The Friday in F1 Hungarian GP saw teams having to get through their plans in FP2 in dry running after a wet time in FP1.
The wet running in FP1 of Friday in F1 Hungarian GP hampered any chance of data collection but it was enough to ruin Red Bull’s Sergio Perez confidence after an early crash. The Mexican is coming into the weekend with pressure on his shoulder which continues on.
He accepted his mistake but if he continues to do so, it will become difficult for him to stay on. Red Bull had updates but the disrupted running didn’t allow them to conclude anything and interestingly they did not do a fast lap on the soft compound either.
It was same for Mercedes but the pair weren’t too pleased with the performance of their car in both the sessions. Ferrari, meanwhile, had a better run with Charles Leclerc topping FP2 while Carlos Sainz came back well after a spin in FP1.
But the race pace situation remains open with multiple teams like Aston Martin, Alpine, McLaren, Haas and Alfa Romeo making it in the Top 10. The pace of the former is a bit worrying which has been the case for some races now.
Perez: “It was just a mistake from my side. But the guys have done a tremendous job to get the car together and get some running in FP2. At least we got some good data to look through. Obviously with the weekend format in terms of tyre usage, it will be very important to be able to get a good balance through basically all the compounds, because we’ve seen that in qualifying we’re going to be going through them all – I think we got good information. I think it’s very early in that regard, given the little running that we ended up doing with the tyre format that we have. I think we will have a better idea tomorrow, [but] certainly, the grid looks really, really tight. I mean, honestly, [it’s] very hard to comment on… We’ll look through the data to see if everything is correlating very well, because we haven’t actually used a lot of tyre sets today. I think the car felt not too bad, a bit of understeer, but I went out again and also the long run looked quite competitive. It’s a bit difficult to say over one-lap pace, but I think overall the car is still strong. I mean, we want to of course be the quickest, but at the moment we first need to do a little bit more running with more tyre sets as well to get a bit more of a better understanding.”
Verstappen: “It is very hard to comment on the new upgrades after a limited amount of running, we will look through the data to see if everything is correlating well because we haven’t actually used a lot of tyre sets today. With this new format you are super limited with the tyres you can use and I didn’t want to use them today, so we could have a better preparation tomorrow. We want to be the quickest in qualifying but first we need to do a bit more running with different tyre sets to get a better understanding. The car felt not too bad, there was a bit of understeer but when I went out on the long run we looked competitive, it’s difficult to say over one lap pace but overall the car is still strong.”
Hamilton: “It was not good at all. It was feeling like the car at its worst today. But we will work on the set up tonight and hopefully tomorrow. Last year it felt terrible at the beginning, and we turned it around with some set up changes. So, we will work on that tonight, and hopefully it will feel better.”
Alonso: “It was a mixed day with some rain and windy conditions at the Hungaroring. We lost time in FP1 and didn’t get much track time in, but it was the same for everyone. I think we maximised FP2 and collected a lot of useful data particularly in preparation for race conditions. Generally, I am quite happy with today and we’ll see what we can do tomorrow in qualifying with hopefully dry conditions.”
As noted above, with Red Bull and Mercedes pair not setting a fast lap on the soft compound, it gave chance to multiple teams to be in the Top 10. And the likes of Lando Norris, Pierre Gasly and Valtteri Bottas were positive about being inside it.
Even Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg was but the German remains concerned about their race pace. While Williams couldn’t find a Top 10 position, Alexander Albon was positive about their pace, as AlphaTauri’s Daniel Ricciardo felt good even though there is pace to be found.
Ricciardo: “I think positions are probably not too relevant at the moment. But I think it was more for me today to feel basically where I am with the car. It all felt pretty familiar. I think obviously there is a lot of outside attention, but once I put the helmet on and got in the car, it all felt like I never really left. That was nice. Obviously, this morning we didn’t really get anything, but this afternoon… just a little bit on the new tyre. But nothing really I’m concerned about. The car felt okay. To be honest it doesn’t feel too bad. Bit of work tonight but nothing crazy. For sure. I think a bit more out of me, and for sure there is somethings already I feel in the car that we can try and work on. Right now, I’m quite optimistic. It looked like Yuki as well had a pretty good day. I think if we put all these things together maybe tomorrow, we can do okay.”
Gasly: “It’s been a solid Friday in Budapest with the one meaningful session in Free Practice 2. I’m happy with today’s work and it’s always nice to be inside the top three on the leaderboard. Free Practice 1 was not representative in the wet conditions where we ran a couple of install laps. The car felt good and consistent and we have a couple of things to work on to find more lap time ahead of tomorrow’s important Qualifying session. We will keep our heads down, keep working hard as a team as there is a long way to go this weekend where our end objective is to come away with as many points as possible.”
Norris: “It’s been a good Friday. I’m relatively happy with the overall pace of the car but there are some things to work on ahead of quali. I feel like I’m not able to push quite as much as I would like in a few places on the track, so I think we’ve got a little bit more to unlock – but we’ve started off with a decent balance. I would say our improved pace since the upgrade has continued to help us and give the team confidence in some of the high-speed corners – but the slow-speed corners are still the ones we’re trying to focus on and improve.”
Bottas: “We got decent running during the second practice session, contrary to the first one, when we could only do a handful of laps because of two red flags. The medium tyres seem to work well on our car, stability seemed good, which is especially needed on this track. Overall, it’s safe to say it has been a positive day of learning. Of course, like always, Q3 will be our main target tomorrow, as it seems this track layout is suiting our car better; there is still work to do, and an important session ahead of us tomorrow. Qualifying will be very interesting, with the new compound rules, and I am looking forward to that. Our effort tonight will go into fine tuning our package even more, in order to come fully prepared ahead of Saturday.”
Hulkenberg: “It was a Friday! We know one-lap pace is our strength and the long run looked a bit more difficult again, it didn’t feel too great from inside the car, so we’re looking into it to see what we can do. Going forward weather-wise, between tomorrow and Sunday it looks very hot, and tomorrow we have the new quali sequence of which tyres we can run. Using the hard tyre in Q1, I think that will be quite difficult for us, but we’ll see what we can do. We’ll push hard and see if we can progress.”
Albon: “It was a good day for us with the car feeling okay out there, and it being possible to get it into a pretty decent window. It does highlight that it’s not a track that really suits us so even though the car felt good, relative to our rivals, we’re still lacking a bit of pace which is to be expected. However, thinking about it from last year, the car is a good improvement, but we still need to do a bit more for tomorrow if we want to get into Q2.”
Here’s how FP1 in F1 Hungarian GP panned out
Here’s how FP2 in F1 Hungarian GP panned out
