Can F1’s king of the Hungaroring Lewis Hamilton lead Mercedes' fightback?

One of Hamilton’s best tracks

Along with Silverstone and Montreal, it’s fair to say the Hungaroring is one of Hamilton’s best circuits on the F1 calendar.

Hamilton took four of his eight wins in Hungary before his dominant Mercedes stint at McLaren, highlighting it wasn’t all about having the best car.

Hamilton is simply a Hungaroring-specialist.

Its tight and twisty nature has led to some comparisons that it’s like a karting track.

In F1 2023, Mercedes were disappointed by their pace at Silverstone given they dropped behind McLaren.

They’re still waiting to see if their revised front wing will find them gains in low-speed corners, with their best results this year (Australia, Spain) when the track characteristics have been more high-speed.

However, you can never rule Hamilton out in Hungary.

Ricciardo’s comeback

The biggest talking point of the weekend is the return of Daniel Ricciardo at AlphaTauri.

The Australian is back after Red Bull ditched Nyck de Vries after just 10 races.

Effectively, Ricciardo will have 12 races to prove he is truly back and his stint at McLaren wasn’t representative.

Given the AlphaTauri is the slowest car on the grid, combined with Yuki Tsunoda being in his year with the team, expecting Ricciardo to be performing at his best is unlikely.

However, if he’s got Sergio Perez’s Red Bull seat in his sights, he needs to perform immediately to put even more pressure on the underperforming Mexican.

Can McLaren remain in the fight?

McLaren were the stars of the British Grand Prix as they qualified second and third behind Verstappen on merit.

Similarly in the race, had it not been for an untimely Safety Car in the race, Oscar Piastri would have joined Lando Norris on the podium.

It was a remarkable turnaround for McLaren, who had scored zero points after the opening two rounds.

So are McLaren really back?

According to various telemetry data from Silverstone, McLaren were the quickest in the high-speed corners.

Conversely, the Hungaroring is quite different in terms of track characteristics to Silverstone, and Austria, where McLaren also performed well at.

Hungary is a true test to see whether McLaren are truly among the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari from now on.

Will Alonso stop Aston’s recent blip?

After a stunning start to the year, Aston Martin have suffered somewhat of a blip in recent rounds.

Fernando Alonso scored five podiums in the opening six rounds, however, he’s only scored one top three in the last four races.

Aston Martin have made it clear that their downturn in form is more track dependent with high-speed circuits not particularly suiting their package.

However, Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren have all heavily upgraded their cars during the European leg of the season which may explain Aston Martin’s lack of form relative to their rivals.

On paper, the tight and twisty Hungaroring will suit the AMR23, but if it’s another disappointing weekend, then it’s clear that Aston Martin’s recent form is not just a blip.

A new qualifying format 

F1 will trial a new, experiential qualifying format at the Hungaroring this weekend.

Dubbed as the ‘alternative tyre allocation’ - it will be run at two race weekends - Hungary and Italy - this season.

In terms of the impact of the format, in theory, there should be more action in Q1 given that teams will be mandated to run the hard tyre.

It’s likely they will fill their cars with fuel and pound round on the hard tyre.

Similarly with Q2, while Q3 will likely be a normal session given they will be on the soft.