“It’s step by step; we are progressing and becoming better,” said Binotto after the French Grand Prix. “Once again today we have proved to our drivers, we have a fast car and a competitive one.

“We need to turn the page and look to Hungary and do a one-two there, so we simply focus on the next result.”

The twisty Budapest circuit could have been designed with the Ferrari in mind; its 14 turns should suit the car, which excels in the high downforce areas.

Ferrari needs both its cars to shine to take points from Red Bull. Even if Leclerc wins every race from now until the end of the season, Verstappen could follow him home in second and — with the help of fastest lap and sprint race points — still be crowned champion.

Esteban Ocon returns to site of 2021 win

Behind the top three teams, the battle for fourth rages between Alpine and McLaren; the French team arriving in Hungary with an advantage of just four points.

The teams are likely to be closely matched again on the tight corners of the Hungaroring, but there’s something about the circuit that suits Alpine and its drivers.

Last year’s eventful Hungarian GP brought Esteban Ocon a maiden grand prix victory, thanks to the Valtteri Bottas-initiated pandemonium at the start, and some inspired defending by Alonso.

Going back several more years, it was also where Fernando Alonso recorded his first-ever Formula 1 win.

Any hopes of a repeat victory would rely on a freak set of events; more pragmatically, Alpine will be looking to reverse its form in qualifying where McLaren has generally had the edge. Alonso admitted its gap to the Woking team in qualifying is a “bit worrying.”

Alpine often has the advantage in the race, but track position is key at the Hungaroring, as Alonso showed last year.

Upgrades at Haas, but only for one of its drivers 

Nine teams brought upgrades to the French GP, with only Haas soldiering on with its previous spec, after its development programme was held up by Mick Schumacher’s crashes in Jeddah and Monaco.

The upgrade has arrived this weekend, but will only be fitted to the car of Haas’s leading points scorer, Kevin Magnussen.

“In the end, we couldn’t get two car kits to the race track, so with Kevin being in front in the championship we gave him the package to try,” said team principal Guenther Steiner.

The hope is that it will boost an already-competitive car. Qualifying performance in France was strong, even if that wasn’t reflected in the results. Magnussen got into Q3 – but started from the back due to an engine penalty – while Schumacher’s Q1 exit was down to his best lap time being deleted due to track limits. Both drivers then collided with rivals which impacted their race