Pit Chat: Alonso wishes you a happy holiday

Editor

As we settle into a long summer break without racing, the Hungarian Grand Prix provided plenty of moments to savour, well, off the track at least.

And first…

Hello Halo

The lead-up to the Hungarian Grand Prix did not get off to the best of starts when the FIA gave the go-ahead for the ‘Halo’ cockpit safety device to be introduced from 2018. Bleurgh.

All the drivers were asked for their thoughts on the giant flip-flop, with the straight-bat response being something along the lines of ‘respecting’ the decision. Some, though, didn’t hold back…

Max Verstappen: “I think that as soon as I have that thing on my car I don’t like it and I’m not even sitting in the car so the excitement has already gone before I’m even sitting in the car.”

What a ringing endorsement. Then, in the same press conference, K-Mag had this to say in what turned out to be quite the weekend for the Dane…

Kevin Magnussen: “It takes away some of the passion that Formula One is all about. When you look at the car it’s ugly. Formula One cars aren’t ugly, they’re not meant to be ugly. That’s the reason that a Ferrari is more exciting than a Mazda, it’s something passionate and if it looks s**t, it is s**t.”

That was swiftly followed by a s**t-eating grin…

And an apology from Sky Sports F1…

Criticism? What criticism?

All eight drivers involved in the Drivers’ Press Conferences were asked about the ‘Halo’, the two quotes above came from there. But you wouldn’t know by watching the official F1 video that was published afterwards. Some clever editing going on…

Hiding it only makes it look worse.

Good Fellas

We felt a bit sad and dirty after all the ‘Halo’ talk, but thankfully Valtteri Bottas and Sebastian Vettel were on hand to lift spirits by providing moments that some lucky young fans will never forget.

Firstly, Bottas enjoyed some minimal talking with a kid who was in awe of meeting his hero. The hug was just lovely.

Then Vettel did this, making everyone else incredibly jealous…

What an awesome gesture.

But the Sky Sports F1 Twitter account did him no favours by choosing this image of him during the Drivers’ Press Conference.

Paul Di Worka

What a weekend it was for Paul di Resta. Ironing a shirt for TV broadcast one minute, putting on his race overalls for his first start in Formula 1 since 2013 the next. No dramas.

The sudden return of the Scot meant there were plenty of stats knocking around about him, but none more shocking than this one…

Di Resta’s return wasn’t complete, though, without a warm welcome back from Kimi Raikkonen.

Mad Max

Back to Max now, who is spending a lot of time firing shots at Vettel when he is not pulling the ‘Halo’ to pieces or bashing into his team-mate.

Vettel called the Dutchman “jumpy” after the British Grand Prix and then had the cheek to say he will probably calm down as he gets older.

But Verstappen is certainly no pushover…

Shot 1: “I say that on the track you have to be an a**hole. Daniel (Ricciardo) is a bigger challenge for me. When the two of them drove for the same team in 2014, Daniel was stronger.”

Ok, so there’s the accusation and the right to reply. We’re done here…no, Max isn’t finished.

Shot 2: “He apologised but I think it is better to not say someone else is jumpy when you have completely lost your head behind the Safety Car.”

via GIPHY

Raging Bull

Verstappen’s “a**hole on track” has not aged particularly well, and neither has this tweet from Daniel Ricciardo after qualifying…

Awkward.

Ricciardo did at least manage to give his friend one parting gift on his way back to the paddock…

Back in happier times, Ricciardo did at least take part in Ziggo Sport’s excellent Yes/No game. However, there was far too long of a pause when asked if he could win a World Championship with Red Bull…

Palmer drama

Ricciardo’s blood would have been pumping after that first-lap retirement, and so was ours after Sky Sports F1’s David Croft said the following in qualifying…

Crofty: “Palmer with a fastest middle sector…”

WTF?!

Crofty: “…for himself”

Oh, now that makes sense. Like Ricciardo, just far too much of a pause!

Lots and lots of banter flies around the teams on Twitter. But Mercedes were pretty savage when it came to Palmer…

And, if that didn’t hurt Palmer, then this rather unfortunate editing definitely would have.

When Pascal Wehrlein crashed in FP2, the first radio message we heard was…

“Are you ok, Pascal?”

After Palmer’s second crash in practice…

“Is the car ok, Jolyon?”

via GIPHY

Dr Wolff

Toto Wolff has such a way with words. Here he is talking about Martin Brundle after he was taken ill at the British Grand Prix.

Wolff: “Martin Brundle used our facility for getting stuff out of his body.”

Beautiful.

Boring Brundle

As Brundle watched the Hungarian Grand Prix from his sofa, his reaction to arguably the greatest moment of the season puzzled many.

Jenson Button was on hand, though, to put him right.

Picture perfect

That greatest moment of the season was, of course, Fernando Alonso going full meta after finishing P6 and setting the fastest lap of the race no less.

We got a taste of things to come in practice…

Then ahead of the race…

Ready. #raceDay

A post shared by Fernando Alonso (@fernandoalo_oficial) on

Then the best of them all…

Talk about zero f**ks given. We’ll never get tired of these pics.

The Last Word

With four weeks until the next race, we need to end strongly and that can only mean one thing… Kevin Magnussen telling Nico Hulkenberg to suck his balls.

Until Belgium…