Jordan's Track Talk

Tag: Hungarian GP

  • Ricciardo replaces De Vries at Alpha Tauri

    Daniel Ricciardo will be making a return to the Formula 1 grid as he will be replacing Nyck de Vries at Alpha Tauri for the rest of the season.

    The Australian driver has been in action today at Silverstone, driving Red Bull’s current RB19 car in a Pirelli tyre test. But it’s now been announced that Ricciardo – currently Red Bull’s third driver will be on loan from Hungary for AT.

    Dutch driver De Vries, who stared in a one-off drive for Williams at Monza last year where he claimed ninth position on an impressive first outing, has endured a difficult first season of full time racing in F1 and is still yet to score any points.

    This has unfortunately led to him being replaced after 10 Grand Prix, with eight time race winner Daniel Ricciardo who lost his seat with McLaren at the end of 2022 season following two trouble seasons with the team stepping in.

    He is set to re-join the Faenza squad with whom he spent two seasons with in 2012 and 2013 in their Toro Rosso guise before his promotion to Red Bull in 2014.

    Ricciardo went one to net seven victories for Red Bull, before joining Renault for two seasons from 2019, then moving onto McLaren for 2021.

    My Opinion-

    Honestly, it’s great to see Daniel back in F1 but I have a feeling this is a test for him. Obviously he done the tyre test at Silverstone today and apparently the time was quick enough to be on the front row last Sunday… But this test I’m talking about, is if he performs well enough the last 12 races, could he possibly replace Sergio Perez at Red Bull next season?

    There’s also a part of me which is gutted for Nyck, no-one deserves to be treated this way whether you’ve been in F1 for months or years. I get he hasn’t scored any points this season, but we are only 10 races in, whereas other rookies for Alpha Tauri / Red Bull outfit have been given more than a season to prove themselves.

    I’m very pleased to welcome Daniel back into the team. There’s no doubt about his driving skills, and he already knows many of us, so his integration will be easy and straight forward. The team will also profit a lot from his experience, as he is an eight-time Formula 1 Grand Prix winner.

    Franz Tost on Daniel Returning.

  • F3 Budapest- Day 2 & 3

    Day 2-

    Caio Collet, brought home his first win in Formula 3 in an impressive fassion mastering the wet to drying conditions in a race of attrition that caught several of the title contenders out.

    Starting fourth, the MP Motorsport driver made his presence known, slicing his way through the field and up into the lead before driving off into the distance to finish 8.7s clear of second place Franco Colapinto.

    The celebrations continued for MP, as Kush Maini made it at a double podium for the Dutch team having carved his way up from P7 to P3 at the chequered flag.

    As the spray faded and the tyres waned, the race turn into survival of the fittest as the field attempted to conserve their wet Pirelli compounds to the chequered flag with five laps remaining. Nobody seemed to be immune – Leclerc’s moment of oversteer saw him take a hefty whack over the red and white kerbs at Turn 4.

    The full top 10 are- P1: Collet, P2: Colapinto, P3: Maini, P4: Hadjar, P5: Bearman, P6: Martins, P7: Saucy, P8: Goethe, P9: Stanek and P10: Maloney.

    Day 3-

    Maloney got a great launch but was immediately covered off by pole sitter. The Trident driver tried a move around the outside at Turn 1 but was unsuccessful. It allowed Bearman to get a great driver on the corner exit to make it three-wide into Turn 2.

    Behind that trio, Maini climbed up to fourth but was closely watched by Crawford after the pair had cleared Gregoire Saucy off the line. The red and white PREMA claimed P4 on the run to Turn 4 whilst Reece Ushijima was on the move too, rising up to ninth after Lap 1 from P19 on the grid.

    Championship leader heading into the Feature Race, Isack Hadjar meanwhile was going backwards. He dropped down to 18th after being forced to take avoiding action at Turn 2 on the outside of the corner.

    Towards the end of the race, Correa was flying on his slick tyres and lapping seconds quicker than the race leaders. Edgar displayed just how much quicker the dry tyres were by unlapping himself from Maloney, Bearman and Crawford as they fought for second.

    O’Sullivan was another to have swapped the wets for dry tyres down in 17th and was 10 seconds quicker than race leader Smolyar on Lap 22. He passed the ART Grand Prix car of Correa to be the highest placed driver on the slick tyres.

    The full top 10 are- P1: Smolyar, P2: Maloney, P3: Bearman, P4: O’Sullivan, P5: Crawford, P6: Correa, P7: Maini, P8: Leclerc, P9: Collet and P10: Martins.

    Now we have the summer break, but when we are back we have a triple header, which means the Formula 3 2022 season is coming to an end!

