1989 Hungarian Grand Prix review for Motor Sport Magazine

My latest classic Formula 1 race retro review for Motor Sport Magazine is here, and it's for the forthcoming Hungarian Grand Prix.

By Stuart Seeger from College Station, Texas, USA -
Explaining, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.
org/w/index.php?curid=5495613

The Hungaroring round hasn't always been everyone's cup of tea since landing as an F1 venue in 1986. But over time it's developed a knack of being the scene of great drivers putting in great drivers.

And few can have been greater than that of 30 years ago in 1989, when Nigel Mansell for Ferrari defied all odds to come through for victory.

Even for one whom drama followed as habitually as Our Nige, this one has good claim to be his most stunning drive of all.

You can read the tale via this link: https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/history/f1/senna-realised-i-was-only-driver-he-couldnt-intimidate-mansells-majestic-1989-hungarian

New Motorsport Week article: Formula 1's Hungarian Rhapsody

By Derzsi Elekes Andor (talk · contribs) - Own work, CC
BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/
w/index.php?curid=15965571

The Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring is an interesting one. Really.

It long was dismissed as Formula 1's ugly duckling, 'Monaco without the houses' and the like. Yet there has always been a lot more to it than that.

And in my latest feature for Motorsport Week I explore just what it is about the enigmatic Hungarian Grand Prix. Why it's important, why it's captivating, why it grew to be a Formula 1 favourite.

You can have a read of my thinking here: https://www.motorsportweek.com/news/id/23914

Motor Verso F1 2018 Season Summary - Hungarian Grand Prix review

Photo: Octane Photography

My Formula 1 2018 season summary for Motor Verso continues to expand - now it has my take on the Hungarian Grand Prix added. Wherein, possibly for the first time this year, lightening struck twice - and did so in Lewis Hamilton's favour.

As ever the summary includes some wonderful Pirelli photography and the best F1 content about the race on YouTube.

You can check out the latest incarnation of the summary here: https://www.motorverso.com/2018-f1-summary/

Do check out the Motor Verso site too; you'll find motoring news, car reviews and features - the team on the site carry out week-long test drives of the latest cars - as well as photos and videos of the machines.

Hungarian GP Report - Lightening strikes twice

In a season of often inexplicable twists and turns, this one in Hungary was instead an case of history repeating. Appropriately for 2018, the lightening hitting the precise same spots as in Germany a week ago was in itself highly uncanny.

Lewis Hamilton took his second unlikely win in a row
Photo: Octane Photography

Just like then Mercedes and particularly Lewis Hamilton at the Hungaroring looked out of it. Just like then Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari looked poised to make a major gain in the championship. Just like then rain then arrived and tilted things decisively towards Hamilton, who against expectations made the sizeable points gain instead. Only this time the rain arrived in qualifying.

A few sniggered behind their palms when Hamilton hinted at divine intervention after the elements came to his aid in Germany. But with them now doing that right on cue for two rounds now on the spin, it may as well have been have been a matter of someone consciously guiding events his way.

Qualifying order means a lot in F1 of course, and it has long meant a lot at the tight and sinewy Hungaroring. Sure enough leading from the race's off formed the basis of Hamilton's latest victory - but his performance on Sunday and particularly Saturday was highly impressive even so.

Hungarian GP Betting Preview - On the other hand...

Working out who is best to back for this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix may be a matter of balancing a set of scales. Each of the big three teams have reasons to back them. And not to back them.

Will Red Bull be repeating its Monaco celebrations?
Photo: Octane Photography

We can start with Red Bull. The twisty Hungaroring track looks like it could be designed for its car, including that it will show up its horsepower deficit less than any other circuit on the calendar Monaco aside. Red Bull won in Monaco which is a track plenty liken to this one and likely would have had a one-two there without Max Verstappen binning it in Saturday morning practice.

The team clearly thinks this is a conspicuous chance to win too given how it stockpiled engine part penalties for Daniel Ricciardo in Germany to avoid the need to have anything like that here. The only trouble is its actual record at this track which is oddly poor. The team has only won here twice and one of those was a crazy rain-impacted race in 2014 wherein Ricciardo took the lead late on. Otherwise its solitary triumph was back in 2010.

