15/07/2024
NEWS STORY
One last push before Formula 1's summer break, as the second half of the season gets underway with a double-header on two tracks that could not be more different from one another, the Hungaroring and Spa-Francorchamps.
This weekend, the Hungarian round takes place from 19 to 21 July, a classic long-term fixture on the calendar. Cars must run with a high level of aerodynamic downforce, almost on a par with Monaco, while the following week in Belgium, aero efficiency is vital in order to be competitive through the high speed corners as well as down the long straights. These two venues are also very different when it comes to the weather one can expect, as summer is definitely much hotter in Hungary than in Belgium, although it has to be said that, in recent years, rain has put in an appearance over the Budapest weekend.
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. There are 14 corners, six to the left and eight to the right, some of them being 180° turns. The track climbs and drops and its 4.381 kilometres make it one of the shortest on the calendar, again almost the opposite to Spa, which at seven kilometres is the longest! All those turns mean the drivers have no time to take a breather over the 70 lap race distance. 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.
In terms of the forces exerted on the tyres, the Hungaroring is not particularly severe. Pirelli has chosen 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, which is a step softer compared to the season in which the 18" tyres first appeared. Traction is one of the most important factors, especially across the rear axle. Degradation can be high, especially when it is very hot and the forecast for this weekend is definitely not favourable in this regard, when one thinks back to last year when Hungary saw the highest recorded track temperature of the season at 53 °C. Overheating is therefore a factor that needs to be kept under control, not just in the race but also in qualifying: 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 do not give the tyres much time to breathe.
The Hungaroring is a permanent race track, but it does not get that 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 was no track activity for a longer time than usual while the facility was modernised, the first phase of which was only completed in May. Graining could therefore make itself felt, especially in the first couple of sessions.
On entering the Hungaroring paddock this year, the Formula 1 circus will find themselves in very different surroundings to 2023. To meet the deadline, work went on 24 hours a day, with between four and five hundred people working on site at any one moment, while a total of 1,500 people were involved in the project. Four tower cranes and five mobile ones were used, installing 390 kilometres of piping, 3,200 tonnes of reinforced steel, 1,674 cubic metres of reinforced pre-cast concrete and 32,000 tonnes of concrete. The work involved moving 17,000 cubic metres of earth. The walls of the event area behind the main grandstand have also been built, with a total length of 450 metres, as well as a new staircase leading to the spectator areas. The buildings on the lower level of the paddock have been demolished so that the new paddock now covers an area of 8,000 square metres.
Max Verstappen won here last year, at the end of the race when the entire field opted for a two-stop strategy. Medium and Hard were the most popular choices for the start, although four drivers opted for the Soft, intending to make use of the extra grip off the line. This group included Carlos Sainz who went from eleventh to sixth on the opening lap. This weekend too it is likely that the C3 and C4 will be favoured in the race while the C5 will have its moment of glory in qualifying. The 2023 Hungarian event was the only time that year when an alternative tyre allocation format was tried out, with the aim of looking at ways of reducing the number of sets and making their usage more efficient. The ATA (Alternative Tyre Allocation) meant each driver had two fewer sets of dry weather tyres (from 13 to 11) with the aim of using only one designated compound in each phase of qualifying: Hard for Q1, Medium for Q2 and Soft for Q3.
The Hungarian Grand Prix first appeared on the calendar in 1986, the first Formula 1 event to be held behind the then already shaky Iron Curtain. It has been part of the championship ever since, attracting a lot of fans from countries like Finland and Poland for whom the Hungaroring became the nearest venue at which to cheer on their fellow countrymen - for example Mika Hakkinen, Kimi Raikkonen and Robert Kubica - in person. At a track where overtaking is no easy task, qualifying takes on great importance, which explains why 16 of the 38 editions to date have been won by the pole-sitter and only four times has it been won by a driver who started from lower than the second row of the grid. Lewis Hamilton is the most successful driver here 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). Five drivers have taken their maiden Formula 1 wins at this track, of which 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).