No shortage of talking points at midseason break

Here are five talking points as Formula 1 heads into its annual summer holiday shutdown:

Ferrari flops

Team boss Mattia Binotto faced increasing pressure on Monday after Sunday's flop as Ferrari started the Hungarian Grand Prix second and third, with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, but finished fourth and sixth.

World champion Max Verstappen and his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez went from 10th and 11th to first and fifth with a comprehensive demonstration of smart teamwork and strategy.

Red Bull leads the constructors' championship with 431 points; Ferrari has 334; Rising Mercedes is third on 304.

Although Ferrari has had the fastest car for much of the season, notably in qualifying, it has squandered that advantage with bungled strategy calls, driver errors, engine and other technical failures and a lack of consistency and reliability. Former driver Johnny Herbert, a pundit on Sky Sports F1, described the Italian team's latest flop as "embarrassing".

Leclerc, 80 points adrift in the title race, pleaded to stay out on the track on medium compound tires while leading with 30 laps to go, but was called in, switched to hards and fell down the order.

Binotto remained calm and blamed an unexpected drop in car and tire performance, but promised yet another in-depth review.

Mercedes revs up

The Mercedes recovery after a dismal and bumpy start to the season has revived seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton, not only rekindling his belief he will secure a 104th career victory this year, but also energizing his bid for a record eighth drivers' title. The 37-year-old Briton's run of five consecutive podium finishes, including two successive seconds, has confirmed the team is back as a competitive－if not yet winning－force. Hamilton said: "For sure, if we take this pace into the second half of the season, we can start to fight those other guys."

Silly season

Fernando Alonso's swift move to take Sebastian Vettel's seat has triggered 'silly season' speculation forecasting more action in the driver market for 2023.

The first vacancy to fill will be at Alpine. Reserve driver Oscar Piastri, winner of the 2020 Formula 3 and 2021 Formula 2 titles, is an obvious candidate. The Australian, managed by former Red Bull driver and compatriot Mark Webber, is regarded as a major talent.

Another vacant seat could be at Williams, where Nicholas Latifi will be out of contract this year. Williams may be interested in Piastri, if he misses the Alpine seat, or Mercedes reserve Nyck de Vries.

The Dutchman impressed in free practice appearances for Williams in Spain and for Mercedes in France.

An outsider could be Williams reserve driver Jamie Chadwick, who has dominated the female-only W Series this season, but a move for a woman driver may not be straightforward.

The future of Mick Schumacher, son of seven-time champion Michael, is another talking point as he is out of contract this year with Haas.

Bouncing ideas around

While the drivers take to the European beaches for their vacations, many teams will keep working on solutions to the so-called 'porpoising' and bouncing problems that have affected many cars this season.

Governing body the FIA is scheduled to introduce measures to control the problem and safeguard drivers, starting from the Belgian Grand Prix. Some teams, notably Red Bull, are opposed to any changes affecting the 'ground effect' formula introduced this season.

Red Bull has designed a car that is less prone to porpoising and has reaped rewards in terms of results. Red Bull boss Christian Horner has warned of rifts in the paddock and pit lane if new rules are introduced midseason.

Behaving badly

Abusive behavior from fans at races and on social media has prompted a response by Formula 1.

It launched a 'Drive it Out' campaign on Saturday, but there were continued reports of abusive behavior and filmed reports on social media showing Max Verstappen fans allegedly burning Lewis Hamilton merchandise at the Hungaroring over the weekend.

"It is not acceptable," said Verstappen. "I definitely don't agree with that because it's disgusting."

The recent incidents in Austria and Hungary follow others when fans cheered drivers crashing their cars or generally booed or abused them.

AFP