Summer Blast at F1’s Hungaroring
Posted on July 17, 2024 Tags: Hungaroring
Spa de Francorchamps next up
Scramble for seats at F1 halfway point
WITH JUST HUNGARY’S HUNGARORING AND BELGIUM to go before world-weary F1 drivers and teams head to all parts of the globe for their summer break, the rumour mill has gone into overdrive.
And with no definitive decision on the few pilots unsure whether or not they have a guernsey for 2025 – who’s going where, and when is anyone’s guess.
Despite those recent much publicised contract negotiations, Red Bull’s senior advisor Helmut Marko is adamant Sergio Perez’ recent horrible form must end tout de suite before the holidays.
It seems there’s a clause in the Mexican’s contract which stipulates he must achieve a certain number of championship points by a given date!
And that number is believed to be considerably more than the 118 he has, sitting 6th after Silverstone.
Those drivers out of contract this year are Carlos Sainz (Ferrari), Esteban Ocon (Alpine), Logan Sargeant (Williams), Daniel Ricciardo (RB), Valtteri Bottas (Stake F1), Zhou Guanyu (Stake F1) and Kevin Magnussen (HAAS).
A lot of to-ing and fro-ing
While Kiwi Liam Lawson is chomping at the bit, following his Red Bull test last week, both lone American Logan Sargeant and China’s Zhou Guanyu (pictured below) are struggling to retain their respective seats.
It is somewhat difficult to consider the likeable Stake F1 driver Zhou Guanyu missing out, given the power behind the extreme might of the China bloc.
Guanyu is, after all, the first and only Chinese driver to have started a Formula One World Championship race so far.
Even Mick Schumacher, son of mighty Michael, reckons he’s still in with chance of an F1 seat for 2024. Good luck with that! He is a pleasant young man.
Sergio, Daniel and Liam
Another teetering on the pointy end is Daniel Ricciardo. Although I don’t doubt the Perth ace has a really good indication of where his future lies.
A decent bunch of points this weekend at the 4.381-kilometer Hungaroring track – located in Mogyoród, Pest County, Budapest – would be extremely handy. And following that up with another bag on the break at Belgium’s magnificent Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, next up, would prove a defining point.
Oscar and Mark
MEANWHILE Melbourne’s Oscar Piastri is having a blinder of a year, sitting 5th for McLaren in the all-important Constructors Championship – halfway through the season – with a massive 124 points (worth a veritable fortune to McLaren).
Daniel, by contrast, sits 13th on 11 points. Although to be fair, there’s currently a quantum difference between Oscar’s ride and Daniel’s RB!
Oscar’s mentor, former F1 gun Mark Webber (pictured above, with his charge) must be over the moon!
Mark has shown exceptional skill as a talent scout because Oscar has already proven to be a serious real deal.
And, for mine, 23-year-old Oscar Piastri has all the makings of Australia’s next F1 World Champion!
F1 Teams Winding Down for Summer Break
Despite the delightful 23C weather in Ocean Reef today, as I write this (it is mid-Winter here, after all), I’m pretty sure the great majority of the thousands of men and women who keep F1 firing on all cylinders have their sights set firmly on warmer climes.
Meanwhile, Red Bull has brought updates with them to this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix, this weekend, aiming to push the RB20 “a step forward again.”
Mercedes have come out on top at each of the last two races this season, courtesy of Max Verstappen and Lando Norris coming to grief in Austria – the first time the Dutchman has gone two consecutive races without victory since the 2022 British and Austrian Grands Prix!
And with the arrival of those new components for Hungary, and with the double-header ending at Spa-Francorchamps, it’s a timely reminder that’s the extraordinary Belgium circuit where Max is unbeaten in the past three years.
Hungaroring – Bernie’s Baby
Bernie Ecclestone – F1 Guru
A classic long-term fixture on the F1 calendar, this weekend’s Hungarian round is where cars must run with a high level of aerodynamic downforce almost, according to Pirelli, on a par with Monaco.
Back in 1986, the Hungaroring made history by hosting the first Formula One Grand Prix behind the then shaky Iron Curtain.
