Video: FERRARI AIMS TO SILENCE CRITICS AT THE HUNGARORING
2010-07-30 20:45:26 Author: admin Source:
The European city of Budapest will play host to the Hungarian Grand Prix this weekend, Round 12 of the Formula 1 World Championship. This is also the last round before the series embarks on its Summer 3-week shutdown, designed to give the teams some respite from the 19 race calendar and enable them to embark on the final seven-race stint of the season with renewed vigour.
The Hungaroring, at 4.381 km, is a relatively slow track, requiring high traction, balance and mechanical grip on F1 cars to take on numerous low speed corners and narrow parts of the track. The circuit's characteristics are somewhat similar to Monaco’s street course, whilst still being a purpose built venue.
McLaren continue to lead the championships on the back of the drivers' consistency over the last two races, Lewis Hamilton's fourth place and Jenson Button's fifth at the German Grand Prix was enough to secure a decent lead in the drivers championship for Hamilton now on 157 points followed by Button with 143 points, just 7 points ahead of Red Bull Racing duo Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel.
Button's gameplan for the Hungarian GP would be to maximize the car's package and secure a strong finish. Having incorporated the blown floor on the cars last time out at Hockenheim, Button and company have collected relevant data from previous race to utilize for this weekend's race. The defending champion also realized that the team have gone well at the Hungaroring in the past and the cars' high-downforce configuration should do well on this track.
For Button, the Hungaroring has a special place in his heart as it was the site of his first ever GP victory in 2006 with the then Honda Racing team. "I won my first grand prix in Hungary – and I can still remember that race as if it was yesterday. Actually, what I remember best were the moments after the race, when you finally realize that it’s all real, and you get to see the reactions of everyone around you," he quoted.
Hamilton, also a winner here in 2007, commented, "I’ve always gone well there – I won in 2007, and winning there last year was one of the best races of my career in terms of sheer satisfaction. The whole team was elated with that result because we’d just performed one of the greatest turnarounds in sport, coming from the back of the grid at the start of the season to take victory.”
The Ferrari camp has been under the limelight for the wrong reasons of late; first, the fine imposed on them for team orders at the German Grand Prix, and second, the team have been accused of favoritism towards Fernando Alonso on the basis of current championship standings. Ferrari's President Luca Montezemolo lashed out last week, stating that the media should leave it to them to deal with the team's Formula One progress, and the team should not be scrutinized for every race decisions and such. In other words, "Just let them race!"
Ferrari's record at the Hungaroring is exemplary, having won five times; three of those victories were also one-twos involving permutations of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello. In addition, the Hungaroring witnessed the German clinch the title very early on in the 2001 season, while in 2004 Ferrari secured that year’s Constructors’ trophy at this event, safe in the knowledge that one of its drivers was assured the Drivers’ crown.
This event has a special significance for both of Ferrari’s current drivers: in the case of Felipe Massa, it will be his first visit to the circuit that ended his 2009 season, after he was seriously injured when hit by a spring from Barrichello’s Brawn GP car during Saturday’s Q2. The Brazilian is planning to meet up with the doctors and track personnel who looked after him so well at the time and then he will be hoping for the sort of on-track form that saw him lead sixty laps of his last race here in 2008, before he was sidelined with an engine problem.
As for Fernando Alonso, he has happier memories, having recorded his maiden F1 win here in 2003. He revisited the podium in 2004 when he finished third and last year, he started from pole position.
Renault Robert Kubica reckons the Hungarian GP as his almost-home Grand Prix. His seventh place finish at the Hockenheimring last weekend had made Renault unofficially ‘best of the rest’ team on the grid. His targets for the weekend's race is to get everything perfect across the sessions; qualify in the top ten and finish the race in the points.
Team mate Vitaly Petrov (above) is planning on putting all the pieces together across the weekend. The Russian rocket managed to score a point last time out to keep his driving seat at Renault in check for the time being. Previous experience at this circuit from GP2 should help Petrov assimilate quickly to this track in an F1 car. His target for the weekend is virtually the same as his team mate's.
Mercedes GP have had a double finish at their home GP last weekend with Nico Rosberg leading Michael Schumacher home in eighth and ninth respectively. Last year. Rosberg finished a decent fourth place at Hungaroring with his former team. Meanwhile. Schumacher has labeled the last weekend's German GP as one of his worst races, but is positively looking to move forward for every race weekend.
Rosberg has identified that the team's weakest link thus far is in qualifying, "Qualifying hasn’t been our strong point recently so we will be working hard on our preparations over the weekend to give us the best chance in the race."
Schumacher concurred, "As I said after the last race, we have to remain calm, look into all the details and analyse our performance in order to learn as much as possible from such weekends. That is the way we have to go in order to improve our situation which may already be possible this coming weekend in Hungary.”
AT&T Williams Rubens Barrichello and Nico Hulkenberg prepare for the Hungarian Grand Prix much like the rest of the grid. Barrichello is a winner here in past as well, "We'll be looking to carry our present momentum on to Hungary. It is not as if we had a bad race last weekend - it is just that the rhythm and pace of everyone is pretty similar, but we ended up in a bad position on the track after the start."
"I am confident the speed is still with us, we will just need to work hard in Budapest to make sure we are at the front of the pack we are in," he added.
Force India F1 Team desperately look.to bounce back after missing out on points for only the second time this season at the last race. With new parts to be implemented on the VJM-03s, the team is expecting more positive outings for both Adrian Sutil and Vitantonio Liuzzi.
Lotus Racing is looking to add another 'best of the new teams' honor at this weekend's race among current rivals; Virgin Racing and Hispania Racing team (HRT). The tight, twisty and bumpy track will suit the characteristics of the T127s, and Heikki Kovalainen, winner of the 2008 race with McLaren, and Jarno Trulli, a consistent runner here for Toyota in the past.
Virgin Racing is optimistic as well heading into the weekend after a race finish in eighteenth by Timo Glock at the previous event. Although a broken suspension part ultimately brought Lucas di Grassi’s race to an early conclusion, the pace of the cars underlined the performance that the last three rounds of developments have brought to the continually-improving VR-01.
See our featured video of Red Bull Racing's driver Mark Webber takes us on a lap of the Hungaroring, site of the Hungarian GP,
