Hungarian Grand Prix: Talking points

Formula 1 comes to Hungary in a different mood this weekend as the world comes to grips with the loss of Jules Bianchi.

After Silverstone, which was probably the most exciting race this year so far, Formula 1 goes into the Hungarian Grand Prix this weekend with World Championship leader Lewis Hamilton looking to extend his lead. The Hungaroring circuit, located just outside the capital city of Budapest is a tight, twisty and narrow track making overtaking very difficult for the cars. With track length of 4.38km, the race is a 70 lap affair with 2 DRS zones.

Coming into the weekend, the headlines have all been about Jules and rightly so. The FIA’s decision to retire the car number 17 was welcomed by the fans. Similar tributes are expected with a minute’s silence to be observed before the race to remember Jules who left us all so early. The Ferrari team will also be decorating their team garage with special tributes and messages for the Frenchman.

After seeing his team-mate dominate in recent weeks, Lewis Hamilton produced a strategic masterstroke to win the British Grand Prix in front of his home fans. The Mercedes driver leads by 17 points from his team-mate and will be looking to extend it.

Williams will be looking to maintain their impressive pace but much like the  last race, admit that they expect a difficult race weekend. Williams could have gone onto win the British Grand Prix if not for their strategic blunders which meant they couldn’t even finish on the podium. A lot of questions were asked from the team and rightly so, perhaps.

Kimi Raikkonen will be looking to put the British GP result behind him and have a good weekend. The under pressure Finn has nothing to lose after rumors point that the Maranello team has already decided to oust the Finn and replace him with Valtteri Bottas.

Elsewhere,the Hungarian GP will be another test for the recent resurgence of Sahara Force India after a double-points finish at last race. The coming few races will be very crucial for Nico Hulkenberg if he wants to try for a bigger team, perhaps Williams or even Ferrari. The team admits that there is still a lot to come from the B-spec car.

McLaren might be looking at another points finish this weekend after crawling to tenth place in Silverstone. The team admits that the small track will aid the team, which currently is in the middle of a turbulent storm. Their drivers have maintained a positive profile so far, but it won’t be long when they also get frustrated by the lack of pace over other teams. The previous three races:  Canada, Austria, Britain, all had fast corners, with long straights. Hungary is different. The tracks layout is cramped and thus McLaren with its two experienced drivers might be able to pull out a points finish this weekend.

The track is notoriously difficult for overtaking, which makes the qualifying significant. However, the pole sitter has gone on to win the race only two times in the last five races (both Lewis Hamilton). Lewis Hamilton is tied with Michael Schumacher for the most wins on the track: four of them. He will look forward to breaking the record this weekend.

Pirelli will bring the yellow-marked soft and the white-banded medium tires to Hungary.

All in all the Hungarian Grand Prix promises to be an exciting race with drivers going full throttle but also driving in the remembrance of Jules Bianchi, a person who did not deserve to go so early.