  • Round 13- Hungarian GP

    The final race of the first half of the season has came to an end, and it was definitely an interesting one, a certain team getting their strategy very wrong and a spin half way through from the leader…

    But through all of that Max Verstappen took the win after starting in P10, (who said you can’t overtake at the Hungaroring!) Lewis Hamilton finished second that makes it his 5th podium in a row and George Russell rounds out the podium, a second double podium in a row for the Silver Arrows.

    The full top 10 are- P1: Verstappen, P2: Hamilton, P3: Russell, P4: Sainz, P5: Perez, P6: Leclerc, P7: Norris, P8: Alonso, P9: Ocon and P10: Vettel.

    Not the way today was meant to go for Ferrari, another what was meant to be an ‘easy’ race for the Italian team didn’t turn out that way… they used the wrong strategy and put them on hards, which everyone (teams) knew that the window to get the hard tyres up to temperature was just not there…

    Another good weekend for Alpine, double points finish once again, if they carry on like this McLaren might be in a bit of trouble…

    Talking about McLaren, a good race for Lando Norris finish P7 a good amount of points for the Brit. But for Daniel a different story, finishing P15, not what the team expected and the collision with Stroll more than didn’t help the Aussie.

    Aston Martin finishing in the points a second weekend in a row, but this time its Sebastian Vettel in 10th, rather than last weekend it being his teammate.

    The Championship-

    Max extends his lead to now 80 points between him and Charles, Perez has closed down the gap a little bit more to the Ferrari driver. George Russell has taken P4 of Carlos Sainz but only two points separate the two. Hamilton is joining in on the fight for P4 now, as his only 10 points away from Carlos.

    Looking at the constructors, Red Bull almost have a 100 point gap to Ferrari but they have got bigger fish to fry as Mercedes are only 30 points away and if they carry on with their double podium finishes it wont take them long. Alpine are still in 4th but they haven’t pulled away from McLaren as expected, just four points seperate the two.

    Now as were at the summer break our next race isn’t until the 26th to 28th August and for the Belgian Grand Prix! But that doesn’t mean I’ll stop posting so sign up for notifications when I do!

  • F2 Budapest- Day 1 & 2

    F2 Budapest- Day 1 & 2

    Day 1-

    Jack Doohan ended Free Practice fastest of all ahead of Qualifying but there was almost nothing splitting him from Ayumu Iwasa, only 0.001s was the gap from the Virtuosi driver and the DAMS in P2. David Beckmann popped up into P3 for Van Amersfoort Racing, with the German driver being the only one to improve in the final 10 minutes.

    Track temperatures were quickly rising as cars took to the track. A brief yellow flag was shown for a hare dashing across the circuit on the main straight but things remained as normal with 38 minutes left.

    Birthday boy, Marcus Armstrong was the first to set a representative time to go fastest early on. That lasted until Theo Pourchaire and Frederik Vesti made it an ART Grand Prix 1-2.

    Ayumu Iwasa left the rest of the Formula 2 in the dust as he stormed his way to his first pole position in the Championship. A blistering quick 1:27.930 set in the final few minutes of qualifying allowed him to better his nearest rival HiTech Grand Prix’s Marcus Armstrong, by an astonishing 0.381s, while Felipe Drugovich narrowly pipped Theo Pourchaire.

    Few drivers improved on their second runs, as Logan Sargeant opted to peel into off into the pits rather than set a second time. Olli Caldwell was the sole driver to run in the gap. This seemed to be a smart strategy for the Campos driver who leapt up from P16 to P1.

    However, it was Iwasa’s final run on his second set of softs that proved to be the making of his weekend. Whilst Armstrong failed to improve, the Japanese rookie turned the timing screens purple.

    The full top 10 are- P1: Iwasa, P2: Armstrong, P3: Drugovich, P4: Pourchaire, P5: Sargeant, P6: Vips, P7: Vesti, P8: Hauger, P9: Fittipaldi and P10: Doohan.

    Day 2-

    Fittipaldi aced his launch from second to take the lead in the opening metres from Doohan. A huge lock up at Turn 2 though undid his hard work and allowed the Virtusoi Racing driver to snatch the lead back.

    Meanwhile, Dennis Hauger endured a poor getaway and went three wide with Drugovich and Sargeant. Contact between the MP Motorsport and Carlin pair nudged the American into Hauger on the outside, tipping the Norwegian around and out of the race at Turn 1. Sargeant was also out of the race as a result of the contact, retiring from the pits.

    The action resumed heading onto Lap 4, and Doohan bolted early to leave the rest behind. Theo Pourchaire had dropped down to 16th on the opening lap after having to avoid action from the Turn 1 melee around the outside of the corner.

