for a one-stop like Norris rather than stopping twice throughout the race.
On the eve of the race, Pirelli maintained a strong stance in favor of the two-stop strategy despite forecasting cooler conditions that could influence tire performance.
Mario Isola, Pirelli motorsport manager, stated on Saturday evening, “At the moment a one-stop is more or less 10 seconds slower.
With the level of degradation that we measured yesterday. So if it is cooler and you are able to manage better the tire, these 10 seconds could be less. That’s why I believe that two-stop is still the preferred choice.”
Race conditions turned cooler, but the race trajectory was swiftly impacted by the critical moments in the opening lap.
Norris, starting third on the grid, aimed for an inside pass on his teammate, Oscar Piastri, but the attempt backfired and led to him losing positions to George Russell and Fernando Alonso.
Although he promptly reclaimed fourth place from Alonso, Norris struggled to escape the ‘dirty air’ from Russell’s Mercedes, further complicating his race strategy.
In a twist of fate, this situation opened the door for a one-stop strategy as the pace of Alonso created challenges for drivers behind him.
As the race progressed, McLaren’s game plan for Piastri hinged on overtaking the lead of Charles Leclerc.
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella shared insights post-race, saying, “Our baseline strategy today was a two-stop strategy.
We didn’t think necessarily that the one-stop was possible. So with Oscar we tried to go on a good, deterministic, two-stop strategy, trying to pass Leclerc in the first stop.”
However, as the race unfolded, conditions began to favor an unexpected switch to a one-stop strategy.
After Piastri’s first pit stop at the end of lap 18, Ferrari, aiming to maintain their competitiveness, also called Leclerc in for service, but they re-emerged behind Alonso, who had gained vital pace ahead.
The reality of the race was shifting; both Piastri and Leclerc managed to pass Alonso early in the 20s but found themselves in a rut thanks to Alonso’s tactical stint.
Russell struggled to overtake Alonso, taking four laps in the process, which effectively eliminated viable two-stop strategies for Norris.
Piastri began to rethink his approach and, realizing a one-stop might prove more advantageous, queried his engineer about the feasibility of continuing on his current tires.
Stella reflected on the team’s thought process, explaining, “When it comes to Lando and the one-stop strategy, when we extended, leaving Lando out, we didn’t think that the one-stop would have been possible still.
But credit to Lando, he managed to put together some very strong sectors and lap times with tires that were relatively used.”
As the race progressed, Norris’s performance advanced frontward, and discussions shifted between providing Piastri a chance at an undercut on Leclerc or maintaining tire viability for Norris.
As McLaren sought to leverage this tactic, they instructed Piastri to pit on lap 39, but he audaciously chose to extend his stint with a further six laps.
By lap 42, Norris had a window of opportunity when Russell pitted, allowing him to inherit the lead as Piastri lost significant time on his extended tire stint.
In the closing laps, Piastri was left with the necessary task of exploiting his tire advantage over Leclerc for a battle on the track.
The scenario raised questions regarding the balance of strategy between both McLaren drivers, with Stella adamantly denying any favoritism.
“We wanted to give Oscar enough of a tire delta to pass Leclerc, but also to have a fair chance on Lando, because that would have meant being on an optimal two-stop,” Stella clarified.
“So we wanted to make sure that, thinking about Leclerc, we were not deviating too much from an optimal two-stop, because that would have been unfair to Oscar in relation to his competition with Lando.”
The thrilling contest between Norris and Piastri demonstrated how quickly decisions in team strategy could shift, alongside the unpredictability of race circumstances.
As Norris embraced the unexpected one-stop success, the race served a reminder of how quickly strategies can change, leaving teams to adapt.
With lessons learned about flexibility in race strategy, the hungaroring proved to be yet another chapter in the competitive dynamics of Formula 1.
image source from：motorsport