Hungaroring Preview: Straining every sinew

The Hungaroring is a hard one to pin down. This is even though we have had plenty of time to form a view - this weekend's visit will be the 33rd time without interruption that it has hosted the annual Hungarian Grand Prix.

Can Ferrari lead the way like last year in Hungary?
Photo: Octane Photography

It goes right back to when the fraternity first rocked up in 1986. Crowds were vast, its facilities gleamed, the welcome was warm and everything had been laid on. Many cite it as the first of the sort of national-backed purpose-built autodrome that now dominates the calendar. For good or ill.

More pointedly views on the track's layout varied as well. Tight and sinewy with little opportunity to pass, it still has the lowest average speed of any purpose-built track on the calendar. 'Monaco without the houses' quickly became its label. Yet even so the track is challenging and its popularity among drivers is reasonably widespread.

Moreover the Hungaroring over time developed a knack of being the stage of drama, often of the sort wherein great drivers put in great drives - as a technical track on which the driver can make the difference. Nigel Mansell's against-all-odds beating of the McLarens from 12th on the grid in 1989; Damon Hill oh-so nearly pulling off probably the biggest shock win of all time in the Arrows in 1997; Michael Schumacher's suspension of normality in 1998. There are plenty other examples besides.

Hungarian GP Report - Vettel battens down the hatches

"Our car is not always easy to set up. We have become much better at doing so. I would like to see Budapest, how the car works with a low speed and high-track-temperatures track. Then, maybe, I will have a more complete picture."

Hungary was the scene of a red revival
Photo: Octane Photography

It took Mercedes boss Toto Wolff of all people to bring us into line in advance. After Silverstone we thought it simple. Lewis Hamilton had in a single afternoon all but wiped out Sebastian Vettel's long held title lead. Ferrari hadn't outpaced Merc since Monaco in May. Plus Hungary next up is happy hunting ground for Hamilton.

But F1, as well as rarely pure, is never simple. Wolff's words were prophetic.

Flowing Silverstone could have been designed for Merc. The Hungaroring near Budapest, as Wolff intimated, is very different. And contains many things that's given the silver car bother this year - medium speed turns, a smooth surface, scarcely a straight worthy of the name...

Hungarian Grand Prix review for Motor Verso - Red Revival

Photo: Octane Photography

F1 likes to remind us not to look too far ahead.

After Silverstone we thought everything was going Lewis Hamilton's way, as in a crushing win he wiped out almost all of Sebastian Vettel's title lead in an afternoon, and we noticed that Ferrari hadn't outpaced Mercedes since Monaco in May.

But in Hungary Seb took most of the points loss back. Likely not coincidentally it was at 'Monaco without the houses', the Hungaroring. But like Monaco too, despite dominating on raw pace Ferrari's path to its one-two was not straightforward.

Here's my review of it all for Motor Verso: http://www.motorverso.com/hungarian-gp-2017-report-red-revival/

Do check out the Motor Verso site too; you'll find motoring news, car reviews and features - the team on the site carry out week-long test drives of the latest cars - as well as photos and videos of the machines.

Hungarian GP Betting Preview - Hedge with Hamilton at his happy hunting ground

Just as a week is a long time in politics, an hour and a half on a Sunday is a long time in F1. And how the dark clouds parted therein for Lewis Hamilton at Silverstone. After a dominant win, allied to late tyre failures for Ferrari, it all looks good for him. He's but a point off the drivers' table top and suddenly it's conspicuous that Ferrari hasn't out-paced Mercedes since Monaco in May.

Hungary is the happiest of hunting ground for Hamilton
Photo: Octane Photography

And even better for Lewis this round coming is at the Hungaroring. It's long been his happy hunting ground; he's won here five times and adores the go kart track challenges. The 23/17 available for him to win looks well worth your wager.

It might get even better for Lewis as pole position will mean he equals Michael Schumacher's all-time record for F1 poles, and even at odds on - 11/13 - it may still be where the smart money is this time.

You also can get 5/4 for a Lewis fastest lap - and he's got six fastest laps from 10 rounds this year, as well as three from the last four.

Hungaroring Preview: Who can halt Hamilton?

The more things change the more they stay the same. It applies to F1, and perhaps befittingly it can do so in a back to front manner too - that our view of things that stay the same in fact changes.

