Round 12: Hungarian Grand Prix

frostie500

Title contenders know that its now or never!

Ferrari will look to move on from the negative reaction to last weekend’s German Grand Prix with another strong showing in Hungary. The team has progress over the last six weeks and will be keen to capitalise on a dominant performance in Germany where they were never headed.

Felipe Massa returns to the scene of his terrifying accident of last season that not only threatened his career but also his life. The Brazilian was struck on the head from a stray spring from Rubens Barrichello’s Brawn during qualifying but last weekend he showed that he still has the ability to perform at a high level. This weekend though will be very trying as he deals with returning to the Hungaroring as well as the inevitable backlash from his team’s decision to force Massa to let Alonso through.

Alonso though will no doubt have been buoyed by winning in Germany, his first win since the season opener in Bahrain, and returns to where he achieved his maiden victory driving for Renault in 2003. That race was remembered as being one where an unfamiliar sight took place-Michael Schumacher being lapped; this though is becoming increasingly familiar and somewhat expected at times.

Ferrari will no doubt be confident of continuing their good form and their car has shown promise recently on low grip surfaces. Their car also has good high downforce characteristics that the team hope will allow them to allow Alonso to close the gap at the head of the title chase.

To do so he must beat McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, something he couldn’t do in 2007 when his relationship with his then team unravelled. During qualifying Alonso blocked the pitlane and ensured that Hamilton was unable to set another lap to challenge his teammate. The stewards all agreed that Alonso needed to be punished and he lost five grid places, this though was only a slight punishment compared to the decision of McLaren to end their dealings with Alonso at season’s end.

Hamilton has a superb track record at Hungary with two wins and two pole positions and last year’s win was the product of an incredible turnaround in fortunes for his McLaren team as they had been struggling two seconds off the pace in the season’s early races. Jenson Button has also been victorious in Hungary. In 2006 the then Honda driver finally won his first Grand Prix. It would take until the season opener last season before he won again. This year he arrives in Hungary as the reigning world champion and Lewis Hamilton’s closest challenger.

McLaren has won the last three Hungarian Grand Prix with Heikki Kovalainen winning in 2008. The team are confident of another strong showing but with the MP4-25 still showing some problems in high downforce configuration the team might have to rely on guile once more instead of outright pace to challenge for the win.
Red Bull have made a habit of shooting themselves in the foot this season so it would not be surprising to see the team share a wry smile at the coverage Ferrari received this season. That the incident took place so soon after Red Bull’s own intra team situation came sharply into light at Silverstone would only have pleased them more. The team have shown an inability to execute on race days and with the season now firmly counting down to Abu Dhabi they must hope that it isn’t too late to challenge. The team will know that with races at Spa and Monza upcoming that they will be firmly on the back foot to McLaren and its fully functioning F-Duct, Red Bull has one but not on a similar level to their Woking counterparts.

Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel will arrive in Budapest knowing that the RB6 has consistently shown itself to have the best high downforce characteristics in Formula 1 but they will also know that they need to win this weekend because their high drag car might struggle at the low downforce and high speed Belgian and Italian races. Webber finished third last year, setting the fastest lap, and the Australian will be as committed as ever but will face a tough struggle against his teammate.

Vettel was shocked at the public reaction to the team’s decision at Silverstone to give him the new wing but his pole lap in Germany showed that he has lost none of his commitment. Finishing third at home was undoubtedly a disappointment but he showed that he has moved on from Silverstone.

The Circuit

The Hungaroring is situated just outside Budapest and offers the teams a unique challenge. The dusty confines of this tight circuit require a car that changes direction and rides bumps well. The challenge for engineers is to get the car stiffly sprung to rapidly change direction but soft enough to be unsettled over the many bumps. Teams will need a high downforce configuration and the first turn is the only realistic overtaking position.
With overtaking so difficult qualifying takes on enormous importance and with the dusty nature of the circuit drivers need to be on the racing line to have confidence off the line.

The weather for this weekend’s race

Clear blue skies and high temperatures await teams and drivers this weekend with 31C expected for Saturday and Sunday.

