Ferrari ended Friday as the main force in Formula 1 at the Hungaroring. Isack Hadjar stated that the Italian team is at a superior level to its competitors after the performance shown in the two free practice sessions for the Hungarian GP.
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Lewis Hamilton led FP2, followed by teammate Charles Leclerc, repeating Ferrari’s strong performance throughout the day. The result caught the attention of the Red Bull Racing driver, who finished the session far from the leaders and saw the Maranello team set the benchmark for the weekend so far.
Hadjar described Friday as one of the most complicated of the season so far. According to him, the increase in wind throughout the day made it even more difficult to understand the effects of the changes made to the car between FP1 and FP2.
“It was a very complicated FP2. I thought FP1 had already been difficult enough. It got worse in FP2 because of the wind. It was difficult to get an accurate reading of the changes we made. It seems the car is working well, but Ferrari is much stronger,” he stated.
Despite the difficulties, the Frenchman highlighted that the pace on long stints was encouraging. However, he acknowledged that Racing Bulls still needs to find performance on fast laps to reduce the gap to the leaders.
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“We have a lot of lap time to find overnight. The long-run pace looked very good, but we are losing out on single-lap performance,” he said.
The driver also stated that Ferrari’s competitiveness in Budapest was not a surprise, considering the characteristics of the circuit. At the same time, he believes that Mercedes and McLaren can still definitively enter the fight in the decisive sessions of the weekend.
“I knew they would be fast on a track like this. Right now, we are waiting for Mercedes to show up. As always, I think it will be very tight with McLaren. That’s the situation right now,” he added.
In his final assessment, Hadjar once again highlighted the challenging conditions encountered at the Hungaroring, especially the uneven asphalt: “It was one of the most difficult Fridays of the season so far. The conditions are very complicated, the track is quite bumpy. This demands a lot from the tires and brakes. In FP2, we had a worse feeling with the car than in FP1. The race pace looks good, but we still lack single-lap performance,” concluded the Red Bull driver.
