Formula 1 @Aramco Hungarian Grand Prix 2022 Preview. #F1 #Formula1 @F1

2022 Hungarian GP Preview – After Max Verstappen cruised to victory at the French GP to extend his championship lead as rival Charles Leclerc crashed from the lead, round 13 of the 2022 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the Hungaroring in Mogyoród, Hungary for the Formula 1 Aramco Magyar Nagydij 2022. This will be the 37^th edition of the Hungarian Grand Prix as part of the world championship.

 

 

2022 Hungarian GP Preview – A look at the Hungaroring

 

 

The Hungaroring is a permanent racing circuit in Mogyoród, Hungary where the Hungarian Grand Prix has been held since 1986. In 1986, it became the first Formula 1 Grand Prix held behind the Iron Curtain. Bernie Ecclestone wanted a race in the USSR (now held in Sochi), but a Hungarian friend recommended Budapest. They wanted a street circuit similar to the Circuit de Monaco to be built in Nepliget, Budapest’s largest park but the government decided to build a new circuit outside the city near the major highway.

 

Construction works started on October 1, 1985. It was built in eight months, less time than any other Formula One circuit. The first race was held on March 24, 1986, in memory of Janos Drapal, the first Hungarian who won motorcycle Grand Prix races. According to a survey put together by the national tourism office of Hungary, Mogyoród ranks third among Hungarian destinations visited by tourists, behind the Danube Bend area and Lake Balaton, but ahead of Budapest.

 

The Grand Prix is held in the middle of summer, which is usually very hot and dry in this region. It’s very first wet Grand Prix race was in 2006. The circuit is normally dusty due to underuse throughout the rest of the year and its sandy soil. As the circuit is in a valley about 80 percent of it can be seen from any point.

 

Normally, an underused circuit becomes faster over the weekend as the track surface gathers more rubber; however, with the Hungaroring this generally does not happen, because the track can get dusty so quickly. The track becomes faster during a qualifying session, which leads competitors to try for their best lap as late as possible. Described as “Monaco without walls” by Ricciardo, the Hungaroring is also a circuit less reliant on engine power meaning the field could be closely bunched than in recent races. Teams run their maximum downforce packages in Hungary to cope with the many slow corners. The issue that will occupy the minds of engineers during the practice sessions is the need to maximise traction to get the best return from the many low-gear acceleration points.

 

The twisty and bumpy nature of the circuit makes overtaking very difficult in dry conditions. Nonetheless, the Hungaroring has been the scene of some several memorable races such as the duels of Nelson Piquet and Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell’s lost wheel in 1987, Mansell’s win from 12th on the grid after a dramatic overtake on Ayrton Senna in 1989, Damon Hill’s almost victory with Arrows in 1997,  Michael Schumacher’s change in strategy to beat the McLarens of Mika Häkkinen and David Coulthard in 1998 and maiden victories for Hill in 1993, Fernando Alonso in 2003, Jenson Button in 2006 in the track’s first wet Grand Prix, Heikki Kovalainen in 2008, and the second win for Daniel Ricciardo in 2014, overtaking the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Alonso’s Ferrari using very degraded soft tyres in the penultimate lap, grabbing an incredible victory.

 

The current Grand Prix circuit layout is 4.381km (2.722mi) in length and runs in a clockwise direction with 16 corners.

 

Race distance is 306.663km (190.560mi) with 70 laps in total.

 

Lewis Hamilton holds the fastest lap record set at the 2020 event with a 1:16.627 in his Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport F1 W11 EQ Performance racer.

 

Lewis Hamilton holds the record for most wins at the Hungarian Grand Prix with eight to his name.

 

McLaren are the most successful constructor at the Hungarian Grand Prix with 11 victories.

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2022 Hungarian GP Preview – Onboard lap of the Hungaroring

 

 

Here is the onboard pole position lap of the Hungaroring from last year’s event, set by Lewis Hamilton in his Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport F1 W12 EQ Performance racer. The seven-time world champion posted a blistering 1:15.419. You can watch the footage right here at the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP3882i0H-0.

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2022 Hungarian GP Preview – The Last Five Winners

 

 

2021: Esteban Ocon, Alpine F1 Team. 2020: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1. 2019: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1. 2018: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1. 2017: Sebastian Vettel, Scuderia Ferrari.

