Adam Cooper

Ferrari still looking for answers after last stint "disaster" for Leclerc Something went wrong on Leclerc's car in Hungary but the team doesn't know what

Charles Leclerc lost his shot at a win in Hungary to a mysterious loss of pace in the final stint - and as of Monday morning Ferrari still had no answers as it continues to investigate: adamcooperonf1.substack.com/p/ferrari-st...

Gabriel Bortoleto on P6 and racing Fernando Alonso and Max Verstappen: "Two-time World Champ, four-time World Champ, and I'm in the middle! It's just something amazing that I'm so glad to experience already my rookie season, and be fighting against these guys..."

Toto Wolff on the W16: "We tried to solve a problem with an Imola upgrade. And that may or may not have solved an issue, but it let something else creep into the car. That was an instability that basically took all confidence from the drivers, and it took us a few races to figure that out."

Charles Leclerc on a 5-secs penalty while battling George Russell: "I knew I was on the limit. I felt like I moved before braking and then I braked, obviously angling my car towards the apex, which is normally what I do. I can imagine George being quite vocal on the radio. It's normally the case..."

Carlos Sainz on contact with Pierre Gasly: "We were fighting for position, and he missed the braking in Turn 2 and took me out, quite badly! I think he got a 10-second penalty, but we were fighting for 13th. Cost me probably P13 in the race, but it's where we would have deserved to finish."

Charles Leclerc: "I need to take back the words I've said in the radio, because I thought that it was coming from one thing. But then I got a lot more details since I got out the car, and it was actually an issue coming from the chassis, and nothing that we could have done differently."

Ollie Bearman on why he retired: "Just really struggled with the car. I had a very bad feeling in the entry, the car was very oversteery there, and very much struggled to do anything with it. Gradually got worse and worse, and at one point it was clear that we had a bit of damage on the car."

Max Verstappen on the (no further action) Hamilton investigation: "Lewis was not there, but we explained our side of the story. I don't think Lewis actually felt a lot for it, because if he really felt something for it, then of course, he's there in the stewards room, right?"

Fernando Alonso on P5: "It cannot go any better than this. Someone told me that the two McLarens were very close to each other at one point... That would be even better, but it didn't happen! Apart from that I think we maximised the performance of the car yesterday in quali and today in the race."

Fernando Alonso on P5 for Aston: "Just the layout, the characteristics of the circuit, are just suiting our car, apparently. And it will be nice to understand this, why the car is operating in this sweet spot here - because if we understand that, we can use it in the next few races."

Esteban Ocon on P18: "It's stability, really, especially the last two corners. I think that was quite clear. Ollie is running a very different setup on the front wing compared to us, and things that we can't put on our car. So we need to investigate where that comes from."

Good to catch up with Bernie Ecclestone, who is here to celebrate 40 years of the Hungarian GP. Had a chat about the Sylvester Stallone F1 film that Bernie canned circa 1997, and which morphed into Indycar 'epic' Driven. He's not yet seen the new Brad Pitt movie...

Alex Albon on a frustrating P20: "We haven't been finding anything that's been working so far this week. So we went back to the FP1 car, just to just try to get back to a car which I was most comfortable with, which was the first session of the weekend."

OscarPiastri's take on today's race: "It might be a bit of a slow burner, but I think it'll have some fire at some point..."

Poor Yuki Tsunoda has started from the back or the pitlane several times this year and he's in the pits once again today after making changes and adding a new PU to his pool.

Kimi Antonelli on the Mercedes W16 suspension 'downgrade': "It's a bit of a shame that we didn't go earlier to the old suspension, because definitely this weekend overall I felt far more confident in the car than I was before. I think today the result could have been much better."

George Russell on Mercedes form: "It's definitely been a bit challenging recently. I haven't felt awfully confident in the car. Today, P4, sort of back in our normal position. But the fact is McLaren underperformed in Q3. They're going to still be the runaway force."

Carlos Sainz on P14 in Hungary Q2: "We all expected a bit more after the upgrade of last weekend, hoping that maybe it also improved a bit the downforce in all these medium/long combined corners that we know we are very weak at. The reality is that we spent the whole weekend out of the top 15 cars."

Liam Lawson on P9 in Hungary qualifying: "From where we were yesterday and this morning, it's a good step. But to be honest, the potential we had during the session I think was a lot more. We were gradually finding time - and then we went to Q3 and it kind of just fell away."

Oliver Bearman in P11 yet again: "I feel like the car was quicker than that, but a few changes we did over the weekend didn't necessarily work, so we learned from them. But on my side, it hurt my confidence a little bit, so I didn't quite have full confidence going into quali."

Esteban Ocon on a screw issue in Q1 in Hungary: "It was a bodywork screw, the quick release one, it was stuck on my front right tyre. I think it went away after Turn 1, I didn't hear the engineers talking about it much after the run. It could have gone pretty wrong if that went in straight away."

Pierre Gasly on P17 in Hungary qualifying: "Just didn't really quite get the car where I wanted and where I needed. A bit disappointed with that, just suffering a lot with understeer, and could not really turn the car every corner. Just a shame, with fine margins like that."

How Hungary 2024 taught McLaren valuable lessons 12 months on the team is better equipped to deal with tricky situations

A year ago in Hungary McLaren learned some valuable lessons as it tried to balance the interests of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri - and the learning curve has continued ever since: adamcooperonf1.substack.com/p/how-hungar...

How frustrated Verstappen was "driving on ice" as Red Bull struggles in Hungary Verstappen could manage only eighth on the Hungarian GP grid

A struggling Max Verstappen is a humble P8 on the Hungarian GP grid and grateful to be even that high up - and his prospects for the race are not great either…: adamcooperonf1.substack.com/p/how-frustr...

Franco Colapinto on P14: "I think this weekend we did a good step with the car. We did try many things, and some worked. We need to keep pushing as a team, and keep getting a little bit more out of the car. This weekend we as a team struggled, and it hasn't been that easy."

Kimi Antonelli on P15 in Hungarian GP qualifying: "The confidence was there because lap one in Q1 was good, then lap 2 in Q2 it was wet in S2. But then on the new tyre, I had no grip. I don't know what happened, already from Turn 1, I lost the rear completely. Once again, things didn't go my way."

Nico Hulkenberg on P19 in Hungary: "In P1/P2 we were strong from the get-go - the feeling, the confidence this morning as well. And I don't know, in Q1 suddenly I found quite a different car, quite a different balance, an extreme change. So I don't know what happened. Can't really explain it."

Lance Stroll on P6 for Aston: "The track really suits our car. I think when we put on the downforce, and conditions are cool and not too much wind, we're where we need to be for the performance of the car. All weekend it's been there, it's been in the window since the first lap of FP1."

Isack Hadjar in P10 but still not happy: "It definitely slipped away. It was a very poor lap. I had a big mistake, and it cost me a lot better result. The wind picked up a lot and it became very awkward to drive, especially for me, we aimed for only one attempt. Q3 was very difficult."

The old suspension spec has worked for Mercedes, but George Russell is underwhelmed: "I'm not going to get carried away with that Q3 performance, because for the rest of the weekend it hasn't been straightforward. Kimi was also out in Q2, and it's not been plain sailing."