Winners and Losers from the 2023 F1 Hungarian Grand Prix

From the first 11 races of the 2023 Formula 1 season, Max Verstappen has 281 points after his victory and fastest lap in the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Including the two sprint races held thus far this season, it means that 302 points have been on offer, and he has claimed 93.04% of those available.

If he keeps this rate up, by the end of the season, with 620 points up for grabs, he'll walk away with 576 of them.

The way he is going, the somewhat fanciful prospect of him winning every race for the remainder of the year increases. Unless someone finds a way to halt his powers, Verstappen could well win 20 of 22 Grands Prix in 2023.

You may snigger at the prospect and think it simply not possible but Verstappen clearly has Sergio Perez's number and no-one else is even in the same formula - with Mercedes boss Toto Wolff saying the RB19 was F1 and all the other cars Formula 2.

But while Verstappen simply took his fifth maximum score from seven races, his team created a slice of Grand Prix history - and we start our round-up of Winners and Losers from the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix with them.

Winner - Red Bull

Since Charles Leclerc threw the Ferrari at a French barrier while leading the 2022 trip to Paul Ricard handing Verstappen an easy win, Red Bull has only been defeated once.

That was in Sao Paulo on a weekend where it simply did not get the set-up right but over the past 12 months, this is a team operating on as high a level as any in professional sport. Ever.

They have the swagger, the audacity to stop for fastest lap bonus points and know that with the freak of nature in the lead car, the benchmark is wherever it decides.

We are still yet to see the RB19 fully unleashed - but even this hamstrung version is devastating enough.

12 wins on the trot and eclipsing the great McLaren MP4/4 is remarkable as they have overcome all the challenges from rivals or indeed the weather. The car is bullet-proof in reliability these days.

Very simply put, if Red Bull don't win every race this season, it will be a bigger surprise than them actually doing so.

What did Verstappen say?

"What we've been going through the last few years is unbelievable and hopefully, we can keep this momentum for a long time.

"Just to work with the whole team is always very enjoyable. It's always good to look to keep pushing and always wanting to do better, but then a day like this is just perfect."

Loser - Zhou Guanyu

A weekend of so much promise of a big points haul ended with a lapped 16th place finish and the dreams of what might have been.

Fifth was Zhou's best ever Qualifying in F1, with the Alfa Romeo finally showing a good turn of pace on the tight twists of the Hungaroring.

But it all disappeared at lights out.

A slow getaway led to Zhou being swamped from those behind as he recovered from anti-stall before he out-braked himself and rammed Daniel Ricciardo who was then sent into Esteban Ocon with the chain-reaction being completed by Pierre Gasly (more on that below).

From the highs of Saturday to the lows of Sunday. That's F1 and a harsh lesson learnt for Zhou who can take heart from defeating Valtteri Bottas once again over one lap.

What did Zhou say?

“The elation from yesterday’s result turned on its head, and there is no denying today has been very disappointing.

"We are yet to gather all the information about what exactly went on at the start: I was on full throttle, and then all of a sudden, something went wrong and I had to do the entire procedure again just in order to do a proper start."

Winner - Sergio Perez

When Perez needed a good drive and result, he delivered, scything through the field with some excellent overtaking moves on Lewis Hamilton and Oscar Piastri among them.

His Red Bull boss Christian Horner felt this was a "statement drive" with Perez's future under question since Ricciardo's return to the grid.

He just needs to sort his Qualifying. If Perez can start getting that RB19 on the second row at worst, it will make his life so much easier. There is no beating Verstappen at the moment, but finishing second to him is nothing to be scoffed at.

Perez proved some doubters wrong in this race, now he just needs a slither of luck that he deserves.

What did Perez say?

"The track was unbelievably dirty offline so in the last laps, I had some pick-up going through the backmarkers which meant I lost a few seconds.

"I recovered towards the end but it was just too late."

Loser - Alpine

Alpine is currently in the middle of what can commonly be described as a run of 'if it didn't have bad luck, it'd have no luck at all.'

Both Ocon and Gasly made reasonable getaways from the grid, with Gasly being especially cheeky by sending it around the outside of Turn 1.

It was a fantastic idea, until Zhou rammed Ricciardo and the two Alpines were collateral damage. For Ricciardo to hit Ocon was expected, but for the #31 to tag his teammate is just rotten luck and timing.

It's just how it goes. It's motor racing but the team must not lose heart. They have fresh upgrades coming soon and must hope of a step forward as big rivals McLaren have done since Austria.

Prior to Austria, Alpine had 44 points to McLaren's 17. Three races later, that reads 87 to 47. Ouch.

Ocon also briefly received medical treatment by his physio after the impact of landing broke his seat.

What did boss Otmar Szafnauer say?

"There was a concertina effect with one car hitting another leading to our two cars coming together in an unavoidable circumstance. Right now, it’s a bitter feeling for all of us, a tough one to take, but we must keep our heads down and bounce back."

Winner (minus one point) - Lando Norris

Lando Norris spent most of his Thursday downplaying McLaren's hopes of repeating their success at Silverstone - but when it came to it, he repeated it almost exactly.

Verstappen was gone, but he effectively told Perez to forget about hunting him down for P2 - as he did to Hamilton two weeks ago.

Silverstone and the Hungaroring are about as different tracks as is possible, and for the MCL60 and Norris to be best of the rest, on merit, at both is a remarkable step forward.

He now has eight podiums of the 11 the team have claimed under Zak Brown's leadership and his stock continues to rise.

Give him a sniff of a victory, and now the belief is back, he'll deliver or come very close to doing it. The man to watch going forward.

However he did also break Verstappen's trophy on the podium so he loses a point for that.

What did Norris say?

"I think we knew it in the beginning [of the year] that we were going to struggle and we looked pretty poor. We got a lot of abuse saying we weren't doing a good enough job, so I'm happy we have finally proven some people wrong."

Loser - Aston Martin

What the Formula 1 gods giveth, they taketh away just as quickly.

The AMR23 was the nearest challenger to Verstappen up to the Canadian GP, but since then Aston Martin's form has taken a bit of a dive.

Since Alonso's P2 in Montreal, they have a best finish of fifth and have fallen well back off the pace of McLaren and Mercedes, as Alonso took ninth and Lance Stroll 10th in Budapest.

The bubble was always going to burst for the team as rivals enjoyed a hot streak of form, the question now is how do they snap themselves out of it?

What did Alonso say?

"We were not quick enough to challenge anyone in front and we didn't have any threats behind. So three points, ninth and 10th was the maximum today."