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2022 Hungarian GP Preview – Tyres

 

 

Sole-tyre supplier Pirelli will be bringing with them to the Hungaroring, the white-side walled C2 (Hard) tyres, the yellow-branded C3 (Mediums) and red-marked C4 (Soft) rubber alongside the green-marked (Intermediates) and blue-branded (Full Wets) in case of rain.

 

All drivers will have two sets of hards (C2), three sets of mediums (C3) and eight sets of soft (C4) rubber available to them.

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2022 Hungarian GP Preview – DRS Zones

 

There will be two DRS zones sharing a detection point 5 metres before turn 14. Activation points are 130 metres after the apex of turn 14 and 6 metres after the apex of turn one.

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2022 Hungarian GP Preview – Pitlane Speed Limits

 

Pitlane speeds will be 80km/h during practice, qualifying and the race.

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ICYMI: Verstappen clinches French GP victory as Leclerc retires

 

 

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen extended his Driver’s Championship lead with victory at the French GP and ahead of Mercedes’ pairing Sir Lewis Hamilton and George Russell completed the top three with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc retiring from the lead after a shunt giving his title aspirations another blow.

 

When the 53 lap French GP began, pole-sitter Leclerc got a great run off the line in-front of Verstappen, who at first looked as though he would have to defend against Hamilton into the opening corner, as the Briton launched straight past Red Bull’s Sergio Perez up ahead and starting third.

 

Verstappen slammed the brakes the latest of the top three runners and ran to the outside of Leclerc, but the Ferrari was under no real pressure on the racing line.

 

As soon as DRS was enabled on lap three, Verstappen, who was already able to catch Leclerc on every straight with his lower-drag, skinnier rear wing fitted to his RB18 racer, really began to pile on the pressure of his title-rival, who appeared to be struggling for rear tyre grip.

 

Verstappen cut the gap to 0.5 seconds at the beginning of the eighth tour as he twice got so close running into La Beausset, he looked to attack the outside of Leclerc.

 

But the Ferrari’s higher downforce, larger rear wing meant Leclerc was able to move away through the technical sequences at the beginning and end of the laps and a tense standstill developed with Verstappen dropping back near the one-second mark over the next few tours.

 

The reigning world champion was now the driver struggling for grip as at one moment he slipped off-track at the sixth corner, so Verstappen picked up his first track limits infringement, and by the 14^th tour, he fell out of DRS assistance as Leclerc began to increase his speed back towards where he was lapping in the early proceedings.

 

Leclerc’s gap was reaching 1.5 seconds when Red Bull pitted Verstappen on the end of lap 16 for a set of C2 white side-walled hard compounds.

 

Ferrari, which told Leclerc it was looking at “Plan B” and that the harder tyre-starting team-mate Carlos Sainz was running down the field after his engine change grid-penalty were still suffering from thermal degradation, did not react to cover Verstappen’s stop.

 

But just after they warned Leclerc to look after his C3 yellow-marked mediums, the Grand Prix was turned upside down when the Monegasque driver shunted at La Beausset, losing the rear of his F1-75 racer in an error whilst running close to the edge of the circuit deep into the high-speed hairpin on is degraded rubber.

 

The Ferrari driver spun around rapidly and went straight on into the barriers, when he yelled “I cannot go on throttle” before screaming after realising that he was out of the race.

 

The incident brought out the safety car, where Hamilton, who saw off Perez’s early threat to run well clear of the Mexican before Leclerc’s shunt, lead a busy visit to the pits.

 

The Briton emerged behind Verstappen and still in-front of Perez, with Russell, Alpine’s Fernando Alonso and the McLaren pairing following in the queue ahead of Ferrari’s Sainz.

 

The Spaniard had come up the field from his 19^th-placed grid slot in the early proceedings but was hit with a five-second timed penalty after his slow safety car pit-stop ended when he was released in the path of Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon who had to slam onto the brakes as the F1-75 entry was released from its box.

 

When the race went green on lap 21, Verstappen pulled clear of Hamilton and was soon in full-control, whilst Hamilton edged away once more from Perez.

 

The main action in the field was Sainz’s recovery charge, as the Ferrari driver jumped past the MCL36 of Daniel Ricciardo at the first corner at the restart and got the other McLaren of Lando Norris into the Mistral Straight chicane further around the tour.

 

On the next lap he got ahead of fellow Spanish-compatriot Alonso and then went off after Russell’s Silver Arrow, who then frustrated the sole Ferrari F1-75’s progress for several tours before the Briton’s defence at the turn eight and nine chicane, meaning Sainz got a better run up the hill to Signes, where he epically got in-front with a pass around the outside.

