F101: Beginners guide to F1~ Hungarian GP preview

Germany may only have been a few days ago, and the F1 world may still be getting over (or only just got over) the Ferrari scandal, but this weekend, our attentions turn to Hungary, and while Sunday marked a year to the day since Massa’s nasty accident at the Hungaroring, this weekend, he heads back there for the first time since the near-fatal incident, to once again go racing. So what can we expect from this weekend’s race? Here’s my usual F101 preview…

The 70 lap, 2.7 mile (4.3km) Budapest circuit, which is renowned for being a difficult track to overtake on, and a difficult track to set the cars up for, hosts its 25th Grand Prix this year, and as ever it will be demanding on the drivers, with its many corners, which follow quickly on from one another, and only one ‘real’ straight. The drivers don’t get much chance to relax in the cockpit, and are constantly concentrating hard, as the smallest of errors will be heavily penalised, and they know qualifying is key to a successful race at the Hungaroring.

The long run down to turn one offers up the only real place for overtaking, but having said that it is still difficult, as it depends on the driver getting a good exit from turn 14. For that, the drivers need to get on the power early, while carrying enough speed through the corner. The run down to turn two is half the length of the start/finish straight, and at the end, offers a potential overtaking spot at turn two, as long as the driver gets good traction coming out of turn one. Turn four is an accident black spot, and it was here that Felipe Massa crashed into the tyre wall last year. On the run down from turn three, the Ferrari driver was hit by a spring, which had fallen off fellow Brazilian, Rubens Barrichello’s car during the second round of qualifying. The corners that follow are fairly low speed, while turns 10 and 11 are high speed, heading down to the tight right-hander at turn 12, which is relatively hard on the brakes, as the drivers brake from around 170mph down to 70.

Fernando Alonso qualified on pole in 2009, but after a poor first stop, in which his front-right wheel wasn’t properly fitted to his Renault, eventually coming loose following turn 12, he failed to finish the race, while Lewis Hamilton scored his first win of the season, in a newly-improved McLaren after the team had a poor start to the season. Michael Schumacher holds the lap record for the circuit, lapping it in 1:19.071 in 2004, and of the current drivers, has won the most races at the circuit, having won in 1994, 1998, 2001 and 2004.

Bridgestone will be bringing the super soft and medium compound tyres to the race, and the track could very well be a problem for the tyres if it is hot, particularly as the circuit has some very demanding corners. However, this weekend’s forecast looks like it could be raining for much of the weekend, with thundery showers predicted on Saturday, and light rain showers predicted for the race. Despite the wet forecast, temperatures will be up to just under 30 degrees, so even if it does rain, it is still set to be hot.

After the controversial finish to last weekend’s race, the fans will be hoping for some good, honest racing this weekend, but at a track that is hard to pass on, that may not be quite the case. McLaren have won the last three races at the track, with Hamilton winning in 2007 and 2009, while Heikki Kovalainen won his first race in 2008 at the circuit. The track is also special for McLaren’s newest driver, Jenson Button, who won his first Grand Prix there in 2006. But who will take the chequered flag first in 2010…?