Preview
Budapest Preview: The chase is on
The battle to be crowned the 2023 FIA Formula 2 Champion kicked into another gear last time out as Frederik Vesti’s lead was diminished. He will be aiming to keep his rivals at bay in Budapest in order to hold on to the top spot in the Standings.
Once again, the ever-changing weather forecast could throw up some surprises as teams look to maximise all the points they can in Round 10 and the first leg of a third double header this season.
Here is all you need to know ahead of Formula 2’s return to the Hungaroring.
THE FORM BOOK
Frederik Vesti returns to the Hungarian capital as the Championship leader. Whilst the Silverstone Sprint Race victory increased his tally to 135 points, an early retirement from the Feature Race has allowed his nearest rival Théo Pourchaire to close in.
Capitalising on ART Grand Prix’s impressive pace last time out, the Frenchman slashed the PREMA Racing driver’s 20-point lead down to six. Meanwhile, DAMS’ Ayumu Iwasa remains comfortably in third on 111, but will need a big haul of points to close the gap to the leading pair.
Keep an eye out for the rookies, as Oliver Bearman leads the charge from fourth. Claiming his highly sought-after maiden victory with a mature performance from pole, Victor Martins has rocketed up the table to fifth, tied on 88 points with the Briton.
PREMA Racing continue to hold on to their lead in the Teams’ Standings on 223. However, they too have had their advantage reduced to just six points, with ART closing in on 217. DAMS follow along in third, now on 150 points, but have fourth-placed Rodin Carlin closing to within 16 points of the top three.
FROM THE GRID – Roy Nissany, PHM Racing by Charouz
“The Hungaroring’s quite a technical and physical track, no place to rest. It has its special characteristics. For me, it’s being at home, it’s where I did most of my testing as a young Formula 4 driver at the beginning of my career. I’m thinking about it always, but I think everyone has a special place in their heart for it, also for the city. It’s always an interesting one in terms of driving, maybe some more places to overtake would have been nice. For me, a home track is a home track.
“It’s interesting because you have to properly know the track. You have to know what you're doing in order to be faster than the other car, especially when following with the decreased downforce. When you're able to do that, you are able to overtake, but you don't get any free chances.
“Tyre degradation isn’t easy to manage, especially the temperatures because the tyres and us have no time and no place to rest. So, energy is being spent constantly and this has to be managed. Also, the physical effort has to be managed so it’s kind of a chess game around Budapest.
“I like the back part. It’s the very fast but technical, so you have to throw in the car fast after that chicane, but also you have to be extremely precise because if you catch that curb, you're going to snap the rear. If you're not going to catch it, then you're going to be a bit far off and you will understeer out. So, it's precision on the one or two centimetres to get it right and at such high speeds, it's hard.”
TECHNICAL PREVIEW
A relatively narrow track with plenty of flowing corners making up the majority of the lap, the Hungaroring is very much an old-school circuit. With one long DRS zone on the main straight followed by a second one on the short run to Turn 2, the twisty nature of the track means there is a fair amount of emphasis on generating downforce.
Equally, this can lead to a fair amount of tyre wear, with drivers demanding grip from the tyres through the middle sector in particular. With the temperatures expected to be in the 30-degrees Celsius range, drivers could have to place extra care on saving their Pirelli tyres as much as possible.
With the flowing layout of the track, braking demand isn’t as high as at other venues on the Formula 2 calendar, with only one major stop zone being Turn 1 to worry about.
RACE STRATEGY
The field will have the medium and soft tyres to play with this weekend, with the Hungaroring’s twisty layout putting increased pressure on the drivers to prevent overheating the tyres. Given the limited overtaking opportunities, nailing their perfect lap in Qualifying will be vital and with the prospect of downpours looming over the session, Friday’s running could make or break their weekends. Last year, Théo Pourchaire opted for the conventional strategy with an early switch from the softs, before running his yellow-walled medium tyres for 29 laps to take home victory having started fourth on the grid.
Mario Isola, Pirelli Motorsport Director
“For this round, Pirelli will provide the teams with the P Zero Yellow medium and P Zero Red soft compounds. The Hungaroring track is particularly twisty with only one long straight at the start-finish line, which makes it difficult to cool the tyres, also due to the usual high ambient and track temperatures. The 14 corners – eight right-handers and six left-handers – are mostly run at medium to low speeds, with the rear axle being particularly stressed. At 4.381 kilometres, the circuit is the fourth shortest of the season after Monaco, Zandvoort and Spielberg and traffic is often an important factor, both in terms of the competition and the effect it can have on tyre degradation. In terms of Feature Race strategy, the fastest tyre over the length of a stint on paper is the medium, but as it’s not easy to overtake at the Hungaroring, it can often be useful to start on the softs in order to take advantage of the extra grip and make up a few positions at the start.”
STAT PACK
- There have been no repeat winners around the Hungaroring, but can either of the 2022 race winners Jack Doohan and Théo Pourchaire break this statistic this weekend?
- Victor Martins became the 10th different winner of the campaign and the 11th on the 2023 grid.
- Frederik Vesti, Théo Pourchaire and Ayumu Iwasa are the most consistent drivers of the field, with the trio taking home points in 11 out of 16 races so far this season.
DID YOU KNOW?
At just 16 years old, Théo Pourchaire became the youngest Formula 3 Feature Race winner when he secured victory in the 2020 Budapest Feature Race. The ART Grand Prix driver won by a margin of 11.9s to eventual Champion Oscar Piastri.