Tight and sinewy; much depends on the start.
The Hungaroring challenges are familiar
Photo: Octane Photography

Take the Hungaroring, the venue for this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix. When the fraternity rocked up to it for the first time in 1986 it wasn't too impressed. Its facilities gleamed; everything had been thought of. Indeed in many ways the fork in the road for the sport was right here - the sort of purpose-built from-the-ground-up immaculate autodrome that now dominates the calendar. All being bankrolled by the national government keen to 'brand' the country.

The problem was the layout. Nigel Roebuck noted of the 'purpose-built' venue that "we swiftly concluded that part of that purpose had been to prevent motor racing. Tight and sinewy, it amounted to a prescription for soporific grands prix."

And three decades on that's broadly how things remain at the Hungaroring. It still has the lowest average speed of any purpose-built track on the calendar; piling on as much downforce as you can is the default. Overtaking hardly is on the agenda. Little wonder 'Monaco without the houses' became the description of choice back in that first visit. Yet, as with a few other venues that were unloved initially, its popularity somehow has crept up over time.

Hungarian Grand Prix review for Motor Verso - Lewis's cruise control

Don't let the fact that his team mate Nico Rosberg was close at hand throughout fool you. This one was a cruise for Lewis Hamilton. A race decided in effect at turn one also. That it was the Englishman's fifth Hungarian Grand Prix win - a track that clearly is happy hunting ground for him - and that it was is fifth win from the last six rounds were outcomes that were more in keeping with what actually was going on.

Photo: Octane Photography

Not that the closeness likely did fool you if you were one watching Sunday's fare, as if one is to be euphemistic the race was hardly thrill a minute. Still there were plenty of worthy performances on show, not least from Lewis. He also now - in something that would have sounded astonishing just a few weeks ago - leads the drivers' table. Despite appearances sometimes, not everything in F1 is humdrum.

You can read my take on it all in my latest Motor Verso race review, which is here: http://www.motorverso.com/hungarian-gp-2016-review-lewiss-cruise-control/

Do check out the Motor Verso site too; you'll find motoring news, car reviews and features - the team on the site carry out week-long test drives of the latest cars - as well as photos and videos of the machines.

Hungarian GP Report - Five star

It was all the fives for Lewis Hamilton. His fifth Hungarian Grand Prix win. His fifth win from the last six races.

Now you see it - Lewis Hamilton claimed yet another win
Photo: Octane Photography

And if his previous weekend at Silverstone had a lot of the 'red five' Nigel Mansell about it, this one was more like another, less celebrated, Williams pilot from the past with a number five on his car. Thierry Boutsen, who claimed one of his three F1 wins by taking pole at the Hungaroring in 1990, then simply repelling all attacks all race from those behind and never making a mistake, on this one of the toughest tracks to pass on.

That's loosely what Lewis did today. He didn't look the fastest out there the whole time - perhaps a legacy of his momentum lost from his Friday practice crash - but on the sinewy Hungary track position is not so much nine-tenths of the law but ten-tenths. Or should that be five-fifths? Lewis fully exploited that fact, controlling things out front and winning at the lowest possible speed. We shouldn't be too disparaging either, even the man Lewis reveres, Ayrton Senna, won more than one Hungarian race this way. That's the game here.

After qualifying in which Lewis had pole nabbed from under his nose at the last by his team mate Nico Rosberg, it appeared for the reasons above among others that it was going to be a long Sunday for him. Overtaking was off the agenda virtually, while Mercedes as we know usually gives strategy preference to the car ahead. That left the start, not always the most fruitful line of attack for Lewis this season, as about his only opportunity to get ahead. But this time, one way or another, it worked for him. His launch was great, better than Nico's, but he seemed to lose momentum in the second phase (the man himself said he was "just being cautious with the wheelspin" knowing he had a good launch) and Nico edged back ahead and Max Verstappen attacked from behind, as did the other Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo on the outside. But Lewis had the inside line and was able to claim the lead with a brave late-braking manoeuvre, and that oh-so nearly resulted in yet more contact with his team mate after he locked his rears. The day, suddenly, had turned.

Hungaroring Qualifying - Nico plays to the whistle

As they say in football, play to the whistle. Nico Rosberg played to the whistle in today's extended, fragmented and madcap Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying session, and as his reward fired in a last minute winner. One rather against the run of play too. To borrow from the great John Arlott, a man who did football commentaries occasionally indeed, it was a strike so late so as to be positively posthumous.

