© Vladimir Rys5 Things To Know About The Hungarian Grand PrixWe’re off to Budapest, a race ever-present on the Formula One calendar – but how well do you know one of the sport’s most reliable venues? Read on…
In many respects, the Hungarian Grand Prix and the Hungaroring are the forerunners of modern-form Formula One, with a circuit created specifically for the purpose of hosting a Formula One race in a region that hadn’t previously hosted Formula One.
Hungary, of course, has a strong history in motorsport, but hadn’t accommodated a grand prix since the 1930s. With Bernie Ecclestone’s negotiations to race in Russia struggling to move forward, he opted to sign a contract to race in Hungary instead. The track was constructed in 1985 and the first race held in 1986.
Sun Goes Down In Hungary© Vladimir Rys
Amid the general evolution all long-standing circuits go through, we’ve seen three basic iterations of the Hungaroring used over the years, with modifications always tasked to improve overtaking opportunities.
The original circuit measured 4.014km and is easily identifiable with the circuit as it stands today. It received a tweak for 1989, taking the length down to 3.975km by converting turn three from a right-left-right chicane into the familiar flat-out right-hander used today.
That version of the track was used until 2003, when the current layout was created by extending the short straight between turns 11 and 12 and making turn 12 a slower, 90° right-hander rather than the quicker 45° corner it used to be. At the same time the main straight was extended to make turn one into a sharper corner with better overtaking opportunities which, it has to be said, has been moderately successful. It’s also increased the length of the circuit to its current 4.381km.
On Track At The Hungaroring© Vladimir Rys
In recent years the F1 Championships have had a tendency to be a little… one-sided, but anyone who thinks of this as something new is definitely looking at the sport through rose-tinted spectacles. The Hungarian Grand Prix has always been a summer race but over the last 30 years there’s been five occasions where a team has celebrated on the banks of the Danube after clinching the title.
Nigel Mansell managed it at the 11th race of 16 in 1992 for Williams, while Williams bagged a Constructors’ Championship here in 1996 at race 12 of 16. After that it’s been all Ferrari. In 2001, at race 13 of 17 they won the Constructors’ Championship on the same day Michael Schumacher clinched the Drivers’ title (must have been a hell of a good party), while the Constructors’ also went home to Maranello after the 2002 (13 of 17) and 2004 (13 of 18) races.
What do Robert Kubica, Anthony Davidson, Zsolt Baumgartner and Jaime Alguersuari have in common? They are the only drivers to make an F1 debut at the Hungaroring. There are plenty of other firsts, however, including first F1 wins for Damon Hill (1993), Fernando Alonso (2003), Jenson Button (2006) and Heikki Kovalainen (2008). Lewis Hamilton carded F1’s first hybrid victory here in 2009 in a KERS-propelled McLaren.
From our side, Max Verstappen took his first pole position here in 2019 (on the same track his Dad had his first podium in 1994), Dany Kvyat had his first podium (2nd in 2015) and Mark Webber, in 2009, had his first fastest lap.
Max Picks Up His First F1 Pole Position© Vladimir Rys
Looking at the 2021 calendar, only Monza can boast a longer running string of races than the Hungarian circuit, having been ever-present since 1981, compared to the Hungaroring’s unbroken string stretched back to 1986 – and one suspects there were more overtaking moves completed at Monza in those extra five seasons than there has been in the entire 35-year history of F1 in Hungary.
The Hungaroring is, to put it mildly, a fiendishly difficult place at which to overtake. Only two from 35 previous winners have done so from beyond the first two rows. Jenson Button holds the record, having won from P14 for Honda on a filthy wet afternoon in 2006, while Nigel Mansell did so from P12 for Ferrari in 1989. There’s no evidence of a local apocalypse on that day so Mansell must simply have had it dialled up to 11.
Heading Over The Line In Hungary© Vladimir Rys
