Lewis Hamilton has had a very good run of form recently. 3 podiums in 4 races has seen the Mercedes driver move to within 16 points of Fernando Alonso in the battle for 3rd in the Drivers’ Championship.
Photo Credit: Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team
Looking forward to this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix, Hamilton looked to the Hungaroring as a place where he and his team could possibly compete with Red Bull at the front of the grid.
“This has been a strong circuit for me, and I think last year it was a strong circuit for us [Mercedes].
“If you look at the last race, you may not have seen it but we were equal in time until turn 13 to Max on the qualifying lap.
“Given this is more medium and low speed, I am hoping that we’ll be closer.”
Hamilton is definitely right in his confidence in himself at the Hungaroring. The Brit has won in Budapest a record 8 times, the most recent being in 2020.
While he thinks that he may be able to compete with Red Bull, it may not be the case based on the fact that the Milton Keynes-based team has brought sizeable upgrades to the track for the first time since Baku, which may make them faster.
“I heard that Red Bull might have an upgrade package this weekend, once again.
“So we’ll have to see how that makes them. They seem to be continuously bringing upgrades on their car.”
Photo credit: Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team
With Red Bull bringing new upgrades to Hungary, it has raised questions from some quarters on whether the team is respecting the cost cap set in place. On top of that, there have been rumours that 2 teams exceeded the cost cap from last year, making speculation even more valid.
While Red Bull was only fined $7 million and a reduction in wind tunnel time, Hamilton thinks that Red Bull should have gotten a more severe penalty, but found that coming up with a punishment wasn’t his place.
“I’m not going to say what (the penalty) should be, it’s not my job to do that.
“We have people in place that are supposed to police that, but it doesn’t surprise me. It was not a big penalty before, so…”
