F1 Budapest - Preview

F1 Budapest - Preview

Ayrton Senna has won at the Hungaroring for McLaren on three occasions, in 1988, 鈥?1 and 鈥?2. More recently, Mika Hakkinen (鈥?9 and 2000) and Kimi Raikkonen (鈥?5) have triumphed for McLaren-Mercedes - much to the delight of the huge Finnish contingent, who have made this race a home from home for many years. Lewis Hamilton won the race from pole position last year. The Budapest circuit has been modified from its original configuration twice: in 1989, the tight hairpins following Turn Two were ironed out; in 2003, the 180-degree first corner was extensively re-profiled into a sharper hairpin to increase overtaking opportunities. This weekend鈥檚 race will mark the 23rd running of the event. Two wins in the last two grands prix and now a return to the Hungaroring, where you won last year. Do you feel confident ahead of this year鈥檚 race? 鈥淚鈥檓 wary about making any strong predictions; yes, we were strong in the last two races, but we encountered difficulties in the two before that, so it鈥檚 impossible to call it this weekend.

The Hungaroring is quite a unique circuit - what makes it stand out? 鈥淗ungary is very different from Germany; Hockenheim is a track that allows you to slipstream and pass other drivers fairly easily, the Hungaroring is the opposite of that. Qualifying will be crucial, and strategy will also be important in determining the optimum fuel-weight for the opening stint. It will be hot and tiring too, so keeping your focus and concentration will be vital. The last two victories have given your championship hopes considerable momentum - are you now thinking about driving consistently with an eye on the title? 鈥淚t鈥檚 easy to say that you鈥檒l treat each race with a certain amount of respect. But the reality is that I haven鈥檛 changed my style: it seems to work for me and I enjoy pushing hard to achieve a good result. That鈥檚 when I feel I am operating at my maximum and it鈥檚 potentially dangerous to start thinking about changing your approach at this point in the season. I鈥檒l be honest: my approach has served me fairly well so far and I鈥檇 need to give it some serious thought before attempting to change it.

What鈥檚 the secret to a good lap around the Hungaroring? What鈥檚 your previous record in Hungary? 鈥淚t鈥檚 a circuit I enjoy. I鈥檝e done a couple of GP2 races here but my best performance was last year when I had one of the best races of my F1 career. Okay, I finished only eighth, but I was fighting with Rosberg for lap after lap, really pushing 100 per cent all the way to the flag. It was one of those dices that never gets shown on TV, but I felt proud and satisfied afterwards because I鈥檇 pushed for the whole afternoon. The drivers have described the MP4-23 as being particularly well-balanced in high-speed corners, how do you expect it to cope with the low-speed twists and turns of the Hungaroring? 鈥淭he two circuits on the calendar that most resemble the characteristics of the Hungaroring are, bizarrely, Montreal, which is dusty and low-grip, and Monte Carlo, which requires a high-downforce set-up to cope with the minimal straights and numerous low-speed corners.

And the reality is that we were reasonably competitive at both those circuits. While it has been true to say that one of the key strengths of our car is its pace in high-speed corners, we鈥檝e done a lot of work to the package to strengthen its weak spots. At Silverstone, we were comfortable with our pace through the last sector, and at Hockenheim, we were comfortably quickest through the stadium section of the track, which is tight and reliant on good mechanical grip. We won in Hungary last season and travel to Budapest confident that we have strengthened the weaknesses of our package. Heikki proved rapid in practice and qualifying in Great Britain and Germany but didn鈥檛 seem able to exploit the car under him to the same extent during the race. Is the team working to alleviate some of the handling problems he has encountered? 鈥淔irstly, let鈥檚 not forget that Heikki is a brilliant racing driver. His pass of Robert Kubica at Hockenheim reminded anybody who needed reminding that he has all the speed and skill to be battling at the front.

But there鈥檚 no magic in Formula 1 and we still need to work with Heikki to extract his full potential. At Hockenheim, he didn鈥檛 get the best out of himself or the package and we need to work on how we fine-tune the car鈥檚 set-up and how Heikki is involved in that process. With the traditional F1 testing ban coming into effect immediately after the Hungarian Grand Prix, how has the team structured its development programme for the rest of the summer? 鈥淭he whole team has been incredibly busy and productive this year. Throughout the summer, we鈥檝e been working hard to evaluate several substantial developments at each test and were able to sample major new aerodynamic steps at both the Silverstone and Hockenheim tests. Two weeks ago you said that Silverstone and Hockenheim were so-called 鈥榚ngine circuits鈥? which suited McLaren-Mercedes. What are your expectations for the twisty Hungaroring? 鈥淭he characteristics of the circuit just outside Budapest are quite different to those at the previous Grands Prix in Silverstone and at the Hockenheimring.