Why Ferrari had the strategy shocker that helped Verstappen win
After Max Verstappen's difficult qualifying left him 10th on the grid for the Hungarian Grand Prix, few expected him to take an eighth victory of the 2022 Formula 1 season. Yet that's precisely what happened as Ferrari converted second and third on the grid into fourth and sixth at the flag with a bungled strategy that cost Charles Leclerc yet more ground in the title race.
When your two biggest rival teams laugh in derision at your strategy calls, clearly something critical has gone awry. That’s what occurred in the Hungaroring driver cooldown room last Sunday, as the podium finishers checked out the hastily edited highlights of the 70 laps not long concluded.
Runner-up Lewis Hamilton seemed a touch bemused when he clocked a moment in the video and had to check with Max Verstappen. “They were on the hards?”, he asked. The surprise victor tittered “Yeah” in reply as third-placed George Russell couldn’t entirely suppress a smile.
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