The drivers that need to strike gold before F1's summer break

There are plenty of people in Formula 1 for whom August cannot arrive fast enough.

After 27 races in 55 weeks since the pandemic-delayed 2020 championship finally got underway, the 2021 summer break is being eyed hungrily. The schedule is punishing, F1’s inclination to avoid triple headers now a distant memory, with the run of 12 planned races over 15 weeks in the season’s second half (the 50% point won’t come until Saturday at Spa) still to come.

PLUS: The off-track considerations that led to the Hamilton/Verstappen shunt

The wisdom of replacing races that will inevitably fall to COVID’s claws later in the year is highly contentious given the stresses so many events places on team members, with the value of having a 23-25 race calendar and its impact on the championship’s quality concentration still be to measured. Although it certainly helps F1’s push for more events that it is currently witnessing a title battle for the ages…

But before the summer break arrives, there’s one more weekend to cram in – the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix, the championship’s now-traditional end-of-term event. And there are plenty of drivers hoping to secure a glittering result to reflect on during their holidays.

For some, it’s a matter of F1 career survival. Others need critical momentum after a disappointing start to 2021. Most need points – so let’s start with the two drivers that will likely be competing for the biggest haul at Budapest.

Max Verstappen needs to hit back with a big score this weekend after his standings lead was slashed in the aftermath of his controversial clash with title rival Lewis Hamilton last time out at Silverstone.

The Red Bull driver still has the season's fastest car, but he and his team are heading to the Hungaroring track where Hamilton is an eight-time victor, and Mercedes has won five of the last eight races. Hamilton’s pedigree will likely make a critical difference if his squad is there or thereabouts with Red Bull again, or even if it’s slightly behind.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB16B, Lewis Hamilton Mercedes W12

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

The opening two days are set to be scorching, so expect a tyre management race to play out if that heat sticks around for Sunday (it could rain that day, but that prediction will inevitably be much-discussed and then wrong). In any case, with the twisty nature of the 2.72-mile track meaning the tyres getting little respite, this will present another test of the progress Verstappen and Red Bull have made of late against Hamilton’s historically supreme skills in this facet. Track position will as ever be key in Hungary.

Heading into the summer break, it would be a poor reflection for Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez to remain behind the starring Lando Norris in the drivers’ standings. As brilliant as the 21-year-old has been so far in 2021, and how ever-improved his McLaren squad continues to be, the gulf to ‘Class A’ remains significant and the four drivers from Red Bull and Mercedes should be occupying those places in the championship.

Perez is a race winner in 2021, but needs to recover from a poor Silverstone weekend – and being the perfect wingman to Verstappen at a track where Red Bull’s lack of second driver support cost Pierre Gasly his drive two years ago would be the ideal response.

There’s much more pressure on Bottas to grab a great result in Hungary, given the uncertainty of his Mercedes future. If his Black Arrows seat can indeed still be saved, making a good start and being properly in the lead fight for first time since Monaco is the minimum requirement.

Alonso has a five-race points streak to extend, with Alpine locked in a close fight with Aston Martin and AlphaTauri over fifth place in the constructors’ championship – some way adrift of McLaren and Ferrari

Across the McLaren garage, Daniel Ricciardo needs to catch Norris fast. He’s still struggling with adapting his natural driving style to the McLaren, essentially not gelling with the car at corner entry and how he previously liked to combine that with late braking. It shouldn't be so much of a problem at the flowing Hungaroring, but Ricciardo still needs a big result to remind people of his class.

Plus, McLaren cannot afford an unbalanced line-up to cost it in the tight fight for third in the constructors’ championship with Ferrari, where Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr have formed F1’s strongest overall driver pairing.

Esteban Ocon needs to maintain the momentum he secured with a return to the points at Silverstone given his slump over the preceding triple-header. The Frenchman could feel the benefit of a new chassis in his car handling last time out, but with Alpine now “switched entirely to 2022”, per team executive director Marcin Budkowski, it will be a case of holding that form from now on.

Fernando Alonso, Alpine A521, Lance Stroll, Aston Martin AMR21

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Fernando Alonso has a five-race points streak to extend, with Alpine locked in a close fight with Aston Martin and AlphaTauri over fifth place in the constructors’ championship – some way adrift of McLaren and Ferrari.

Both Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi could do with strong, clean weekends in Hungary given Alfa Romeo team boss Frederic Vasseur’s recent statement that “we could keep the same line up or we could change, but everything is open” for 2022. Plus there are the suggestions Alfa would like Bottas to join should George Russell indeed be promoted to Mercedes from Williams.

Russell’s team-mate, Nicholas Latifi, needs to make this event one of those where he hits the ground strongly from the off, which tends to pile pressure on Russell come qualifying – the session where Williams really shines. There, Latifi suffers from going up against one of F1’s star one-lap performers and has been unlucky at times, but his team wants him to string things together more consistently.

A fine qualifying performance can only help come race day, where, if it’s chaotic, Latifi needs to at the very least lead home the Haas rookies in a bid to swap back ahead of Mick Schumacher in the drivers’ standings, with the German currently ahead thanks to his 13th place in Baku, where a safety car penalty cost Latifi.

George Russell, Williams FW43B

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images