Tag: hungary

Broadcast Times for the Formula 1 Pirelli Magyar Nagydij 2014 (Hungarian Grand Prix)

The grand prix before Formula 1 takes a break always draws plenty of excitement. The Hungarian Grand Prix always manages to throw in a twist in the tail for the Formula 1 season. It’s not the most exciting of races as the nature of the track makes overtaking quite a challenge. Most of the overtakes are done during the pit stops and if a driver happens to get stuck in traffic, it ends up ruining a good finishing position.

The Hungaroring circuit has many medium speed corners with a few very slow corners thrown in for good measure. There are a few overtaking spots that can make things exciting. The run to turn 1 will be the most popular. But the other opportunities are T2, T3, and if your brave enough T4. There may also be a chance into T12.

Mercedes are going into the race as favorites. The track should suit the Silver Arrows in a high downforce setup. Nico Rosberg will want to extend his championship lead and will try to make it two victories in a row. Lewis Hamilton on the other hand, feels that he has only one objective for this race, and that is to beat his team mate.

The Williams drivers will want to put in a strong performance and are hoping that they can claim a victory. Felipe Massa, after crashing out at the German Grand Prix, will be looking to finish on the podium after watching the previous two races from the pits. After seeing just how strong the Williams cars are in race trim, he will no doubt want to show what he can do. Valtteri Bottas on the other hand wants the victory. He was happy about beating a Mercedes at Hockenheim and he will want to finish ahead of the pack.

Red Bull and Ferrari seem to be there about, with Red Bull pulling ahead of the Maranello based team. Ferrari did say that the Hungary circuit will suit the F14T. Only time will tell if they got that one right. Red Bull have shown that they have a very good car which was only hamstrung by the fact that its very slow on the straights. The tight and twisty nature of the Hungaroring circuit will play into the hands of the RB10.

It’s going to be exciting who will get the victory and the much needed boost before the summer break.

Below are the broadcast times for the 2014 Formula 1 Pirelli Hungarian Grand Prix

Free Practice 1: Friday 10:00

Free Practice 2: Friday 14:00

Free Practice 3: Saturday 11:00

Qualifying: 14:00

Race: Sunday 14:00

All times are GMT+2.

You can catch our live updates during FP3, Qualifying and the Race with updates throughout FP1 and FP2.

July 24, 2014
F1 2014: Hungarian GP Preview – Tricky Hungarian Test Awaits

Less than seven days later the Formula 1 paddock descends on the city of Budapest for the Hungarian GP. Technical in nature the 4.381 km circuit will require high downforce, efficient cooling and most importantly a good qualifying performance.

The Hungaroring is often referred to as Monaco without the barriers because of its tricky layout which for the most part has only one racing line. Consequently, there won’t be much opportunity for overtaking nor will all mistakes go unpunished. The Hungaroring retains some of the old-school Formula 1 characteristics which means that gravel traps and barriers loom in close proximity. Contrastingly, there are several tarmac run-off areas which offer some reprieve for error-stricken drivers.

Given the lack of proper overtaking opportunities strategy will be particularly important. The extremely high track temperatures seen at Hockenheim has given the teams vital information as to how to Pirelli rubber will react when exposed to similar conditions in Hungary. The tyres we are bringing to Hungary are a step harder, to deal with the increased demands, so we would expect the usual two pit stops,” predicted Pirelli’s Paul Hembery.

The circuit’s layout is dominated by medium to high-speed corners with little time spent at full throttle. However, the average speed of the lap remains fairly high. “The Hungaroring is a great track,” says McLaren’s Jenson Button. “Everybody thinks of it as a slow circuit, but, out the back, it’s got some pretty decent corners – Turn Four requires some serious commitment, and it’s made harder because it has a blind apex. Equally, the sequence of S-bends that make up Turns Eight to 11 are really satisfying to drive.”

Lewis Hamilton has been dogged by issues in qualifying for the last several races as he trails fourteen points behind teammate and championship leader Nico Rosberg. However, Hamilton is prepared to come out fighting once more and resolutely said that enjoys having to fight for victories and the title.

The 2008 champion may have more to fight against this weekend than just his teammate. The Williams team has been on the cusp several times of mounting a serious battle for victory and if they can continue their stunning momentum Hungary may be their best chance yet.

Williams’ chance to win the Hungarian GP will come on Saturday. The Hungaroring, much like Monte Carlo, is notoriously difficult to overtake on. Despite the fact that race pace is always priority for Bottas, Massa and their engineers they may devote a bit more time and effort than usual to enhancing their one lap pace. But locking out the front row or securing pole position won’t be all that is required. The team will have to take an aggressive approach on strategy as they still lack on overall race pace when compared to the Silver Arrows.

By this stage of the season the duel between the Mercedes drivers is as intense as at any other point.

However, their attention may be required elsewhere this weekend. Can Williams steal the all mighty Mercedes’ thunder?

July 23, 2014
F1 2013: McLaren’s Button optimistic for Belgium GP

McLaren have said that they believe their 2012 car ‘overperformed’ towards the end of last season.

Team Principal Martin Whitmarsh said that the the 2012 McLaren out delivered what the team expected from data compiled through its wind tunnel model. Meaning that the 2012 car was better than its smaller scale wind tunnel counterpart. A slight difference in correlation between the full scale wind tunnel model and CFD (computational fluid dynamics) is not unusual.

In 2013 McLaren, by their own standards, has woefully underperformed. This, Whitmarsh said, was just a case of luck not going the Woking based teams way.

“Sometimes you’re lucky in life and you stick all the elements together and they add up. Sometimes they just don’t. There were times when it’s come good and we don’t really know why,” said Whitmarsh.

