If you’re a Ferrari fan, you might want to look away now. Or perhaps, after decades of heartbreak, you’ve already developed the emotional calluses necessary to survive another what could have been Sunday. Meanwhile, McLaren fans are dusting off their orange paraphernalia and daring to dream of a season not seen since the days of Senna and Prost. The 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix, the last race before the summer break, delivered a story as old as Formula 1 itself: the rise of a new power, the agony of technical gremlins, and the relentless, unpredictable theatre of the sport.
Papaya Perfection: McLaren’s Modern Masterclass
Let’s start with the winners, because, frankly, they’ve earned it. McLaren’s 1-2 finish at the Hungaroring was, in the words of CEO Zak Brown, as close to perfect as you can get. Lando Norris, the man who once seemed destined to be the perennial nearly-man, claimed his fifth career victory, while Oscar Piastri shadowed him home in second. The papaya cars were not just fast—they were clinical, strategic, and, crucially, reliable.
Brown’s post-race assessment was effusive:
A great way to go into the summer break. I’ve got to say, you’re never perfect in a race, you have to go back [and analyse] but I think it was about as close to perfect as you can get. The drivers were awesome, the pit stops were amazing, the strategy was great to get Lando up there, Oscar drove brilliantly, I just couldn’t be prouder of this racing team.Zak Brown, McLaren CEO
This was McLaren’s seventh 1-2 of the season—a statistic that would make even Ron Dennis raise an eyebrow. For those keeping score, the last time McLaren looked this dominant was 1988, when Senna and Prost turned the championship into a private duel, winning 15 of 16 races and finishing 1-2 ten times. The echoes are unmistakable, and the numbers don’t lie:
| Year | 1-2 Finishes | Total Races | % of Races with 1-2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | 10 | 16 | 62.5% |
| 2025* | 7 | 14 | 50% |
*2025 numbers as of the Hungarian Grand Prix.
If you want to relive the highlights, the official F1 channel has you covered: 9 things you might have missed from the Hungarian GP weekend.
Norris: From Nearly-Man to Title Contender
Lando Norris’s journey to the top step has been anything but straightforward. For years, he was the affable Brit with a quick wit and a quicker car—just not quick enough to win. That narrative is now dead and buried. With five wins to his name, including two at the Hungaroring (2024 and 2025), Norris has become the face of McLaren’s renaissance.
His career stats up to this point are impressive:
- Grands Prix Entered: 134
- Podiums: 31
- Wins: 5
- Poles: 10
- Best Championship Finish: 2nd (2024, 2025)
Norris’s victory in Hungary was not just a triumph of speed but of maturity. After the infamous 2023 incident where he broke Max Verstappen’s trophy during the champagne celebration, Norris made sure to sign his bottle with don’t break the trophy! and moved the silverware to safety before the bubbly flowed. Growth, it seems, comes in many forms.
Ferrari: The Curse Continues
And then, there’s Ferrari. If McLaren’s story is one of resurgence, Ferrari’s is a Greek tragedy on four wheels. Charles Leclerc, having taken a sensational pole position, looked set to finally deliver a win for the Scuderia. For 40 laps, the dream was alive. Then, as if scripted by the gods of Maranello misfortune, disaster struck.
Leclerc’s pace evaporated in the final stint. He was passed by both McLarens and George Russell’s Mercedes, ultimately finishing fourth after a five-second penalty for moving under braking. Team Principal Fred Vasseur was left scratching his head:
I must say that the situation was quite strange, that we were under control the first 40 laps of the race, that we are very in control the first stint, a bit more difficult the second one, but it was still manageable. And the last stint was a disaster, very difficult to drive, that balance was not there and honestly we don’t know exactly what’s happened so far.Fred Vasseur, Ferrari Team Principal
The suspected culprit? A mysterious chassis issue, though some in the paddock whispered about ride height and engine modes. George Russell, never one to miss a technical detail, speculated:
The only thing we can think of is they were running the car too low to the ground, and they had to increase the tyre pressures for the last stint. Because they were using an engine mode that was making the engine slower at the end of the straight, which is where you have the most amount of plank wear.George Russell, Mercedes
For Leclerc, it was another addition to a growing list of late-race collapses and technical failures. From Bahrain 2019’s cylinder failure to the strategic farce in Monaco 2022, the Monegasque has become the modern embodiment of Ferrari’s curse. The parallels with past heartbreaks—Massa’s pit lane disaster in Singapore 2008, Alonso’s strategy blunder in Abu Dhabi 2010, Schumacher’s brake failure at Silverstone 1999—are impossible to ignore.
The Anatomy of a Ferrari Collapse
Ferrari’s history is littered with moments where glory slipped through their fingers. The 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix joins a pantheon of collapses:
- 2008 Singapore: Massa leads, pit stop disaster, championship hopes dashed.
- 2010 Abu Dhabi: Alonso leads the title, strategy error, stuck behind Petrov, title lost.
- 1999 Silverstone: Schumacher’s brake failure, championship over.
- 2022 Monaco: Leclerc on pole, strategy chaos, finishes fourth.
The common thread? When the pressure is highest, Ferrari finds new and inventive ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The 2025 Hungarian GP was just the latest chapter.
The Human Drama: Heroes, Heartbreak, and Hide the Pain Harold
Formula 1 is not just about machines and milliseconds; it’s about people. The Hungarian paddock was alive with stories, from Lando Norris’s careful trophy handling to the sight of meme legend Hide the Pain Harold (Andras Arato) mingling with drivers. Even rock royalty made an appearance, with Axl Rose waving the chequered flag for Norris’s ninth win.
Fernando Alonso, now the sport’s elder statesman, finished fifth—his best result of the season—while his protégé Gabriel Bortoleto scored a career-best sixth. The old guard and the new, side by side, reminding us that F1 is a sport of generations.
The Standings: A Two-Horse Race?
With 14 races down, the championship battle is shaping up as a McLaren civil war. Piastri leads Norris by nine points, with Ferrari and Mercedes left to pick up the scraps. The table below tells the story:
| Position | Driver | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 284 |
| 2 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 275 |
| 3 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 151 |
| 4 | George Russell | Mercedes | 172 |
| 5 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | 26 |
The Summer Break: A Pause or a Turning Point?
As the paddock packs up for the summer break, the questions linger. Can McLaren maintain their relentless form? Will Ferrari finally exorcise their demons, or is another heartbreak lurking around the corner? And what of Norris and Piastri—will their intra-team rivalry ignite, or will papaya harmony prevail?
If history teaches us anything, it’s that nothing in Formula 1 is ever certain. Just ask Ferrari.
Waste a bit more time
- 9 things you might have missed from the Hungarian GP weekend
- 6 Winners and 5 Losers from Hungary – Who goes into the summer break with a spring in their step?
- McLaren ‘as close to perfect as you can get’ – Brown – F1
- Ferrari at a loss to explain Charles Leclerc’s Hungarian GP collapse
