{"id":833525,"date":"2026-07-29T11:21:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T11:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/833525\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T11:21:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T11:21:20","slug":"hungary-f1-mailbag-why-did-sainz-not-receive-a-longer-penalty-are-cadillac-getting-worse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/833525\/","title":{"rendered":"Hungary F1 mailbag: Why did Sainz not receive a longer penalty? Are Cadillac getting worse?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Formula 1 sailed into its summer break with a surprisingly eventful Hungarian Grand Prix that ended in Lando Norris scoring his first victory of the season.<\/a><\/p>\n

The reigning world champion looked unbeatable throughout the Budapest weekend, but he did get a little help after a collision between early race leader Oscar Piastri and Carlos Sainz.<\/a> Piastri was trying to lap Sainz but the Williams driver did not see the McLaren and was subsequently given a\u00a0five-second time penalty, one that raised a few eyebrows.<\/p>\n

George Russell endured another miserable race after start-line trouble, serving another dent to his title hopes as Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli extended his points lead over him in the drivers\u2019 standings to 59 points with a smartly-taken podium finish.<\/p>\n

Following your questions, here is our latest F1 mailbag after the Hungarian GP.<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note: Questions have been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.<\/p>\n

I cannot wrap my head around the Sainz penalty being only five seconds. Ollie Bearman gets five seconds for blue flag infringements. Lewis Hamilton gets five seconds for being 0.1 km\/h over the pitlane speed. Yet Sainz caused a collision, ignored blue flags and got a typical 10-second penalty reduced to five seconds because of \u201cmitigating circumstances\u201d that he couldn\u2019t see Piastri from his track position.<\/p>\n

I know Bearman and Hamilton deserved the penalties, but how could Sainz be given the same punishment for a much more egregious incident? \u2014 Nikki V.<\/p>\n

The typical penalty applied to drivers for causing a collision is 10 seconds. But when there are \u201cmitigating circumstances,\u201d in the eyes of the stewards, then that can be reduced.<\/p>\n

We recently saw that happen at Spa when Hamilton only received a five-second penalty for the first-lap clash with George Russell, the mitigating circumstances being his attempt to leave room, the loss of downforce from the dirty air of a car in front, and that it occurred on the opening lap.<\/p>\n

For Sainz, the stewards stated that the \u201climited visibility reduced the degree of culpability\u201d in what happened with Piastri. Combine that with the fact the blue flag system wasn\u2019t working properly, and there is at least a bit of an explanation for Sainz\u2019s part in the clash.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s a pretty flimsy argument. Even if Sainz had limited visibility of Piastri in his blind spot because of the car\u2019s position on the outside of Turn 2 \u2014 which is down to Sainz alone, surely? \u2014 he was being lapped.<\/p>\n

It is absolutely the responsibility of the driver and his team to be aware of the lead traffic coming through, and to respond accordingly. Per the stewards\u2019 document, Sainz had been informed by his team of the blue flags, so there was really no excuse not to have adhered to them earlier or, at a minimum, to be aware a leader may be coming through.<\/p>\n

And what if Piastri and Sainz had been fighting for position? There is no way that the \u201climited visibility\u201d argument would have held up, and it surely would have been a 10-second penalty. A very strange ruling.<\/p>\n

Luke Smith<\/p>\n

What happened exactly with Russell\u2019s start? \u2014 Paul J.<\/p>\n

We knew before the opening lap was over that Russell experienced anti-stall, as the Briton was told over the radio after he asked what had happened. But the team said in its post-race debrief that it needed to investigate what caused the issue.<\/p>\n

Russell said after the race that he \u201cwas on the throttle holding the revs,\u201d which means maintaining a steady engine speed while stationary before the race begins.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of a sudden, about four seconds before the lights went out, the engine just started revving all over the place,\u201d he continued. \u201cI was reacting with my throttle, and it was doing nothing. The engine wasn\u2019t reacting to the throttle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"George<\/p>\n

\n George Russell is third in the drivers\u2019 standings. (Sona Maleterova \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

While Russell did have a new engine, it wasn\u2019t something he\u2019d seen since preseason. Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said Sunday: \u201cIt seems another problem happened to George. It looks like that he gave about 10 percent throttle, and the whole thing revved maximum. He went off the throttle, and it bogged down. So I\u2019m really not happy about too many mistakes that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was just the latest issue Russell has faced this season, like the drive-through penalty in Monaco for speeding in pit lane (a controversial topic after the Alpine appeal), engine failure in Canada and the speed deficit to teammate Antonelli in Belgium (a race where he DNFed due to a collision with Hamilton).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe race was totally ruined,\u201d Russell said about Hungary. \u201cI did my procedure right at the start. Pace was fine. The result was s\u2013t, but the things that I could have controlled, they were just okay.<\/p>\n