BBC Schedule
Friday 30 July
Practice one: 0855-1035, BBC Red Button
Practice two: 1255-1435, BBC Red Button
Saturday 31 July
Practice three: 0955-1105, BBC Red Button
Qualifying: 1210-1430, BBC One
Sunday 1 August
Race: 1210-1515, BBC One

Ghost Train

The F1 website has a rain graphic for friday, lightning for saturday and sunny for sunday

A mixed up grid for Sunday would be nice

amacachi

I'm just glad you said "intra team" rather than "inter team". :pac:

Also stupid BBC haven't classic GPs up on the red button for some reason even though the site says they should be up since last night.

Frank Bullitt

The odd good race here,but its usually a precession though,can see Alonso being quite swift here.

supremenovice

I fancy Kubica.
Went well at Monaco suggesting that the car is good on tight circuits.
Ill probably back him to finish on the podium

lord lucan

Gintonious wrote: »

The odd good race here,but its usually a precession though,can see Alonso being quite swift here.

Bring on an un-predicted downpour. It's quite sad that after the first stop for tyres in every race i'm praying for rain in order to shake up the order.:(

frostie500

supremenovice wrote: »

I fancy Kubica.
Went well at Monaco suggesting that the car is good on tight circuits.
Ill probably back him to finish on the podium

Kubica has a decent record at the Hungaroring as well so he'll be pretty confident. I think it was here that he made his debut in 2006 and he's generally qualified well(except last year in the Rubbish BMW!)

I remember in 06 he finished in the points(6th maybe?) before being disquallified for being slightly underweight and in 07 and 08 he scored points both years with qualifying in the front three rows so he'll obviously be pretty confident for this weekend. Should be a decent each way bet at 40/1!

Driver|Odds
Fernando Alonso|15/8
Sebastian Vettel|11/5
Mark Webber|5/1
Lewis Hamilton|6/1
Felipe Massa|15/2
Jenson Button|14/1
Robert Kubica|40/1
Nico Rosberg|50/1
Michael Schumacher|66/1
Rubens Barrichello|125/1
Adrian Sutil|200/1
Nico Hulkenberg|200/1
Vitantonio Liuzzi|250/1
Pedro de la Rosa|250/1
Kamai Kobayashi|250/1
Vitaly Petrov|250/1
Jamie Alguersuari|250/1
Heikki Kovalainen|500/1
Jarno Trulli|500/1
Lucas di Grasi|500/1
Bruno senna|500/1
Sakon Yamamoto|500/1
Timo Glock|500/1
Sebastian Buemi|500/1

Cookie_Monster

Slightly unrelated. Can you get that BBC race tracker on the website in Ireland? Couldn't seem to get it for last race, few comment on the FAQ about Irish availability but no answers.

BoardsRanger

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

Slightly unrelated. Can you get that BBC race tracker on the website in Ireland? Couldn't seem to get it for last race, few comment on the FAQ about Irish availability but no answers.

You can- but you need to have a proxy server to make bbc think you are residing in GB.

Sparks43

BoardsRanger wrote: »

You can- but you need to have a proxy server to make bbc think you are residing in GB.

bit more detail if you can please

would this allow me to watch the f1forum as well

how do i use a proxy server and is it safe for my computer

thanks in advance

BoardsRanger

Yes it will allow you to view the iplayer and f1 forum aswell. Right- so i use firefox as my browser. So all you need to do is download a simple free programme called "Foxyproxy". After that- you need to find a proxy list for the uk- here is where i get mine http://nntime.com/proxy-country/United-Kingdom-01.htm

Then you take any of those proxies and put them into foxyproxy. Some numbers will work and some wont- you have to try till you get one working. Ok so it sounds alittle bit complicated but i can watch so much more on the bbc f1 website and it only took me 5 min to set up.

Sparks43

good man got it sorted


thanks for the help very much appreciated

amacachi

Don't want to drag up a whole other topic, but just watching last year's GP I noticed how at the start of lap 2 Button bombed past Nakajima, ya know how he's a slow and steady race and all? Once he gets a half chance to pass someone he does it.

