2018 Hungarian GP : Race Preview

The Hungaroring has been a permanent fixture on the calendar since 1996, although it did previously host a race in 1988 which at the time wasn’t very positively received as an extra chicane was added so not to disturb an underground river, making the circuit too slow and cumbersome. Since the removal of the chicane, teams and drivers have largely enjoyed this race, although it can prove treacherous with its constant corners ready to catch drivers out. 2013 was a textbook example where rain caused pretty much every driver to go off at some point with Valtteri Bottas coming out on top, and 2015 proved memorable as Felipe Massa’s hard tyres kept him on the circuit for his and Meister’s final FF1M win.

Farina ends victory drought with controlled win at Hockenheim

The German Grand Prix was more sedate than usual with low temperatures and low tyre wear influencing the race. Polesitter Tomas Gonzalez went for a very heavy fuel load and a clear one-stop strategy but was overtaken on lap 2 by Kevin Magnussen, whose FJR looked decent on the straights for once. Throughout the first stint, Magnussen was shadowed by Alessandro Farina despite being on a lighter fuel load and appearing to be on a two-stop strategy, but when he pitted on lap 14, he was switched onto a one-stop strategy due to tyre wear being lower than expected. This put Farina in control of the race and despite pitting relatively early compared to most of the field, he was never troubled and went on to take his first win since Aragon.

Joining the Italian on the podium were Vaino Kimminen and James Clark with the second Gojira driver putting in an excellent performance to go from 20th to 3rd after prioritising a race set-up. Another good performance came from Esteban Ocon, who like at the Österreichring, made progress during the first stint and briefly ran 5th before his only pitstop, but his efforts wouldn’t be rewarded unfortunately thanks to a gearbox problem in the closing stages. Conversely, Shake ‘n’ Bake and Mitchell struggled throughout the meeting with their cars lacking straight line speed. Shake ‘n’ Bake later admitted that they were too cautious with their ERS settings while Mitchell’s case could have been down to their ERS limit set by Mugen. FJR’s double points finished helped them to overhaul Mitchell for 4th in the teams championship with the running order for the Hungaroring’s Friday qualifying session being as follows:

Group A

Gojira AutoSport

Shake ‘n’ Bake Motorsport

Mitchell

Andrew Racing

Willows Racing

Tildesley GP

Galaxy Grand Prix

Group B

Tornado Motorsport

FJR

CBA Racing

Ajay Motorsports

Monolith Racing System

GR Motorsports

Paddock News

• The upcoming summer shutdown after this race will give teams an opportunity to rest and prepare for the fast approaching silly season. With only three drivers confirmed for 2019, this could be one of the more unpredictable silly seasons.

Hungaroring’s slippery surface ready to pounce

As previously mentioned, the Hungaroring has a habit of throwing out chaotic races. According to FJR’s chief tyre technician, Scott Nogue-Ripp, “the circuit offers lots of mechanical grip from the softer compounds, more than any other circuit we visit, but this in turn creates a double-edged sword effect where straying off line causes all grip to disappear, particularly at turn 11 where we’ve seen so many accidents over the years. The hard tyre can negate some of these issues, but at the expense of performance, so getting the balance right is tricky.”

The Hungaroring isn’t as power dependant compared to other circuits, which is good news for FJR as their JB-18 chassis has tended not to be quick on the straights, although Hockenheim arguably indicated some improvement in this area, so they can therefore be optimistic for a good result here. By contrast, Shake ‘n’ Bake’s strong aerodynamic efficiency won’t be an advantage here, and after a series of difficult races where they’ve only amassed 10 points in the last three races compared to the 40s of Gojira and Tornado, their championship challenge appears to be slipping away unless they can find something quickly.

Support Races

FF2M returns to support the main series with Lando Norris holding a 19 point lead over Alex Palou, although this should have been at least twice that after three feature races where he’s squandered strong results. With Willows Junior only 14 points behind in the teams championship, they have reasons to be optimistic and can sniff an opportunity to pounce on the floundering STV Racing.

Coverage Details

Race highlights will be broadcast live from 5pm on Sunday with FJR’s James Brickles in the commentary box.

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