\u201cI usually don\u2019t feel like I need a break. This year, I definitely feel like I need one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Madeline Coleman<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next for Williams? James Vowles has once again over promised and under delivered. Alex (Albon) stated their Baku upgrade is nowhere near as effective as Aston Martin\u2019s. \u2014 Adam M.<\/p>\n

Hungary was always expected to be a tricky track for Williams, given how the car is wind sensitive. During practice, Sainz and Alex Albon struggled with high-speed corner stability, said Richard Frith, Williams\u2019 head of performance systems, after Friday\u2019s sessions, and other typical Hungary problems arose.<\/p>\n

But with Aston Martin taking a step forward after bringing its major chassis upgrade, it\u2019s only highlighted just how far off the mark Williams is.<\/p>\n

Winter production delays put Williams on the backfoot. The team has been able to shed quite a bit of weight off of the car, but Baku has been circled as a big moment for them as they prepare a notable upgrade package that\u2019s essentially a B-spec car. However, there\u2019s doubt that even those updates can remedy the issues.<\/p>\n

\"Alex<\/p>\n

\n Alex Albon speaks to Carlos Sainz during qualifying during the Hungarian Grand Prix. (Peter Fox \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know the weaknesses of the car,\u201d Albon said after the Hungarian GP. \u201cThis year, the work that\u2019s been done at the factory, it\u2019s the biggest effort I\u2019ve seen in the team\u2026 I think we\u2019re doing exactly the right things to get back on track. It\u2019s a shame that we\u2019re here in the first place, but I do believe we\u2019re doing the right thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s cured by Baku, I doubt it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Albon went on to explain how the Baku package has been planned for some time. The rest of the grid has steadily upgraded across the first 11 race weekends of the year, some opting for smaller updates across multiple weekends and others (like Aston) for bigger packages at once. The gap that Williams needs to close has increased.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, it feels like Aston is going to be faster for the rest of the year now,\u201d said Albon. \u201cWe\u2019re going to be helped out by some circuits down the straights. But, otherwise, if it\u2019s a corner-focused circuit, we\u2019re going to be on the backfoot.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, to answer what\u2019s next for Williams. It likely needs to be shifting most of the focus to developing the 2027 car soon, even with this much of the season left, to address the gremlins.<\/p>\n

Madeline Coleman<\/p>\n

I\u2019m new following F1. Please be gentle. The Cadillac team appears to me to be getting worse not better. Are the metrics backing this view up or not? \u2014 Stephen W.<\/p>\n

Firstly, Stephen, welcome! I hope you are enjoying our wonderful sport.<\/p>\n

Cadillac\u2019s first season was always going to be difficult to treat with any firm performance expectations. The team is a start-up and has been, to quote team principal Graeme Lowdon, \u201cbuilding the plane while flying it\u201d over the last couple of years. Bear in mind it only got full approval to race this year in March 2025!<\/p>\n

Being anything but last was also going to be unlikely, given the experience and history of the other 10 teams who had all been on the grid for at least a decade. Aston Martin has been Cadillac\u2019s primary competition, but Aston should never have been there in the first place.<\/p>\n

The most concerning recent issue for Cadillac has surrounded its reliability, chiefly due to issues with brake cooling. Valtteri Bottas retired due to brake overheating in Hungary, and only a couple of days before, Lowdon had told reporters that it was still an issue Cadillac was working to resolve.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is a really, really, really difficult area of a Formula 1 car to develop,\u201d Lowdon said. \u201cIt\u2019s an area where know-how and intangible IP is really important. We\u2019re not allowed to get that from anywhere else, we can\u2019t take someone else\u2019s brake duct design. You have to do that learning and you have to do it in public as well with a few hundred million people watching.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

The numbers have been slowly trending in the right direction. Cadillac started the year 3.8 percent off the fastest Q1 time in Australia. That gap dropped to 1.9 percent in Monaco, hovered in the 2.1-2.7 percent range for the next three races, and then fell to a season-best 1.8 percent in Belgium. But Hungary ended up being the biggest gap since Miami at 3.3 percent.<\/p>\n

What if we compare Cadillac\u2019s pace to that of Williams, a team that scored podiums last year?<\/p>\n

That paints a more encouraging picture in terms of progress. The fastest Cadillac was 1.9 percent off the pace of the fastest Williams in Q1 for the first race in Australia and as much as 2.3 percent off in Miami. But since then, the gap has been trending downward. In the last six races, Cadillac has never been more than 1 percent off Williams\u2019s fastest Q1 pace, sitting at 0.7 percent for Silverstone and Spa, and just 0.3 percent in Hungary.<\/p>\n

There are signs of progress at Cadillac. But considering how precious every lap is at such an early stage in the team\u2019s life, it desperately needs to resolve the brake cooling issue to ensure both cars are finishing more regularly.<\/p>\n

Luke Smith<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Formula 1 sailed into its summer break with a surprisingly eventful Hungarian Grand Prix that ended in Lando…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":833526,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,12716,82],"class_list":["post-833525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-motorsports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=833525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/833526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}