How Hungarian GP thriller sounded alarm bell for F1 2022 cars

In the blink of an eye, and an expensive few crunches of carbon fibre at Turn 1, the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix turned into a Formula 1 race of the ages.

The drama of that smash, the bizarre scene of Lewis Hamilton forming up on the restarted grid all alone, Esteban Ocon’s calmness under pressure, and some frenetic defensive work from Fernando Alonso helped deliver an afternoon that will not be forgotten for a while.

PLUS: The "heart-breaking" call that led to Ocon's Hungary win

But although we ended up with something truly entertaining, the nature of the race wasn’t all fun and games for those actually involved in it.

Indeed, you could sense the frustrations of drivers who found themselves trapped behind slower cars around the Hungaroring’s tight and twisty turns – and with little hope of finding a way past.

As Hamilton bemoaned how ‘ridiculous’ it was about how much downforce he lost following cars ahead of him – which ultimately triggered an early stop to try to undercut those ahead – Sebastian Vettel found himself powerless to do anything about Ocon’s inch-perfect performance up front.

The situation once again prompted commentators to rue how difficult the current generation of cars make the racing - and how much better the situation will be when F1’s new era cars are unleashed next year when some hope there will be an open door to passing.

But it’s important to understand, and Hungary proved this to the max, that a lot of overtaking and easy passing does not necessarily make for good motor racing. The Hungarian GP was so good because passing was tricky, and a good overtake had to be earned.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB16B after the crash

Photo by: Jerry Andre / Motorsport Images

There seems little doubt that the fastest car left on track was Hamilton’s (for Max Verstappen was missing a good chunk of downforce through the right hand side damage he suffered in the Turn 1 chaos), and had the rules been such that passing was a given, he would have roared away to the win.

The world champion would have not needed any strategy help nor some supremely aggressive driving to move up the order, and a multi-second pace advantage would have left him with a much more straightforward afternoon - and robbed us of the great spectacle we had.

The same is true of the Ocon vs Vettel situation. Judging by their form, it certainly looked like Vettel had a quicker car than the leading Alpine. Were overtaking easier, then it would not be too hard to imagine that he would have seized his moment early on.

So rather than it being an edge-of your-seat grand prix, F1 with cars that could overtake each other much easier would actually have made the Hungarian GP a pretty dull affair. Vettel would have pulled away in the lead for the early phase of the race, before Hamilton worked his way through with a bunch of dull overtakes into Turn 1 before taking an inevitable victory.

F1's done the simulations for how much better it thinks things will be in allowing cars to follow each other closely, but it’s much harder to work out how things will shape up in terms of passing when real life humans are behind the wheel

What Hungary proved was that it is essential for F1 to find the right degree of difficulty for overtaking. Make it impossible, then races will turn into processions and there is not much reason for fans to tune it. Make it too easy, then the passes become too frequent and the race essentially reverts to the order of speed in which the cars are over long runs.

And that would become especially more true in the era of sprint races, where there would be another 100 kilometres of action on a Saturday for those faster race cars to move forward.

Hungary worked because there was that near-perfect balance of overtaking being hard but possible. The battle between Hamilton and Alonso was sensational, as the Alpine ace knew exactly where he needed to close off the door to his Mercedes rival.

Fernando Alonso, Alpine A521, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W12

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

So he duly (and no doubt motivated by the knowledge that he was being a wing man to help team-mate Ocon triumph) produced a text book defence where he repeatedly placed his car in the exact spot where opportunities were closed off to his rival.

Sure Hamilton may have felt that Alonso was being a bit too robust in his defensive moves at times, but most agreed that the Spaniard was on the right side of what is allowed. It was the kind of defensive masterclass from Alonso that provided a reminder of why the 2005 San Marino Grand Prix at Imola remains lauded as such a great race.

A slower Alonso in the Renault holding off a much quicker Michael Schumacher in a Ferrari made the event iconic, with Schumacher returning the favour in near identical circumstances a year later. A few years ago, as F1 pondered a rules revamp to make overtaking easier, Alonso talked about the important balance that needed to be delivered during a period when F1 had been talking a lot about the Imola events.

"We have been remembering for the last week the race in Imola in [April] 2005 with Michael Schumacher and me," he said. "And in 2006 with the opposite result. Very interesting races, but there were three or four overtakes in the whole race and it's considered one of the best shows."

F1 doesn’t know just yet what overtaking will be like with its new 2022 cars.

It’s done the simulations for how much better it thinks things will be in allowing cars to follow each other closely, but it’s much harder to work out how things will shape up in terms of passing when humans are behind the wheel.

The 2022 Formula 1 car launch event on the Silverstone grid. Front detail

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

However, it is encouraging to hear that F1 and FIA chiefs have already made that important distinction between passing and good racing. One does not necessarily guarantee the other. The FIA’s head of single-seater matters Nikolas Tombazis said recently about the aims of the 2022 cars: "It's not so much actual overtaking, but how close they race.

“So being able to follow each other, fight each other throughout the race. So that's what we've been trying to do, mainly acting on the aerodynamics.”

So fingers crossed that F1’s 2022 generations of cars do not work too well and make passing a breeze. Otherwise we could end up ruing the absences of afternoons like Hungary when it was the lack of overtaking that made the racing so good.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB16B

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images