The 2010 Hungarian Grand Prix approaches.

Last year, Felipe Massa suffered an almost-fatal accident here. Now he's back, and with a manipulated result at the previous round in Germany, he'll be out for revenge. Red Bull has lost its performance advantage to Ferrari, while McLaren will be unleashing a more refined blown-diffuser to close the performance gap to the Ferrari and Red Bull teams.

The tight circuit means overtaking will be difficult, and good low-speed handling will be crucial for optimum speed and tyre longevity.




Statistics

Race Date: 01 Aug 2010
Circuit Name: Hungaroring
Number of Laps: 70
Circuit Length: 4.381 km
Race Distance: 306.630 km
Lap Record: 1:19.071 - M Schumacher (2004)


Schedule (local time)

Practice 1: FRI 1000
Practice 2: FRI 1400
Practice 3: SAT 1100
Qualifying: SAT 1400
Race: SUN 1400


Last year's results

Pole position
Fernando Alonso 1:21.569

(Fastest Q2 by Mark Webber 1:20.358)

Fastest race lap
Mark Webber 1:21.931 on lap 65

Podium
1. Lewis Hamilton
2. Kimi Räikkönen
3. Mark Webber

Rain is the only way to make this interesting.

This'd only be the 2nd ever Hungarian GP with rain, out of 24 editions

But yea, we'll have to wait a few days to have reliable enough forecasts.

Rain rain rain rain!!! :banana_ra

it will never ever rain, the forecasts were always bullshit in the past

Quote from Timo1992 :

it will never ever rain, the forecasts were always bullshit in the past

The problem is that people are taking the forecasts as they are, without doing any interpretation.

If the forecasts say that there is 60% chances of rain for the whole day in the closest city(which is a few tens of kilometers away most of the time), it doesn't mean there is 60% of rain on track between 13h45 and 15h45 local time.

In the end there's no way to know if the GP is gonna be on wet track or not before D day, or even H hour most of the time, as rain is so unpredictable.

With our Met Office its safe to assume that the exact opposite of what they forecast will occur.

Quote from GreyBull [CHA] :

The problem is that people are taking the forecasts as they are, without doing any interpretation.

If the forecasts say that there is 60% chances of rain for the whole day in the closest city(which is a few tens of kilometers away most of the time), it doesn't mean there is 60% of rain on track between 13h45 and 15h45 local time.

In the end there's no way to know if the GP is gonna be on wet track or not before D day, or even H hour most of the time, as rain is so unpredictable.

+1

I put the weather forecast in there just for a bit of hope.

The track is around 15-20km away from Budapeset, which is where the forecast is actually for. And as you said, 60% doesn't necessarily mean it will rain within the small window of time when the race is in progress!

Quote from GreyBull [CHA] :

This'd only be the 2nd ever Hungarian GP with rain, out of 24 editions

And that one was awesome. Back when Alonso wasn't whining all the time but driving awesomely (ignore the music, it's the only video of it on youtube :/).

Still possibly the best F1 onboard video I have seen.

Webber talks about Hungaroring using Red Bull's simulator.

Quote from zeugnimod :

And that one was awesome. Back when Alonso wasn't whining all the time but driving awesomely (ignore the music, it's the only video of it on youtube :/).

Still possibly the best F1 onboard video I have seen.

Perhaps the stint at McLaren with Ron changed him... lol

That race he did a very agressive brake test on a slower driver for holding him up, I think it was Christian Klien, and he got a telling off for it if I remember correctly, perhaps the first signs of Alonso's true character coming through back then.

His time at Mclaren did change him, he took a turn for the worse when he realised he could be beaten.

EDIT: It was Doornbos, and it was in free practice...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J650I-fdwbA

He really had it in for the 2nd Red Bull car that year, no matter who was driving it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v ... DW-LA&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v ... 6GqRY&feature=related

Alonso was certainly smart enough to realise that in the pouring rain the best grip is about as far off the racing line as possible, allowing him to catapault around the outside of everyone at turn 5. Some good racecraft as well, lesser drivers would've hit eachother in those first few corners. Despite his questionable behavior you can't deny he sure can drive a car, seems to be the story for a lot of up and coming top level drivers lately.

to be fair even the guys that look hopeless in F1 are bloody good drivers, i remember watching rupert keegan after he'd spent some time being totally outclassed in a season or so doing grand prix, when he was at oulton park in the british F1 championship . he almost lapped the second place driver after about 14 laps. similarly about 10 years ago a magazine did a feature on the launch of a new italian supercar and how the test driver (who's name the journo hadn't heard properly ) was amazing in the way he judged things whilst driving at a highly illegal speed on pubilc roads, when the journo rechecked the drivers name it was a guy who'd done a couple of (slow) part seasons at the back of the F1 field through pay to drive deals.

Quote from Timo1992 :

it will never ever rain, the forecasts were always bullshit in the past

Well last week we had some reall hot days, but on saturday it started raining. Since then we had rain every day, but it became lighter day by day But who knows, weather had been really unpredictable in the past 2 months.

It says that there's 0% chance for rain on Sunday now.

Weather is becoming better and better, dark clouds are going away.

What did I say?

So this will be another boring race, just as the previous ones, not worth watchable.

Quote from Timo1992 :

What did I say?

So this will be another boring race, just as the previous ones, not worth watchable.

Well, there can be crashes. Don't be so certain

chances are maybe 10%, I'm sure there won't happen anything and all 24 cars will come through lap 1 without any bigger problems.

and then you can say race is over

Quote from Timo1992 :

chances are maybe 10%, I'm sure there won't happen anything and all 24 cars will come through lap 1 without any bigger problems.

and then you can say race is over

not if Massa is leading...

the only exciting thing maybe is when the leaders catch up the mobile chicanes and then duff them up and maybe we get an overtake then :P

Quote from tinvek :

to be fair even the guys that look hopeless in F1 are bloody good drivers.

Well that depends how you class 'bloody good drivers'.

Most F1 drivers are very experienced, which puts them at a natural advantage over most over races who struggle to get track time.

Getting into F1 isn't purely down to skill and talent. The fact a wealthier driver can afford to drive a lot more than anyone else in lower formula may be enough to make him more attractive than someone with more raw talent, and less experience.

Wealth = Experience = High Competence Level

Quote from Intrepid :

Getting into F1 isn't purely down to skill and talent. The fact a wealthier driver can afford to drive a lot more than anyone else in lower formula may be enough to make him more attractive than someone with more raw talent, and less experience.

so highly talented drivers like eg yourself get left behind and people liek hamilton who are hardly able to turn a steering wheel rise to the top
in other words capitalism doesnt work

Quote from Shotglass :

so highly talented drivers like eg yourself get left behind and people liek hamilton who are hardly able to turn a steering wheel rise to the top
in other words capitalism doesnt work

What are you on about? Capitalism? Huh?

I am simply addressing a simple point that F1 does not represent the pinnacle of driving talent. That has nothing to do with capitalism! I am not stating what F1 SHOULD or SHOULDN'T be, just stating what IS!

It has to be added however the FIA are trying to make motor racing more of a meritocracy (for drivers), whether it actually will work is debatable