However, despite McLaren’s struggles in 2013 Jenson Button believes that the Belgian grand prix could be the turning point for his team. The 2009 champion believes that although the results have not been spectacular that the team has improved since the first race of the season in Australia. Button finished seventh at the Hungarian grand prix and is optimistic that the team is moving in the right direction.

“I think we’ve done a good job, and I think we’ll really show that at Spa. It’s a different type of circuit, and a circuit that should suit what we put on the car for this race. It [Hungary] was probably our best race of the year. That’s not saying much, but it’s been a tough season. There is progress there, and I think we should be happy,” said Button.

JB believes that the layout of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit will allow his team to show the progress that has been made. “I think the next race you’ll see us a lot closer to the top teams, and fighting with them. I’m looking forward to Spa already.”

The Belgian grand prix is sure to be a welcome return to racing after a month long break for Formula 1. Will McLaren welcome back some much needed pace?

August 11, 2013
F1 2013 Hungarian GP – Free Practice 2 Report

The second free practice session for Sunday’s Hungarian GP was headed by Red Bull duo Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber.

An incident free second free practice session was run in scorching conditions around the Hungaroring this afternoon. The track temperature reached a high of 45 degrees celcius and the Red Bulls’ pace was just as hot.

Where Mercedes is expected to hold the advantage over a single flying lap teammates Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg could not get closer than half a second to Sebastian Vettel’s fastest time of 1:21:264.

The long runs didn’t swing it anyone else’s favour either. Mark Webber looked to be the quicker of the two Red Bull drivers on the medium compound tyres as the Australian set several laps within a tenth of each other. The soft compound tyre looks in the region of a second a lap faster than the white-walled medium tyre but the degradation level revealed a life-span of roughly eigth to ten laps.

Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen was the only question mark with regards to his one lap pace as the Finn encountered traffic on both attempts of setting a flying lap. However, the Iceman did pop in a time quickest enough for eight after three flying laps while Grosjean set his fastest time on his second flying lap. An indication perhaps that the Lotus is looking after the softer compound a bit better than their competition.

Ferrari looked to be struggling on the softer of the two compounds with a drop off of about two seconds being the result for both Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso.

As the checquered flag fell at the end of the second free practice session it was Red Bull who looked to have the best package both in quali and race trim. It’s up to the rest of the pack to find something overnight.

July 26, 2013
F1 2013 Tyre Update: Pirelli ringing the changes

Pirelli will introduce completely new tyres for the 2013 Hungarian grand prix.

The announcement comes after the Italian tyre manufacturer was put in the spotlight with several tyre failures during the Silverstone grand prix. The all new tyres, which will feature 2012 construction combined with 2013 compounds, will be introduced for Hungarian grand prix. These new tyres will be tested at the young driver’s test at Silverstone in mid-July.

For the immediate future, and this weekend’s German grand prix, teams will be provided with the kevlar-belted rear tyres that were tested at the Canadian grand prix. Teams will also be banned from swapping left and right tyres and strict limitations will be placed on camber and tyre pressures. Pirelli believe that a combination of these factors were to blame for the spectacular failures at the British grand prix.

To prevent a repeat of the failures Pirelli have requested that their engineers be allowed access to real time tyre data, including pressures and cambers, during a race. “What happened at Silverstone was completely unexpected and it was the first time that anything like this has ever occurred in more than a century of Pirelli in motorsport,” said Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery.

“These incidents, which have upset us greatly, have stressed the urgency of the changes that we already suggested – which will be introduced for free practice in Germany on Friday.

“We would like to acknowledge the willingness of the FIA, FOM, teams, and drivers to act quickly to find an immediate solution to the problem.

“In particular, the adoption of winter tests, arranged with the FIA, that are more suitable for tyre development, and the possibility of carrying out in-season testing will contribute to the realisation of tyres with increasingly improved standards of safety and performance.”

Hembery went on to stress that the Pirelli tyres are safe for use. “I’d like to re-emphasise the fact that the 2013 range of tyres, used in the correct way, is completely safe,” he said.

July 3, 2013
F1 2013 – Kimi Raikkonen, making a point

Every single race since Kimi Raikkonen’s return to Formula 1 has had a point – literally.

Raikkonen returned to Formula 1 last year with the Lotus F1 team and has not been out of the points scoring position since the 2012 Bahrain Grand Prix where the Finn took second place – twenty three races in total.

As it stands, only one man has racked up more consecutive points finishes. Seven times Formula 1 world champion Michael Schumacher currently holds the record of twenty-four successive finishes in the points. Schumi’s run of finishes started, as Ferrari driver, with victory in the 2001 Hungarian Grand Prix and concluded with sixth place in 2003 Malaysian Grand Prix.

Naturally, Raikkonen is unfazed by the prospect of breaking Schumacher’s record. “I am sure that it will all stop at some point,” he said. “Obviously we always try to get points and do good races but it can be some small part (that breaks) and it will stop.”

Raikkonen’s consistency in 2013 has earned him the third position in the driver’s championship standings. But the Iceman is keeping it all in perspective. The Canadian Grand Prix is foremost on Raikkonen’s mind and he knows what a lottery the circuit Gilles Villeneuve can be. “The weather can change a lot, sometimes the tyres or the track aren’t working very well, sometimes there are a lot of safety cars, or sometimes another driver runs into the back of you when you’re waiting at a red light.”

A tenth place finish will guarantee Raikkonen the record of most consecutive points finishes but the 2007 champion will undoubtedly by aiming higher than that.

June 5, 2013