One way or another, Nico Rosberg bagged pole
Photo: Octane Photography

Pole, which had looked too far from his grasp, is his. That is the bottom line, but boy did we have some adventure and counter-adventure in getting there. The strange way pole was won therefore had a certain aptness. In a sport not short of crazy, interrupted and extended qualifying sessions it is genuinely difficult to cite one from the past that was quite as extreme in all three as today's. It had started with something like a deluge commencing around 45 minutes prior to qualifying's scheduled start, and which was continuing with something like the same intensity both as that intended and the actual start times arrived. The first part of quali alone indeed took a whole 74 minutes thanks to rain delays and various stoppages due to the weather and accidents - almost as long as a Monza race... Even when the track became good for slicks the odd puddle and alternative hazard lingered.

Yet to cut a very long story short (one that one observer compared to War and Peace), Lewis Hamilton - a man who usually has the Hungaroring to himself - looked like he would again. A crash on Friday had threatened to lose him momentum and indeed this morning in practice he was nowhere. In a wet-to-dry qualifying too with times typically tumbling Lewis dodged a bullet by messing up his final Q2 effort and he only just survived by a tenth.

Hungaroring Preview: The 30th birthday of modern F1

The Hungaroring is important. No, really.

When a sceptical fraternity scanned its eyes across the all mod cons Mogyorod facility for the first time in 1986, perhaps not even they will have appreciated the fork in the F1 road that it signposted. One for the sort of venues the circus would up sticks in at least.

The Hungaroring, now on its 30th anniversary,
represented a big shift in F1 venues
Photo: Octane Photography

As if you were to muse over the sort of track that dominates the calendar these days, particularly the newer events, no doubt a few things would come to mind. Purpose built from the ground up just for F1. Super safe. All clean lines and vast architecture, with an accompanying sense that pretty much everything has been thought of. And all is bankrolled by the national government keen to 'brand' the country. But with it comes an attendant nag that something intangible - the well-worn charm, and much of the challenge too - has been lost in the transition.

Well of these Hungary's Hungaroring, the scene of the latest F1 gathering this weekend coming, was likely the very first (contrary to some belief Jerez which debuted earlier that year doesn't count as it hosted a motorcycle race first). And it's especially important this time, as this visit marks its 30th (gulp) anniversary as a Grand Prix venue. Modern F1 - 30 years young. A disquieting thought.

Did Hungary show that Mercedes was wrong to snub Alonso?

In his summing up of the recent Hungarian Grand Prix the BBC's Andrew Benson wrote: "A friend who works in F1 remarked recently how lucky Hamilton was to have as his team-mate in the dominant team Rosberg - rather than Fernando Alonso.

Did Hungary show the down side
of Mercedes snubbing Alonso?
Photo: Octane Photography

"After a weekend like this, when Rosberg's limitations were exposed while Alonso, in the midst of McLaren-Honda's dire season, finally had a chance to show his class and hauled his car to an excellent fifth place, you can see what he meant."

Quite. Indeed neither Merc pilot had a good day in Hungary. Both compromised their races with contact with other cars, while in Lewis Hamilton's case you can add that he had a trip through the gravel on lap one and in Nico Rosberg's odd conservatism on his tyre choices. And if we are to pick up Benson's friend's counterfactual and run with it, whatever you think of Alonso it's hard to imagine he'd have replicated Lewis's impetuousness on lap one apparently seeking to get back places lost at the start pronto. It seems unlikely also that even with Hamilton chasing him down mid-race he'd have forgotten as Nico appeared to that he still had two Ferraris to beat up ahead, and that he was on a converse strategy and the race would therefore come back to him. He may have made the team's choice for him in putting him onto softs for the final sprint. He's done that sort of thing before after all.

History repeating for Mercedes and making life difficult for itself

F1 loves its parallels. Its coincidences. Its mirror images. And so it is now.

Go back 12 months and there are a few parallels
Photo: Octane Photography

Rewind 12 months almost to the day and we'd just had a Hungarian Grand Prix that took us into the summer break on the back of a thrilling afternoon's entertainment. It had a surprise victor, that driver's second win of the season, which cemented his position as best of the rest behind the two apparently dominant Mercedes in the championship table. Replace Daniel Ricciardo's name with Sebastian Vettel's now and the similarities compared with then are eerie.

