Daniels return, Red Bull upgrades and the and budget cap rumours: DRC's Hungarian GP Preview
F1 heads to Hungaroring, the track reputed as "Monaco without walls". From Ricciardo's return, Red Bull upgrades, the fight for P2 and cost cop rumours here's Desi Racing Co's preview for Hungarian GP
Many things transpired since the last race with, Nyck de Veris getting replaced by Daniel Ricciardo for the second seat of Alpha Tauri to the rumours about the cost cap breach. There’s a lot to look forward to from unstoppable Red Bull new upgrades to who will be the 2nd fastest and will anyone be able to lock horns with the Bulls for a win.
Red Bull Upgrades
Redbull will be bringing yet another upgrade this weekend. With the already being championship leader and their 10th consecutive win strike, it is going to be very much of a tedious job for other teams to come anywhere near them.
According to some reports, the upcoming upgrade will consist of designed side pods and bodywork making them two-tenths faster, not that they actually need it.
Guess, Who is Back on The Grid?
Daniel Ricciardo will be racing in the Alpha Tauri from Hungary onwards alongside Yuki Tsunoda replacing Nyck De Vries. What made the management bring back him? Well, the Pirelli tyre test held in Silverstone two days after the race was the final nail in the box. Previously his sim sessions as a Red Bull third driver greatly translates on track for the team.
“It is great to see Daniel hasn’t lost any form while away from racing and that the strides he has been making in his sim sessions translate on track,” Horner said. “His times during the tyre test were extremely competitive. It was a very impressive drive and we are excited to see what the rest of the season brings for Daniel on loan at Scuderia AlphaTauri.”
Alpha Tauri is Red Bull’s sister team and Ricciardo is being loaned to them by the Red Bull Racing.
“I am stoked to be back on track with the Red Bull family,” the 34-year-old said.
The decision proved yet again how competitive the Redbull environment can be for both of the teams with de Vries being removed from the grid for the 2023 season with just 10 races under his belt into his rookie season. His best finish was 12th and was out-qualified by his teammate. He was expected to show improvement after the team principal, Franz Tost, noted several weeks ago that coming races would decide his fate. He clearly did not do enough.
Will Ferrari be able to recover after a terrible British GP?
The Manarello-based team endured very disappointing results at the Silverstone with Leclerc and Carlos finishing 9th and 10th after Qualifying P4 and P5 respectively. Williams of Alex Albon finishing P8 added to the disappointment of the two Ferraris.
The upgrades that were bought for the British GP resulted in decent qualifying results but they somehow couldn’t translate them for at least a podium finish. Apparently, the car is sensitive to the diagonal wind but if the wind is head there are no issues.
“There were strong gusts of wind, and on top of that, we hadn’t done the practice sessions on Friday, so we were a bit in the dark with the tires, and we were concerned about tire degradation,” the team principal continues.
The deployment of the safety car along with a series of bad calls of strategy resulted in a bad weekend for the team.
“We opted for a medium-hard strategy, like McLaren did, while everyone else went for medium-soft. Additionally, we made the pit stop too early,” he continues, explaining that in that situation, they were in a battle with Russell and didn’t want to risk an undercut.
Scuderia team principal is looking to gain a pole position finish in the upcoming Hungarian GP since it has slow-medium corners and from the past races we have seen the car performs better in such tracks but in the end, it would hugely depend on the wind factor.
Mercedes or Aston Martin: Who Would be 2nd Fastest?
While Hungoraring has produced some of the sweet moments for the German team from Russell’s first pole position in 2022 with them finishing double podium that weekend to Hamilton winning his first-ever Grand Prix for the team in 2013. The thing to be noted is that Hamilton has won 8 races on this very track.
However, the upgrade bought by the team for the previous race weekend did not improve much of the car's performance but due to the deployment of the safety car, Lewis was able to get a podium.
"The Hungaroring is a circuit that is quite different in nature to Silverstone. It will be interesting to explore how our latest upgrades perform in the long-radius, slow-speed corners.” said Toto Wolff.
But the low-speed corners and high temperature of the track would be more favourable towards Aston Martin and more of a test for the Mercedes.
Before this Aston Martin couldn’t score podium for back-to-back two races. The team had a big upgrade in Montreal which helped them bag a podium in the race. While the upcoming track temperatures are set to be above 40 degrees Celsius it would help for the tyres to warm up and the car set-up will be able to maintain good tyre wear.
"If you look at the characteristic, it should play better into our car than other circuits that we have been to. Qualifying is key, especially in circuits where you struggle more to pass like the one that will come, although it is now a bit easier than it used to be."
Will Mclaren be Able to Maintain the Pace?
Looking at the track characteristics and the track conditions it would be a test for Mclaren. As stated above both of the tracks are widely different so, the second upgrade of the three-part upgrade of Mclaren would be a much anticipated one of the weekend.
The cold temperatures and high-speed corners of Silverstone and Spielberg gave them the upper hand along with their set-up of the car beating the rest of the competitors and even scoring a podium in the home grand prix but, like that Hungaroring would be vastly different. This could mean that the conditions won't be particularly in their favour but neither less exciting.
"In a way we look forward to Hungary to check more comprehensively where we really are," Stella said. "There's not as much high-speed, if anything it's a low-medium speed dominated track, and also you can have hot conditions, which is another testing territory for us."
Budget Cap in the news again?
There were some reports from AMUS and it.motorsport.com about the rumours regarding a potential breach of Cost Cap again by 2 teams, the Reports talked about suspected loopholes ranging from Billng to Subsidiary companies by teams like Mercedes, Cost centres for Employee and product development costs, to Supercars programmes (TD045) run by teams like Redbull (RB17) and Aston Martin (Valkyrie). People suspect these supercars programmes may act as development aid as on both cars you could develop both mechanical and aerodynamic components that would also be relevant for Formula 1. And thus save time and money.
FIA however while talking to Craig Slater of SkySports F1, denied the reports of any of the teams breaching the cost cap.
While this is a developing story we will have to see what updates arrive from the teams and FIA as the Media further grills them to get clarification and more details about the issue.
What does the Weather look like for the Weekend?
FRIDAY, JULY 21 – FP1 AND FP2
Chance of rain: 80%
SATURDAY, JULY 22 – FP3 AND QUALIFYING
Chance of rain: 20%
SUNDAY, JULY 23 – RACE WEATHER
Chance of rain: <20%
With Friday being Wet, Saturday and Sunday are expected to be Dry weather days, however, F1 reports suggest that on Sunday the gusts of winds could gain speeds of up to 35kph, which can unsettle some of the competitors on the Grid during the race when the cars run heavy on a full tank of fuel at the start of the GrandPrix.
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