 

In the lead, Verstappen continued to push away from Hamilton and his gap had hit four seconds by the 32^nd tour, before it rapidly went up to almost seven – mainly thanks to the seven-time world champion having to catch a snap of oversteer through turn two and ran off the circuit.

 

From there Verstappen went on with no trouble to take the French GP victory by 10.587 seconds over Hamilton, who was also not threatened in second place – this was despite a moment of worry for the leaders when Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu came to a halt at the turn six run-off area and deployed the virtual safety car.

 

Their gap out the front was because after the overtake at Signes on Russell, Sainz had closed in on Perez and pushed the Red Bull hard as Ferrari fiddled with the idea of stopping the Spaniard again, knowing that if they did the five-second penalty will be applied before his tyres could be changed.

 

Both team and driver changed their minds on whether to come in or not, but Sainz was still out by the 41^st tour and he was right behind the RB18, attacking Perez at Signes and then remained close enough to jump in-front at the last corner.

 

Ferrari brought Sainz in halfway through their battle, but the Spaniard poured cold-water on the call and pulled clear – having taken Russell along in his wake so the Mercedes was then in a position to attack the grip-less Red Bull of Perez.

 

On the 42^nd tour, Russell made a late move on the inside of the turn eight part of the Mistral Chicane and when Perez turn in, the duo came close to tangling before the Red Bull tripped across turn nine and remained in-front, to Russell’s annoyance but with the stewards rapidly deciding the incident did not warrant an investigation.

 

But immediately after this, Sainz stopped for the second time and came out ninth and with almost 30 seconds to try and recover, as well as re-overtaking Norris and Alonso.

 

Sainz did so rapidly and showed solid pace on his way to posting the Grand Prix’s fastest lap but came home in a frustrated fifth place.

 

This was behind Perez, who lost out to Russell after being caught napping after the Mercedes driver jumped the Mexican when the virtual safety car ended as they approached the last corner and then withstood the pressure over the final three tours to hold third.

 

Sainz wound up 11.5 seconds behind Perez, but comfortably clear of Alonso and Norris, with the other Alpine of Esteban Ocon taking eighth in his home Grand Prix after hitting AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda at the Mistral Straight Chicane on the opening tour and getting slapped with a five-second time penalty he served at his safety car pit-stop for spinning the AT03 around.

 

Ricciardo took ninth place and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll came home tenth, despite Sebastian Vettel getting very close to snatching the final point position from his team-mate – with the charging AMR22 racer appearing to nearly hit the other when it was slow getting off the last corner’s apex.

 

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly finished his home race 12^th and in-front of the aforementioned Albon who was 13^th, Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas who settled for 14^th and Haas F1 Team’s Mick Schumacher who brought up the rear.

 

The other non-finishers were Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi and Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen who were forced to retire shortly after they tangled at the second corner in the closing stages, just after the FW44 had attacked the Haas at the preceding opening corner in an incident which is currently under investigation by the stewards.

 

Tsunoda stopped on the same tour as Leclerc’s crash due to floor damage, which he picked up on the opening tour in the clash with Ocon that relegated him to the back of the pack.

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2022 Hungarian GP Preview – The Situation

 

 

Max Verstappen returns to Hungary sitting on top of the World Driver’s Championship with 233 points and a 63-point lead over Charles Leclerc who is second on 170 points, whilst Sergio Perez is a further 70 adrift of his Red Bull team-mate on 163 points.

 

This race weekend has been labelled as make-it-or-break-it for Ferrari after Leclerc’s shunt at Paul Ricard gave Verstappen a massive title-lead.

 

The tight and twisty Hungaroring, is Formula 1’s last race before the summer break and Verstappen holds a 63-point advantage after Leclerc spun out from the lead last-time out.

 

Ferrari, however, do appear to have the car advantage over Red Bull at the moment – whilst Mercedes are also edging closer towards the fight.

 

Oracle Red Bull Racing head to the Hungaroring in P1 of the World Constructors Championship with 396 points and an 82-point advantage over nearest rivals Scuderia Ferrari who are second on 314 points, whilst Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team are a further 126 off the Milton Keynes based-outfit on 270 points.

 

Click here for the 2022 Formula 1 World Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructors Championship Standings.

 

The Formula 1 Aramco Magyar Nagydij 2022 weekend begins Friday July 29 with Free Practice 1 and 2, followed by Free Practice 3 and Qualifying Saturday July 30 and the 70 lap Race Sunday July 31.