F1 Journal Hungarian Grand Prix Track Guide

RACE STATS

     Laps-70
     Circuit Length-4.381km
     Race Distance- 306.630
     Corners- 14     6 Left       8 Right
     DRS Zones- 1
     Activation- Entry Turn 14
         Deployment- Exit Turn 14
                  (Start/Finish straight)
     Downforce level- High
     Tyre Degradation- Medium
     Time @ Full Throttle- 55%
     Gear Changes- 78 per lap
     Time lost in Pit lane- 21.7(fast)
     Pole Side- Left
     Tyre Compounds-
           Hard            Medium           Soft
           C3                 C4                C5                 
      Minimum Starting Tyre Pressure-
                Front                        Rear
               22.0psi                     19.0psi

       Maximum Tyre Camber-
                 Front                        Rear
                 -3.50°                      -2.00°

TRIAL QUALIFYING FORMAT EXPLAINED

This weekend F1 & the FIA are trialing a new Qualifying format, previously run in Baku during the sprint weekend. This weekend is different in that the format won't be incorporated into a sprint weekend and the qualifying sessions with limited tyre running will have a direct impact on the Sunday feature race grid, where as the last test this format set the Sprint Race grid.
also different is the Pirelli and FIA tyre choices.
Qualifying 1 - Hard Tyre only   5 slowest are lost 
Qualifying 2 - Medium Tyre only  5 slowest dropped 
Qualifying 3 - Soft Tyre only top 10 Shootout 
  In Baku Pirelli chose to run the Medium Tyre during both Q1 & 2. This format is meant to help smaller teams with slower cars  to gain an advantage on faster ones by stopping the stronger engined cars from putting a softer compound on to get through to the next round of qualifying.
  Teams are given an allocation of tyre per weekend within which they may choose the amount of each compound they want for the weekend.
Teams like Redbull need to do less runs in qualifying to get through to the next round because their engine/car combined with the better soft compound of rubber means they have a fall back if their run on a harder compound isn't fast enough, this gives Redbull a scrubbed set of softs still within working range for a race stint. This is not the case for teams like..... well everyone other than Redbull it seems in 2023 . Sometimes needing to do 2 runs on a set of softs to guarantee progression to the next round  will render that soft tyre unrace worthy, which compromises their race strategy and Sunday is when the points are scored so they can not run the soft to get through  every time because it would ruin their race ultimately.
This new format forces Redbull and the other teams to make the cooler compounds work harder to get through the rounds of qualifying and historically they aren't the best at firing up those Hard compound tryes. Ferrari and Mercedes also have struggled to make the Hard tyre work in Qualifying this year resulting in some close calls and Q2 exits. So we could see some big names go out in the first 2 rounds of Qualifying and have a brilliantly mixed grid for Sundays Hungarian Grand Prix.                                                                       

TRACK STATS

• Pole Record - 1.13.447 HAM 2020
• Lap Record – 1.16.627 HAM 2020 
• Most Driver Poles- HAM 8
• Most Team Poles – 8 MCLAREN , FERRARI, REDBULL, MERCEDES, WILLIAMS
• Most Driver Wins- HAM 8
• Most Team Wins- MCLAREN 11
• Wins From Pole- 16
• Wins From Front Row- 23
• Winners- 19
• Pole Sitters- 16
• Podium Finishers-  38
• Most Driver Podiums- HAM 11
• Most Team Podiums- FERRARI 26
• Lowest Starting Position to Win- 14th BUT ‘06
• Longest Win Streak- 3 MCLAREN, WILLIAMS MERCEDES               
• Largest Win Margin- 71 seconds HILL ‘93 

PREVIOUS RESULTS-

2020
QUALIFYING- 1 HAM 1.13.447
                          2 BOT 1.13.554
                           3 STR 1.13.377
RACE- 1 HAM (3 stop)
               2 VER (2 stop)
                 3 BOT (3 stop)
FASTEST LAP- 1.16.627 HAM Lap 70

2021 
QUALIFYING- 1 HAM 1.15.419
                          2 BOT 1.15.734
                           3 VER 1.15.840
RACE- 1 OCO (3 stop)
              2/DQ VET (3 stop) no fuel 4 sample
              2 HAM (4 stop)
               3 SAI (3 stop)
FASTEST LAP- 1.18.394 GAS Lap 70

2022-
QUALIFYING- 1 RUS 1.17.377                              
                          2 SAI 1.17.421                                             
                            3 LEC 1.17.567                                            
RACE- 1 VER (2 stop)
              2 HAM (2 stop)
               3 RUS (2 stop)
 FASTEST LAP- 1.21.386 HAM Lap 57            

RANDOM FACTS

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• 3rd shortest track on the calendar
• Ricciardo scored his 2nd win here in 2014
• Damon Hill & Michael Schumacher are the only drivers to take a grand slam here. They both took Pole, lead every lap and Won here. Can Max become the 3rd this weekend.
• There have been 5 winners in 11 years here.
• The is a lower than 50% Pole to Win conversion rate at the Hungaroring
• 8th & 10th on the grid have won the last 2 races.
• Nobody knew it at the time but the events of 2007 Hungarian Qualifying between Lewis Hamilton & Fernando Alonso in front of the Mclaren garages woud give birth to the so called ‘Spy Gate’ scandal and the departure of Mclaren Boss Ron Dennis!
• #wemissyourondennis
• The 55% of the lap spent @ full throttle here is the 2nd lowest percentage of the lap spent flat out on the calendar. Only Monaco has a lower percentage.

 

WEEKEND SCHEDUAL F1, F2 & F3

The Hungarian Grand Prix is an under rated race. Nomally a very hot race weekend its hard on both car and driver. Its a difficult place to over take, so with the running of the trial Qualifying format where competitors are only given one tyre option per Qualifying round, a difficult Qualifying could ruin your whole weekend. Lets hope its as eventful and entertaining as many of our other visits here.  

Enjoy guys 

Joanna Blackmore 
​Writer @ F1 Journal