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Event Information:
The
first Hungarian Grand Prix
(Hungarian: Magyar Nagydíj) was held
on June 21, 1936 over a 3.1-mile
(5.0 km) track laid out in Népliget,
a park in Budapest. The
Mercedes-Benz, Auto Union, and
Ferrari teams all sent three cars
and the event drew a very large
crowd. However, politics and the
ensuing war meant the end of Grand
Prix motor racing in the country for
fifty years. A major coup by Bernie
Ecclestone, the 1986 Hungarian Grand
Prix was the first Formula One race
to take place behind the Iron
Curtain. Held at the twisty
Hungaroring in Mogyoród near
Budapest, the race has been a
mainstay of the racing calendar. Run
in the heat of a central European
summer, it also held the distinction
of being the only current Grand Prix
venue that had never seen a wet race
up until the 2006 Hungarian Grand
Prix.
Due to
the nature of the track, narrow,
twisty and often dusty because of
under-use, the Hungarian Grand Prix
is associated with processional
races, with sometimes many cars
following one another, unable to
pass. Thierry Boutsen demonstrated
this perfectly in 1990, keeping his
slower Williams car in front of
champion-elect Ayrton Senna, unable
to find a way by. The secret to a
winning performance at Hungaroring,
as well as qualifying well, is pit
strategy, best demonstrated in 1998,
where Michael Schumacher's Ferrari
team changed his strategy mid-race
before Schumacher put in one of his
finest drives to build up a winning
margin after all the stops had been
made. Passing is a rarity here,
although the 1989 race saw a
famously bullish performance from
Nigel Mansell in the Ferrari, who
started from 12th on the grid and
passed car after car, finally taking
the lead in splendid opportunist
style when Ayrton Senna was baulked
by a slower runner. The circuit was
modified slightly in 2003 in an
attempt to allow more passing.
The
Grand Prix is held in the middle of
summer, which is usually hot and dry
in this region. Its first wet Grand
Prix race was in 2006. The circuit
is normally dusty due to underuse
throughout the rest of the year and
its sandy soil. As the circuit track
is in a valley you can see about 80
percent of the racetrack from any
point.Normally an underused circuit
becomes faster over the weekend as
the track surface gathers more
rubber residue; however, with the
Hungaroring this generally does not
happen because the track can get
dusty so quickly. The track
frequently becomes faster during a
qualifying session, which leads
competitors to try for their best
lap as late as possible.
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