Can Ricciardo add to promising start? Plus Alpine's hard luck - Hungarian GP diary

Not only was Lewis Hamilton on pole position ahead of Max Verstappen for the first time since Jeddah in 2021, but Lando Norris was there in the mix again in third place, and the Ashes was set for a thrilling climax in Manchester as England chased victory against Australia to take the series to a decider.

Given how the thrilling completion of the third test at Headingley two weeks’ ago must have boosted the audience that then tuned into the final stages of the British Grand Prix – with a late safety car restart and two Brits fighting for the podium at the very least – instead today went in the wrong direction quickly.

With rain washing out the final day of cricket (a reminder in itself after F1’s Spa debacle that other sports have issues with the weather), the race in Budapest got top billing alongside The Open. But by the exit of Turn 1 with Hamilton down to fourth and Verstappen pulling away to what would become his biggest winning margin of the season, the action didn’t live up to the promise.

Aside from the immense achievement from Red Bull to win 12 in a row for the first time in F1 history, McLaren’s remarkable rise is pretty much all the sport can focus on right now.

What makes the Ashes so exciting is the rivalry between England and Australia in cricket, but F1 is lacking in strong rivalries right now and could really have done without the biggest point of tension in this race being resolved within one corner.

A promising start for Ricciardo

Who remembers how wrong I was two weeks ago? I’ll pat myself on the back for saying it was a big week for Daniel Ricciardo after Silverstone as he prepared to test the Red Bull and potentially open the door to a return with AlphaTauri, but the timing of the announcement (and the dropping of Nyck de Vries) suggested it had all been ready to go long before Ricciardo got behind the wheel of the RB19.

So I’d be lying if I said the entry after the British Grand Prix was with prior knowledge of how quickly he’d be in a race seat, but if that was a big week that he took advantage of, similar can be said of how this weekend went for the Australian.

Ricciardo knew that the only way he was going to get himself into the frame for a future Red Bull return was by driving for AlphaTauri first, but the tough car – updated it must be said this weekend – presents a major challenge to try and get to grips with mid-season. And against that backdrop Red Bull is likely to be delighted with what it saw.

Out-qualifying Yuki Tsunoda on his return was impressive enough, as de Vries had only managed twice in ten races, and then outracing him even more so given the way the race started. Ricciardo was the middle man between Zhou Guanyu‘s mistake and the two Alpines, leaving him last at the end of the opening lap and then unhappy with the hard compound tyre. But an excellent final stint of 40 laps on mediums had him a very solid 13th, blue flags costing him three seconds on the final lap otherwise he was just on the tail of Alex Albon and Valtteri Bottas ahead.

It’s exactly what Red Bull will have been looking for as a starting point, but the energy of his return will naturally start to fade the more races that take place so the challenge now is to keep the early momentum going.

Alpine’s pain isn’t self-inflicted

For the second consecutive weekend there was a double-DNF for Alpine and it will have hurt the team even more given the resurgent McLaren – both in terms of pace and results – but you’ve got to have sympathy for the way its weekend ended in Hungary.

The drivers were blameless as Zhou compounded a poor getaway by running into the back of Ricciardo, in turn nudging the AlphaTauri into Esteban Ocon who then slid into Pierre Gasly. Both Alpines out within the first two laps and Ocon needing to be checked over in the medical centre before being released.

It’s the second start (or restart) incident that’s wiped both out this season but Australia was a very different circumstance where it felt like both drivers could have avoided the collision with a bit more care, unlike here.

I’ve written previously about the pressure on Otmar Szafnauer from Laurent Rossi’s comments back in Miami, and recent form won’t have particularly helped but a change of CEO could create a new dynamic within the team and it might be well-timed as it feels like Alpine needs a bit of time to regroup. If ever a team needed a clean weekend, it’s Alpine at Spa next time out to head into the summer break with some positivity.

Driver changes at a fictional team

Not every post-race feature is going to include an update about the as-yet-untitled Formula 1 film being produced by Apple Studios, but developments since Silverstone warrants another.

The American actors’ union SAG-AFTRA went on strike following the last race and that has an impact on the filming that is taking place. Ahead of the race weekend, F1 insisted production hadn’t halted and that there would be minimal impact as a contingency plan had already been put in place with knowledge of how the situation was unfolding.

But that also then led to a misunderstanding from Hollywood that Brad Pitt was crossing the picket line to continue work on the film in Budapest, something that frustrated Apple as it wasn’t the case. Pitt might have been set to drive at some stage during some of the scenes that were planned for Hungary, but was then not involved due to the strike – along with other actors within the union – with the professional drivers that are being used still running.