Hungaroring, Hungary

The Hungaroring is a really difficult track as it’s basically a copy of a Monaco-style circuit. Even if you don’t have the guardrails, it’s like a karting track with no long straights, no chance to relax and breathe and there are sections of corners that never seem to end. The combination of second, third and fourth gear corners also stresses the car and the driver, especially in this part of the year where there are high ambient temperatures.



As it’s a slow track with no real high speed corners, from a driver’s perspective there’s not a lot of adrenaline going. There are some nice banking changes though, particularly after corner one that goes downhill. The car has a tendency to understeer here with poor traction. Corner two is maybe the toughest corner of the track as it’s downhill so the braking is difficult and it’s easy to lock a wheel and miss the apex. The exit is important though as you go into a medium long straight.



The fastest corner of the track is corner four, which has a little bump as you go uphill. It feels like you are literally flying over the corner. Turn five is, in a way, boring as you have to wait to put the throttle on as there are lots of bumps and it upsets the balance of the car. Then you approach six and seven, which is a slow chicane but can be good fun if you jump from kerb to kerb.



Turns eight to 11 never seem to end. There is a sequence of corners where you can get into a rhythm but if you make a mistake you will lose a lot of time in 11. The new section from corner 12 to 12a is easy with a proper 90 degree bend into the hairpin at turn 14. This can be difficult as there is a bump in the middle and a lot of cars spin here trying to get a good line into the straight. You just can’t afford to go off line here as there is so much dust and marbles from the tyres just off the racing line. It’s so slippery that if you put a wheel wrong you will lose literally seconds.