Must know forward of the Hungarian Grand Prix

This weekend sees groups and drivers compete in Budapest with the Hungaroring staging the Hungarian Grand Prix, Spherical 12 of the 2023 FIA System One World Championship. F1Technical’s senior author picks out the important thing info forward of as we speak’s Budapest F1 race.

At this time’s Hungarian Grand Prix would be the thirty eighth F1 race in Hungary. The monitor that’s located simply on the outskirts of Hungary’s capital Budapest made its debut in 1986 and has run uninterrupted since. Solely Monza has a file of an extended run of consecutive races which has staged a race in each single 12 months since 1950 apart from 1980 when Imola hosten the Italian Grand Prix.

Lengthy historical past – Though Hungary joined the F1 circus in 1986, one must look again additional to seek out the primary ever Hungarian Grand Prix. The primary GP was held in 1936 over a 5km monitor specified by Népliget, an enormous park in Budapest. That race was solely staged as soon as with Alfa Romeo’s Tazio Nuvolari taking the victory.

King of the ring – Lewis Hamilton nonetheless holds the file for many wins in Hungary. The Briton has gained eight instances, taking victory each for McLaren and Mercedes. Michael Schumacher is the second most profitable drivers with 4 triumphs adopted by Ayrton Senna with three victories.

The quickest lap – The British seven-time world champion not solely holds the file for many wins across the Hungaroring, however he additionally claims the quickest ever race lap. The Stevenage-born driver recorded a lap of 1m16.627s on the 2020 Hungarian Grand Prix.

Quick – With 4381m, the Hungaroring is one among its shortest tracks on the present calendar. Followers often love the brief nature of the circuit as through the race they’ll witness the vehicles 70 instances roaring previous the grandstands. The whole race distance is 306.630km. Drivers have to stick to the pace restrict of 80km/h within the slightly tight and therefore barely harmful pit lane.

Different information – Reigning world champion Max Verstappen secured his first pole place on the Hungaroring, setting the quickest lap within the qualifying session for the 2019 Hungarian Grand Prix. With regards to quickest laps, it’s the German seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, who holds the file with 4.

Modifications – New tyre limitations have been put in on the right-hand facet in Flip 2. Moreover, the guardrail on the right-hand facet in Flip 2 has been changed with a concrete barrier and particles fencing.

Drag discount system – There shall be two consecutive DRS zones on the Hungaroring sharing a detection level 5m earlier than Flip 14. Activation factors are 40m after Flip 14 and 6m after Flip 1.

Milestone – 5 drivers have claimed a maiden F1 win on the Hungaroring. Damon Hill took his first victory in 1993, with Williams, Fernando Alonso scored his first win in 2003, with Renault, and Jenson Button scored his maiden victory right here in 2006 with Honda. In 2008, it was Heikki Kovalainen who scored his first F1 win following Felipe Massa’s engine blow-up within the closing phases of the race. 2021 noticed Alpine’s racer Esteban Ocon take his first F1 triumph within the rain-affected race.

The softest – System One’s tyre provider Pirelli introduced its softest compounds to the Hungaroring: C3 because the P Zero White onerous, C4 because the P Zero Yellow medium, C5 because the P Zero Pink comfortable. This can be a softer allocation than it was final 12 months with the choice having been motivated by the truth that drivers had difficulties with warm-up on the cooler floor of the Hungaroring in 2022.

Traction – The twisty Hungarian race course isn’t a very high-energy circuit, with clean asphalt that’s generally bumpy in locations, and the calls for on tyres being extra about traction than braking.

Technical – The tight and twisty Hungaroring is commonly likened to Monaco as a result of its nature. The 4.3km monitor is likely one of the slowest everlasting tracks on the System 1 calendar and it is sometimes called an outsized go-kart monitor as a result of its gradual corners and vast, elongated kerbs. In reality, it was even slower prior to now till 2003 when the structure underwent some modified: the size of the pit straight was prolonged by round 200 metres to make it 908 metres lengthy.

Residence hero – Hungary has solely ever had one System 1 driver: Zsolt Baumgartner. The Hungarian made his debut in 2003 on house turf when he was drafted in to interchange Ralph Firman, who crashed closely in practce. Baumgartner then joined Minardi for the next 12 months and scored a championship level at the US Grand Prix.