Hungary and this circuit first
featured on the calendar in 1986. It caused quite a stir, being the
first ever race held behind the Iron Curtain, when the Cold War was a
reality. And still today, the Hungarian GP attracts the attention of the
F1, despite the fact that the 4.381 km Hungaroring, is narrow, short,
slow, always very dirty, with overtaking all but impossible. Drivers are
split into two clear camps, either loving it or hating it. The layout
features several corner types, some with heavy braking as well as low
speed turns. Among the most exciting is definitely turn 5, which is
taken blind, with the contours creating a greater impression of speed.
The track usually has little grip when cars start running on Friday, but
improves bit by bit as the track rubbers in. In the past few years, the
surface quality has been much improved, compared to its bumpy past. The
intense heat makes this race something of an endurance test on the
physical front. Scuderia Ferrari has won here on seven occasions, the
first courtesy of Nigel Mansell back in 1989, the last being the work of
Sebastian Vettel in 2017.
Overtaking is a rare commodity. You can try at the first
corner, mainly with the help of DRS. It was here that Nelson Piquet
pulled a great move on Ayrton Senna, with a slide worthy of a rally
driver rather than a track racer.
With a good exit from turn 2, the driver arrives at this left hand downhill turn, which lends itself to different interpretations when it comes to the right line. In 1989, just a bit further on, Nigel Mansell in the Ferrari, overtook Senna, when the Brazilian hesitated when faced with a backmarker.
year | driver | model |
---|---|---|
1989 | Mansell | F1-89 |
1998 | Schumacher | F300 |
2001 | Schumacher | F2001 |
2002 | Barrichello | F2002 |
2004 | Schumacher | F2004 |
2015 | Vettel | SF15-T |
2017 | Vettel | SF70H |