Hungarian GP 2013 - Preview

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The long 3-week wait is over, the F1s are back in action for the 10th round of the Championship this weekend in Hungary, and let’s enjoy it in full because after this race the Circus will enter its summer holidays for an enforced 4-week non-activity period.

We might don’t like it but Grand Prix racing these days is mostly about Pirelli. Tyre issues had become more relevant than engines, cars or drivers, unfortunately. So let’s get on with it: the rubber for this race will be medium/white and soft/yellow. These are the compounds tried without problems is last week’s Young Driver Test , but the interesting development is that the weather forecast for the weekend is expected in the 40 deg C making it possibly the hottest GP ever.

F1 is no stranger to racing in hot conditions, the Malaysian GP is traditionally the toughest physical challenge of the season because its high humidity, but in general the events are planned to avoid taking place at the peak temperatures of each particular venue. If air temperature climbs above 40c on race day the challenge will be not only for the drivers but also the tyres at the demanding Hungaroring Circuit.

With the slower lap times in the calendar except for Monaco, the best high downforce chassis of Red Bull and Mercedes are expected to do well in here, the question will be how much ground Mercedes has lost by being excluded from last week’s test. The Silver Arrows had been the fastest QF cars so far this season with 6 of the 9 poles plus 3 starting front rows. We’ll see.

I have a question for you: which of the last 3 seasons has been the most difficult to forecast for us CFA experts? Well, let’s dig into Santiago’s record books to find the answer: In 2011 after 9 races the leaders were Tim, Uwe and Manbos tied at 83 points; in 2012 Uwe was on top with 63 and this year we have Santi and Manbos leading the standings with 69. The gap between top to bottom was 22 points in 2011 (Fredrik, 61), same 22 points  in 2012 (rookie Ian M with 41 points) down to 20  this year (Ricardo, 46). Interesting because in 2011 we were doing much better even though the Championship was open among a few drivers compared to 2012 when Vettel was running away with the crown from early in the season which was supposed to make our life easier.

So we’re slightly ahead this year, by only 6 points from top to 5 at the bottom, but somehow this year feels a lot more difficult than ever!

Let’s see how we do this time; we shall be back at work tomorrow. Can’t wait!

Cheers

Cato

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