It’s fair to say that apart from looking forward to another race weekend immediately after the one in Hockenheim, one of the main attractions about the Budapest event is that it precedes the summer break, when the hard working F1 circus actually gets time to catch its breath, with three race-free weekends, before the relentless championship battle resumes in Belgium.
After the rather dull surroundings of Hockenheim, the Hungarian GP, which celebrates a quarter century on the F1 programme, takes us to one of the most beautiful cities in Europe and as Budapest is just a thirty-minute drive from the race track, everyone can at least find a little bit of time to walk the streets of this historic city. There are not many venues on the F1 calendar where team people plan visits to the opera, or boat trips down the Danube after a day at the track. The track itself is an anomaly, in that although it provides an interesting and varied challenge for the drivers, come Sunday afternoon, the race itself can be something of a glorified parade.
We asked our two drivers what they think of this event:
Jaime Alguersuari
“Last year’s Hungarian GP was my debut in Formula 1 and what I remember best is actually finishing the race, because it was the toughest thing I had done. It was good fun in a way, because I did not care about the lap times or my position, I was just driving the car. It was a great weekend and I had not expected to finish the race, as physically the Hungaroring is a very demanding track with no straights and lots of corners so there is no time to catch your breath and a year ago I was not at the right level of fitness required to be a Grand Prix driver. I am looking forward to going back there this time as, I was so inexperienced last year that it will be really interesting to see the track again with one year of racing in F1 under my belt.”
Sébastien Buemi
“It is an unusual and very tight circuit which is a bit like Monaco, except not in a town, as you run with a lot of downforce. Maximum speed is not so important as you want the downforce for the corners. There is a real buzz at the track, as there is always a big crowd and we like that. On top of that, the city of Budapest is fantastic. I really enjoy driving here even if the track surface is very bumpy, which makes it tough physically. It’s a fun race though, as we only encounter this type of circuit once a year, although for actual racing it can be a bit difficult because with no long straight and constant left, right, left, right series of corners there are no opportunities for slipstreaming another car to get past it.”
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