And then chat burgeoned in the race's aftermath that Mercedes might even by fumbling between themselves let Ricciardo in for the title honours - the historical  pseudo-parallels of what Kimi Raikkonen did to McLaren in 2007 and Alain Prost to Williams in 1986 were pointed to knowingly.

It always was the longest of long shots for a few reasons, and so it proved in time. But even so it's odd that there seems far less audible talk to that effect now. Not only is Seb much closer at hand on points than Danny Ric was then (42 points to the summit for Seb now compared with 71 for Ricciardo at last year's summer break) he's also closer on general pace.

Hungarian Grand Prix review for Motor Verso - Seb is the man of the day

Photo: Octane Photography

Here is my Motor Verso review of the Hungarian Grand Prix just passed.

After a madcap race and a result that nearly no one anticipated it was again all a timely tonic for the sport as whole. And however crazy things were behind him the day certainly found a worthy winner in Sebastian Vettel who harnessed Rudyard Kipling by keeping his head when all around were losing theirs, benefiting from unforeseen Ferrari pace and his own imperious drive.

As for the usually imperious Mercedes? The less said about their day the better...

You can have a read of my thoughts on the race here: http://www.motorverso.com/hungarian-grand-prix-2015-seb-man-day-merc-kid-stuff/

Do check out the Motor Verso site too; you'll find motoring news, car reviews and features - the team on the site carry out week-long test drives of the latest cars - as well as photos and videos of the machines.

Hungarian GP Report: Vettel keeps his head when all about him are losing theirs...

Hands up who predicted that result? Liars. In today's Hungarian Grand Prix for far from the first time we were given a reminder that this game can never be said to be predictable no matter how unlikely that can be made to appear. That no matter what it doesn't take much either to set the whole thing in a very different direction. It's odd that we keep needing these reminders.

Todya's was a highly unlikely podium trio with
Sebastian Vettel on the top step
Photo: Octane Photography

Reports from Friday's practice and Saturday's qualifying now seem like they're from another age. They said the Mercedes were on another level; that Lewis Hamilton was on another level of the two Mercedes. And indeed they were. But when it really mattered you'd hardly have known it. Neither Merc driver made the podium, the first time this had been so since the final round of 2013. And it was Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari that won, and not only won but one way or another dominated. This from a Ferrari team that was supposed to be slipping away from the pace, and some even thought were about to slip into yet more internal turmoil as a consequence. From a Ferrari that looked to be struggling at least as much here

What challenges there were to Vettel evaporated one by one and it was the two Red Bulls, with Daniil Kvyat ahead and getting his first ever podium place, that followed him in to complete the podium. Plenty of adventures happened along the way too.

Hungaroring Qualifying: Hamilton's home from home

"I'm starting to think this might be my favourite track" said Lewis Hamilton yesterday. Really the only question that should arise from this is why it took him so long to come to that conclusion.

Lewis Hamilton once again was untouchable
at the Hungaroring
Photo: Octane Photography

Last time out in Silverstone we heard a lot about Lewis's home round. But even though his record there is a good one in every aspect aside from geography this one in Hungary is his real back yard fixture. For as long as he's taken F1 cars around the Hungaroring he's been like a candidate in a US Presidential election carrying their home state. Here Lewis can make a car dance in a way that no one else can. He did it again today in seizing pole position - his ninth this year and his fifth at this circuit ever. And it was a triumph more decisive probably than any of those previous ones.

As ever the precise causes of Lewis's alchemy at this track isn't known, probably not even to Lewis himself. But with its layout necessitating an acrobatic yet precise approach its low grip surface usually requiring a sliding tail to be tamed we can begin to formulate our most probable answer.

Inside Line F1 Podcast - Godspeed Jules Bianchi

Here's the latest Inside Line F1 podcast. Mithila Mehta joins Kunal Shah to reflect on the sombre news of the passing of Jules Bianchi confirmed in recent days. They discuss the young Frenchman's legacy as well as the wider issues of safety in the sport.

As well as this they also look at the race for a Ferrari seat next year and what we can expect in the forthcoming Hungarian Grand Prix. As ever you can listen below:


Kunal has been writing on F1 for eight seasons, you can visit Kunal's website at: http://www.kunalsf1blog.com/ and you also can follow him on Twitter here.