Formula 1 will race at the Hungaroring until at least 2032 after the circuit secured a fresh contract extension to host the Hungarian Grand Prix.
The new deal, which adds five years to the track’s current agreement, comes after promises made by the track to undertake significant infrastructure upgrades, including the construction of a brand-new pit building.
Many of the track’s facilities date back to its first grand prix in 1986. The circuit will celebrate its 46th anniversary in 2032.
Continue reading on RACERLewis Hamilton bested Max Verstappen to top spot of an intriguing final practice session at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Warm weather and a high track evolution following rain on Friday made the hour difficult to read, as did the ongoing effects of Pirelli’s reduced tire allocations for teams, which forced them to be more frugal with their run plans.
It took until the final 15 minutes for Hamilton and Verstappen to get to their soft-tire qualifying simulation laps, having spent the balance of the hour on the slower medium tire.
Continue reading on RACERCharles Leclerc doesn’t expect his strong practice pace to translate into a pole position challenge despite topping FP2 at the Hungarian Grand Prix on Friday.
Leclerc headed an unusual top 10 in Budapest, pipping McLaren’s Lando Norris by just 0.015s and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly by 0.232s. AlphaTauri, Haas and Alfa Romeo were also represented on the top half of the time sheet.
Meanwhile Max Verstappen was 11th, and both Mercedes drivers were locked in the bottom five.
Continue reading on RACERLewis Hamilton says his Mercedes car was “at its worst” on a difficult Friday afternoon at the Hungarian Grand Prix but apportioned some of the blame to Formula 1’s experimental tire rules in operation this weekend.
Hamilton finished the day an uncompetitive 16th and 1.06s off the pace. Teammate George Russell was last and 1.489s adrift.
Pirelli has temporarily reduced the number of sets of dry-weather tires available for each driver from 13 to 11 in a push to improve its environmental footprint and create more strategic jeopardy. Rather than the usual two hards, three mediums and eight softs available, each driver has been allocated three hards, four mediums and four softs.
Continue reading on RACERCharles Leclerc topped a shaken-up dry second practice session at the Hungarian Grand Prix ahead of Lando Norris and Pierre Gasly.
Ferrari driver Leclerc used a new set of soft tires to set a best time of 1m17.686s to pip McLaren’s Norris by just 0.015s, with Gasly’s Alpine a further 0.217s adrift.
The final hour of Friday practice featured a diverse array of running plans that made comparisons between drivers difficult to make.
Continue reading on RACERRed Bull Racing and sister team AlphaTauri headline the schedule of upgrades for the Hungarian Grand Prix, with both making major aerodynamic revisions in Budapest.
Red Bull Racing has been dealing with a 10 percent reduction in development time owing to its penalty for breaching the 2021 cost cap and has thus far refrained from bringing major upgrades to the RB19 this season. The team has listed five major parts to the upgrade package applied at the Hungaroring, though four of those components have reliability listed as their primary purpose.
The car has enlarged front and rear brake ducts that will help deal with the higher braking energy generated around the twisty Budapest circuit, The rear duct exits will also add local load.
Continue reading on RACERGeorge Russell topped a wet first practice hour at the Hungarian Grand Prix after Sergio Perez spun into the barriers just three minutes into the session.
Perez was two laps into his run plan when he dipped his left wheels onto the grass getting on the brakes at Turn 5, sending him sliding out of control towards the outside barrier on exit. His upgraded Red Bull Racing car crunched its left-front corner into the wall, forcing a red flag to retrieve it from the circuit.
“I cannot believe this,” the distraught Mexican said over team radio, acknowledging his rookie error.
Continue reading on RACERAlpine CEO Laurent Rossi has been replaced at the head of the French carmaker by vice-president Philippe Krief, effective immediately.
Rossi took up the CEO role in 2021 as the Formula 1 team transitioned from Renault to Alpine to increase visibility of the boutique car brand. The Frenchman will be shifted to a “special projects” role in the broader Groupe Renault.
Rossi’s hands-on reign featured the acquisition from Aston Martin of Otmar Szafnauer as team principal, but engineer Marcin Budkowski and French racing icon Alain Prost were collateral damage of his attempt to shake the team out of its midfield lethargy.
Continue reading on RACERLando Norris played down expectations of a strong result for McLaren this weekend at the Hungaroring, despite his stunning second-place finish in Silverstone.
The heavily upgraded MCL60 looked at home at the British Grand Prix’s fast, sweeping bends, qualifying second and third and finishing second and fourth, with Oscar Piastri missing out on a maiden podium thanks only to the timing of the safety car.
Further upgrades are due on the car this weekend, completing a three-race update cycle that Norris said was the largest he seen in his Formula 1 career. But despite the positivity around McLaren’s big step forward into the front-running pack, the Briton is anticipating tougher going in Budapest, where he doesn’t expect the circuit’s slower layout to play to the car’s strengths.
