Debate | Ferrari and Mercedes will battle it out for P2 in the championship

Another Grand Prix, another storm of criticism for Ferrari. The Italian stable put Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz on a questionable strategy and thus pulled itself out of the favourites role for the GP of Hungary. Meanwhile, Max Verstappen is disappearing on the horizon. Should Ferrari focus on defending second place in the Formula One championship?

Mercedes has held up well this season despite the very disappointing performance of the W13. However, since the team dealt with porpoising, that performance has started to come slowly, as seen in George Russell's surprising pole position.

Mercedes approaches while Ferrari fails

In the race, the W13 proved to have enough pace to make things difficult for the Ferraris and by choosing a better strategy Mercedes even scored its second double podium in a row. With the team consistently finishing as 'best of the rest' in previous races and their high reliability allowing them to finish on the podium far more often than expected, the gap to the leaders was not immense.

By finishing ahead of Ferrari twice in a row and scoring a double podium, Mercedes has now closed a 30-point gap on the Italian team. Meanwhile, the gap between Ferrari and Red Bull Racing is 97 points. Will Ferrari be able to focus on Mercedes rather than on winning the Constructors' Championship, or is the usual F1-75 pace still too much for the German team?