The legendary Bernie Ecclestone – the mastermind behind F1 – originally wanted a race in the USSR, but instead settled for Budapest. A wise move, indeed.
Nestled just outside the city, near a major highway and the town of Mogyoród, the Hungaroring was born. It sits in a picturesque valley, surrounded by greenery.
The circuit was constructed in a just eight months – the quickest of any other Formula One track.
Some 80 percent of the track is visible from any vantage point, which makes it’s a serious fan favourite.
Hungaroring, Mogyoród, Pest County, Hungary
Hungary’s Fan-Friendly Hungaroring
This Week’s Forecast
Last year’s Hungarian Grand Prix saw the highest recorded track temperature of the season at 53C!
This weekend’s event is happening smack in the middle of the current central European summer – with scorching sun, shimmering asphalt, and drivers pushing their magnificent machines to the absolute limit.
And that overheating around the Hungaroring, Pirelli suggests, is a serious factor that needs to be kept under control during the race, especially in qualifying:
The Hungaroring is very twisty with only one real straight that includes the start-finish line. It provides the most likely, if not the only, overtaking opportunity.
It boasts 14 corners, six to the left and eight to the right, some of them being 180° turns, giving the drivers no time to take a breather over the 70-lap race distance.
The track climbs and drops and its 4.381km make it one of the shortest on the calendar.
There are two DRS zones: one on the start-finish straight and the other much shorter on the descent from turn 1 to 2, with just the one detection zone before the entry into the final corner.
Pirelli chooses softest compounds
While the Hungaroring is not particularly severe on tyres with Pirelli choosing the same three softest compounds as last year, with the C3 as P Zero White hard, C4 as the P Zero Yellow medium and the C5 as the P Zero Red soft.
Although degradation can be high, especially when it is very hot – which is the forecast for this week.
On the softest compound a driver must manage to get to the last two 180° corners of a flying lap with enough grip left, which is no mean feat, as the short straight sections of track don’t give the tyres much time to breathe.
While the 4.381-kilometer Hungaroring is a permanent racetrack, it doesn’t get much use, which is why grip levels increase significantly the more it gets rubbered-in.
That will be even more likely this year as there’s been no track activity for a longer time than usual while the facility was modernised, the first phase of which was only completed in May.
So, Pirelli reckons graining could make itself felt, especially in the first couple of sessions.
Overtaking no easy Task
When the F1 circus entered the Hungaroring paddock this year, they found vastly different surroundings to 2023.
To meet the schedule deadline, 400-500 people worked on site at any time – 24 hours a day – with more than 1500 people involved in the project.
Four tower cranes and five mobile ones were used, installing 390 kilometres of piping, 3200 tonnes of reinforced steel, 1674 cubic metres of reinforced pre-cast concrete and 32,000 tonnes of concrete.
The work involved moving 17,000 cubic metres of earth and the new paddock now covers an area of 8000 square metres.
Five drivers have taken their maiden F1 wins at the Hungaroring, two of whom – Fernando Alonso (2003) and Esteban Ocon (2021) – are on the entry list this weekend. The others are Damon Hill (1993), Jenson Button (2006) and Heikki Kovalainen (2008).
Max Verstappen won around this quirky track last year, with the entire field opting for a two-stop strategy.
Lewis Hamilton is the most successful driver at the Hungaroring with eight wins and the seven-time world champion also holds the record for pole positions (9) and podium finishes (11). Of the teams, McLaren leads the way on 11 victories ahead of Williams and Ferrari, joint second on seven, while Mercedes has the most poles (9), one more than McLaren and Ferrari, the latter topping the table for the most podium finishes with 26 ahead of McLaren (23) and Williams (18).
HUNGARIAN F1 GRAND PRIX
Race Schedule
PERTH TIME
Hungaroring | 19 – 21 July
P1
Friday 19th July 19:30
P2
Friday 19th July 23:00
P3
Saturday 20th July 18:30
Qualifying
Saturday 20th July 22:00
Race
Sunday 21st July 21:00
EDITED by AC
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