Continue reading on RACERSergio Perez says he isn’t concerned about the threat posed by Daniel Ricciardo being back on the grid despite the Australian’s intention to take his Red Bull Racing seat.
Ricciardo is Red Bull Racing’s reserve driver this season but has been loaned to the sister AlphaTauri team to replace the ousted Nyck de Vries for the rest of the year. The sudden switch was made after Ricciardo set a time quick enough to have been on the front row of the British Grand Prix during a Pirelli tire test at Silverstone last week.
The test came just days after Perez started the British race 16th, having been knocked out of Q1 for the third time this season. It was also the sixth time in 10 rounds he had failed to qualify inside the top 10 for a grand prix.
Continue reading on RACERDaniel Ricciardo is confident he can avoid the same mistakes that almost ended his career at McLaren in his 12-race stint with AlphaTauri.
Ricciardo arrived at McLaren as one of Formula 1’s most highly rated drivers but was mystifyingly incapable of coming to terms with Woking’s cars across two different rule sets.
The eight-time race winner’s problem stemmed from the McLaren’s particular demands on corner entry, with its comparatively weak front axle needing to be loaded up on braking in a way that didn’t mesh with his driving style. Efforts to adjust his method behind the wheel generated little joy, and he was released from the team last year, with a year still to run on his contract.
Continue reading on RACERYuki Tsunoda believes former AlphaTauri teammate Nyck de Vries deserved at least two more races to prove himself before losing his seat.
De Vries was dropped from the team after only 10 grands prix to make way for the returning Daniel Ricciardo, who will line up in Faenza colors at this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
Red Bull management had expressed disappointment that de Vries hadn’t been more competitive from the outset given his credentials as a Formula E and Formula 2 champion. Whispers had swirled for weeks that the Dutchman was set to be cut from the team, but Tsunoda said he was shocked that it came so suddenly, with two races still to run before the midseason break.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen led Red Bull Racing to a record-equaling 11th consecutive grand prix win with a straightforward victory at the British Grand Prix.
The triumphant streak, dating back to last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, matches McLaren’s legendary 1988 streak that saw the team win all but one race that season.
Verstappen was made to work for his win in the opening phase of the race, when he was jumped from pole by second-place starter Lando Norris.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen secured pole for the British Grand Prix ahead of a surprise McLaren two-three led by Lando Norris.
The qualifying hour started in the damp, but grip ramped up rapidly as the sun broke through the clouds and dried the track into its optimum window by Q3.
The tricky conditions caught out Verstappen’s teammate, Sergio Perez, in Q1, delivering him his third bottom-five elimination of the season in another body blow to the Mexican’s campaign.
Continue reading on RACERCharles Leclerc beat Alex Albon to the top spot in the third practice session at the British Grand Prix, shortly before rain doused the track and curtailed the pursuit of competitive times.
FP3 started dry, but rain had been sprinkling Silverstone for much of the day, and teams estimated they had a roughly 25-minute window before the weather closed in on the circuit once more. Most drivers therefore got their soft-tire run done early to ensure they got their eye in ahead of qualifying later today in the event of a dry session.
Leclerc, who missed all FP2 with an electronics problem that required his mechanics to break the overnight curfew to undertake repairs, was out of pit lane early and rocketed straight to the top of the time sheet with a 1m27.419s, the fastest lap of the weekend so far.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen doubled down on his Friday practice advantage with another session-topping time in FP2 for the British Grand Prix.
Verstappen lowered his FP1 benchmark by more than half a second to string together his best time of 1m28.078s. But his advantage over the field was much reduced compared to the earlier session, with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz lapping just 0.022s slower and pinching the fastest time in the final sector.
It was a promising result for the cautiously optimistic Italian team after applying a raft of upgrades to the car in recent rounds.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen has started the British Grand Prix weekend in strong form, leading a foreboding Red Bull Racing one-two in the weekend’s first practice session.
Verstappen hammered in two times on softs quick enough to top the session, his best being a 1m28.600s set on used rubber. Teammate Sergio Perez’s second attempt at a flying lap got him to only within 0.448s of the leader.
Both drivers have been equipped with fresh power units for the weekend and enjoyed a clean hour of running, bar Perez running over a large piece of canvas that had found its way onto the Hangar straight. Verstappen also complained about a lack of grip on the hard tire at the start of the day, describing it as like driving on ice.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen dominated the Austrian Grand Prix after seeing off an early strategic challenge from Charles Leclerc.
The Red Bull driver got away easily from pole, and after swatting away a pass attempt from Leclerc around the outside of Turn 3 and then Turn 4, Verstappen set about building a comfortable lead.
Leclerc’s biggest challenge quickly became holding off Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz, who radioed his team several times to suggest he be allowed to fight for second place, though he was rebuffed on each occasion.
Continue reading on RACER