Also just noticing how emotive Brundle can be, first couple of times watching the replays he says how aggressive Raikkonen was, then later he points out the Raikkonen was just avoiding someone. Jesus Hungary is such a lottery. :pac: Hope they have last week's IRL officials looking over the first turn of the race. :P

EDIT: Also love how in one of the old GPs when Brundle and Schumacher were teammates and Schumi was ahead of him and ran wide, so Brundle tried to overtake him and Schumi basically ran him off the road. Now I don't like that, whether it was Schumi, Kimi or Hamilton, but I have a feeling that if it had been Senna that Brundle would be singing the praises of what a great move it was. :pac:

EDIT 2: I get the impression that Brundle doesn't particularly like Raikkonen. Sorry if people who keep up with the blogs etc. know that as a fact already. :pac:

EDIT 3 :pac: : I wanna see the 1997 race again on BBC, probably the most sickened I've ever been other than the 2008 Brazilian GP. :P

EDIT 4: I'm tempted to merge all these, doubt anybody read them before this edit anyway. :pac: Just have to say, the Hungaroring looks like an excellent track/facility. Everything looks perfectly planned despite its age and twistiness, and it still has plenty of slopes and that lovely dive down to turn one.

Ghost Train

I miss refueling

Practice starting, looks sunny

Ghost Train

Redbull look miles ahead

losthorizon

Ghost Train wrote: »

I miss refueling

Practice starting, looks sunny

I think no refueling has contributed to better races. Hungary is the last of the crap tracks for this season thankfully. Renault look good around here.

amacachi

LIGHTNING wrote: »

Its only free practice, Mclaren always sandbag in practice. They are most likely running heavy.

True, though I'm worried about just how much faster Red Bull are than everyone so far this weekend. Wonder how they'll manage to screw it up. :pac:

Finding the whole flexible wing pretty interesting, looks lo me like Red Bull have found a way to pass the tests while still getting around the rule, maybe somehow they've managed to get the wing to flex when resistance is applied from in front of it but it stays rigid when a direct downward force is applied.

amacachi

LIGHTNING wrote: »

I find it funny that the main team giving out are McLaren, a team who found a loop hole and put the F-duct on their car giving them a huge advantage over the rest of the grid at the start of the season.

Oh aye, but I doubt they're letting it get to them too much. Can't blame them either though, if they can complain they will, as will the rest of the teams.

Cookie_Monster

No Chandok again, though nothing mentioned by the bbc guys this week...

amacachi

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

No Chandok again, though nothing mentioned by the bbc guys this week...

He was on five live/red button coverage again this week.


The mid-pack looks like it'll be very close this week.

amacachi

How great would it be if Vettel got a penalty for holding up Trulli? :pac:

Cookie_Monster

Williams looking good too

lord lucan

That was one of the scruffiest laps i've ever seen Schumacher put together. That Merc looks awful!

amacachi

Has to be a penalty for Senna/Yamamoto for that.

Ghost Train

Wonder where De La Rosa found that time

amacachi

Ghost Train wrote: »

Wonder where De La Rosa found that time

Kobayashi was on the harder tyres the whole way through Q1, so I'd imagine DLR was as well.

amacachi

Though now I hear he's out of soft tyres so maybe not. :pac:

lord lucan

Go Vettels finger!:pac:

EvilMonkey

lord lucan wrote: »

Go Vettels finger!:pac:

IM0

BoardsRanger wrote: »

Yes it will allow you to view the iplayer and f1 forum aswell. Right- so i use firefox as my browser. So all you need to do is download a simple free programme called "Foxyproxy".

tried that one foxyproxy on the mozilla add-on site and it lookks like its been removed , no download bar for it, but other apps are there with the normal greeny download bar , anyone else seeing the same?

Charlie-Bravo

So, teams now looking for clarification on the 'flexible-supposed to be rigid' front wings! Whitmarsh and Brawn putting it to Charlie Whiting before spending lots of dough on development...it's funny how they moan, just because they didn't think to be innovative with these rigid bodywork regulation before anyone else!