2006 Hungarian Grand Prix - Preview
The Honda Racing F1 Team heads east to Hungary this week for the second of the back-to-back races following the German Grand Prix in Hockenheim last Sunday. Next weekend's race the Hungarian Grand Prix held just outside the stunning city of Budapest, will be Round 13 of the 2006 FIA Formula One World Championship and the final race before the three week summer break. Encouraged by a strong performance from Jenson Button in the German Grand Prix which saw him finish in fourth position, the Honda Racing F1 Team will be hoping to carry a more positive showing in Hockenheim through to the race at the Hungaroring. RUBENS BARRICHELLO "I love to visit the city of Budapest when we go to Hungary for the Grand Prix. It's one of the most beautiful and exciting cities on the calendar and the fans always give the whole place a great atmosphere. The Hungaroring is just like Monaco because it is so slow and twisty and it is also very difficult to overtake. You have to start from the front to have a good race so qualifying will be very important on Saturday. For the last few years, the race here has been incredibly hot so we have to be well prepared and for the drivers, we need that extra little bit of fitness. I won at the Hungaroring back in 2002 and have been on the podium a couple more times so it's a circuit that I enjoy racing at. Although I didn't have a good race in Germany, we can look at our overall performance from that weekend and take a lot of positives to Hungary." JENSON BUTTON "The Hungaroring and the city of Budapest are always places that I enjoy visiting. The track itself is pretty physical because it's very twisty and bumpy, which combined with the high temperatures, make it a tough race for the drivers. However the hot conditions should suit our tyres as the Michelins seem to work very well in those temperatures. Our new aero parts and a few of the other developments that we had in Hockenheim should also help us in Hungary. I'm looking forward to the race and hopefully we can replicate the strong performance from last weekend with another points finish, and maybe even go one better." GIL DE FERRAN Sporting Director "After a positive weekend in Germany, we now head to Budapest where we hope to achieve another strong result. The Hungaroring is a very tight and twisty track with many slow corners, requiring good traction and braking stability. It is also likely to be another extremely hot weekend which suits our car but is quite demanding for the drivers." Hungaroring, Budapest Race Distance 70 laps Circuit Length 2.722 miles (4.381 kms) The Hungaroring has been a regular fixture on the calendar since 1986 when it became the first Formula One event to take place in Eastern Europe. The circuit layout had remained the same since 1989 when an unplanned kink around an underground spring was removed, shortening the track. For 2003, modifications were made to the first corner and the chicane at the back of the circuit in an attempt to improve overtaking opportunities at a track previously regarded as almost impossible to pass on. Track conditions are always very dusty as the circuit sees very little action during the rest of the year. This leaves the track surface short of grip, particularly offline, but also combines with the August heat to increase tyre wear. The twisty layout makes this the slowest circuit on the F1 calendar after Monaco, and three corners - turns two and thirteen hairpins, plus turns six and seven chicane are all 90 km/h turns. The fastest corner is the relatively modest 170km/h left-hand kink at turn four.