    Jehan Daruvala reported that his front tyres were already gone by lap 11, and the pressure from Marcus Armstrong behind was proof of that. The Hitech Grand Prix dirver shaped for a move into Turn 1, but the PREMA driver slammed the door shut to hold sixth for the time being.

    The full top 10 are- P1: Doohan, P2: Vips, P3: Fittipaldi, P4: Drugovich, P5: Vesti, P6: Lawson, P7: Armstrong, P8: Iwasa, P9: Pourchaire and P10: Caldwell.

  • Round 13- Hungary Qualifying

    Round 13- Hungary Qualifying

    I think most of us expected a wet qualifying, and we didn’t have one but we definitely had a few shock surprises! A drivers first pole position, a Red Bull out in Q2 and much more…

    It was George Russell who took pole position, his first in Formula 1 and the first for Mercedes this season! His followed closely by Carlos Sainz in 2nd and Charles Leclerc in 3rd!

    The full top 10 are- P1: Russell, P2: Sainz, P3: Leclerc, P4: Norris, P5: Ocon, P6: Alonso, P7: Hamilton, P8: Bottas, P9: Ricciardo and P10: Verstappen.

    What a day for Mr Saturday!! I think the Hungaroring may be one of Russell’s favourite tracks! Scored his first points here as a Williams driver last year and now his on pole position for Mercedes a year later!

    A bad day for RB, Perez starts P11, he had a few lap times deleted and then he got knocked out of Q2. Now onto Max… he set a decent time in Q3 but when he went out for last few laps he was complaining of no power and wasn’t able to improve on his lap time which saw him be pushed down to 10th.

    A good day for McLaren both cars in the top 10 and Lando having qualified P4! Infront of the two Alpine’s which is where the fight will be for the British driver. Ricciardo will be hoping to move up a few positions or count on others misfortune, but he has two Bull’s behind him…

    This is what Ferrari needed! Both drivers basically starting next to each other, it gives the Italian team a big chance of points tomorrow, especially with the Bull’s a lot further down and its a track where overtaking isn’t the easiest.

    Alfa Romeo seemed to have a good day, Bottas back in the top 10 and Zhou Guanyu starting P12, a chance of scoring points tomorrow for both drivers!

    Predictions-

    My top five predictions are- P1: Russell, P2: Leclerc, P3: Hamilton, P4: Sainz and P5: Alonso.

    As I said above, it’s a hard track to overtake on, and there is meant to be some rain before the race starts and we all saw how last year went… Or we could get a ‘normal’ race but whats the fun in that!

    Times for the weekend-

    Feature Race F3- 09:05am (BST)
    Feature Race F2- 10:35am
    F1 Race- 14:00pm

  • F3 Budapest- Day 1

    Free Practice-

    F3 action resumed bright and early this morning, and it was Jak Crawford who hit the ground running almost immediately. Entering the weekend off the back of his first victory in the Championship last time out in Spielberg, the PREMA Racing driver left it to the last second to knock Zane Maloney off the top spot by a tenth of a second.

    Ideal conditions greeted the field of 30 at the Hungaroring. The session got underway with the field bolting on their sets of red-walled soft tyres, that they carried over form the previous round, and off the bat Josep Maria Marti got up to speed, laying down a 1:36.144.

    Times continued to tumble as David Vidales, Juan Manuel Correa, Gregoire Saucy and Zak O’Sullivan all took turns at the top of the order before Alexander Smolyar followed by Kush Maini put MP Motorsport up into P1.

    The full top 10 are- P1: Crawford, P2: Maloney, P3: Leclerc, P4: Hadjar, P5: Collet, P6: Smolyar, P7: Edgar, P8: Maini, P9: Stanek and P10: Villagomez.

    Qualifying-

    Alexander Smolyar secured pole position around the Hungaroring, avoiding a hectic conclusion to the session following a late red flag stoppage. Though time remained on the clock following a restart with three minutes to go, Zane Maloney was the closest anyone got to the MP Motorsport driver, ending the session second fastest 0.126s down.

    The track fell quiet with 10 minutes gone, Collet leading from Isack Hadjar and Victor Martins. Debutant, Oliver Goethe climbed up to P6 on his second flying lap for Campos Racing but lost his time for exceeding track limits at Turn 4 dropping him down to P10.

    None of the PREMA drivers had recorded a lap time in the opening half of the session due to deletions because of track limits violations. Purple sectors across the board from Arthur Leclerc which put him in P1 with a 1:32.912, whilst teammate Jak Crawford couldn’t quite match. Bearman meanwhile managed to go better than both to secure a PREMA 1-2-3.

    The full top 10 are- P1: Smolyar, P2: Maloney, P3: Bearman, P4: Leclerc, P5: Saucy, P6: Maini, P7: Crawford, P8: Martins, P9: Collet and P10: Hadjar.

  • Vettel retiring end of season

    The day has arrived, and what a sad day it is! Four time world champion, Sebastian Vettel will retire from Formula 1 at the end of the 2022 season.

    The German driver, who made his debut with BMW Sauber in the 2007 United States Grand Prix, revealed the news via his newly created Instagram account.

    Vettel won all four of his championships with Red Bull between 2010 and 2013 and is third on the all-time list of Grand Prix winners with 53 victories. A six-year stint with Ferrari failed to yield a much-coveted fifth title. He has also scored one podium during one and a half years with Aston Martin where his contract expires at the end of 2022.

    Formula 1 teams, and drivers as well as drivers from Formula E took to social media to wish the World Champ well in his retirement, and having enjoyed racing him in past 15 years.

    Sebastian has used his platform in F1 to make a chnage, and in more recent years. Taking the knee with fellow drivers, raising awareness on the planet, and honestly just raising awareness in what’s going on in the world.

    Seb will be missed, his made a big impact in the past 15 years, and for me personally I’ve watched him since I was young, he was apart of my childhood. But seeing that his made this decision by himself and to do it for his family, no-one can put any negativity on that.

    I have had the privilege of working with many fantastic people in Formula 1 over the past 15 years – there are far too many to mention and thank. Over the past two years I have been an Aston Martin driver – and although our results have not been as good as we had hoped, it is very clear to me that everything is being put together that a team needs to race at the very highest level for years to come. I have really enjoyed working with such a great bunch of people. Everyone – Lawrence [Stroll], Lance [Stroll], Martin [Whitmarsh], Mike [Krack], the senior managers, the engineers, the mechanics and the rest of the team – is ambitious, capable, expert, committed and friendly, and I wish them all well. I hope that the work I did last year and am continuing to do this year will be helpful in the development of a team that will win in the future, and I will work as hard as I can between now and the end of the year with that goal in mind, giving as always my best in the last 10 races. The decision to retire has been a difficult one for me to take, and I have spent a lot of time thinking about it; at the end of the year I want to take some more time to reflect on what I will focus on next; it is very clear to me that, being a father, I want to spend more time with my family. But today is not about saying goodbye. Rather, it is about saying thank you – to everyone – not least to the fans, without whose passionate support Formula 1 could not exist.

    Sebastian Vettel on him leaving Formula 1.

    I want to thank Sebastian from the bottom of my heart for the great work that he has done for Aston Martin over the past year and a half. We made it clear to him that we wanted him to continue with us next year, but in the end he has done what he feels is right for himself and his family, and of course we respect that. He has driven some fantastic races for us, and, behind the scenes, his experience and expertise with our engineers have been extremely valuable. He is one of the all-time greats of Formula 1, and it has been a privilege to have been able to work with him. He will continue to race for us up to and including the 2022 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which will be his 300th Grand Prix entry. We will give him a fabulous send-off.

    Lawrence Stroll on Vettel.

    Sebastian is a superb driver – fast, intelligent and strategic – and of course we are going to miss those qualities. However, we have all learned from him, and the knowledge that we have gained from working with him will continue to benefit our team long after his departure. Aston Martin is a great project, with unlimited potential, and the groundwork that Sebastian has done last year, and is still doing this year, is crucial. When we become fully competitive – and we will – one of the architects of that future success will be Sebastian, and we will always be grateful to him for that.

    Mike Krack, on Seb.

  • Hungarian Grand Prix

    Our last race week is here, and summer break is just round the corner… But we return to Hungary for Round 13, where last year we saw a crazy race with Esteban Ocon winning his first F1 race…

    Could we see another crazy race this year? A first time win for a driver… George Russell… Kevin Magnussen.. Or could it be Lewis’ first win of the season? We will have to wait and find out on Sunday…

    Who needs a good weekend?

    Charles Leclerc, he potentially threw away a win last weekend, and I think he knows that… If he really wants to be in this championship fight I think he needs to just get his head down for this weekends race and then have time off and get back to it straight away.

    The Haas team will be wanting a good weekend, no points finish last time out, after scoring in both Silverstone and Austria, but they will be oping to maximise this weekend, and maybe be there on others misfortune….

    Alpha Tauri will be wanting a good weekend, Tsunoda last time out DNF’ed, and Gasly finished 12th, the Frenchman hasn’t scored points since Azerbaijan and Tsunoda since Spain…

    Predictions for qualifying-

    My top five are- P1: Verstappen, P2: Leclerc, P3: Sainz, P4: Hamilton and P5: Perez. I’m hoping for a McLaren, both Alpines and maybe a Hass if not both, in the top 10!

    At the time of writing this, it looks like there might be rain for qualifying. I’m kind of hoping there will be, I want a crazy race on Sunday so a qualifying where a few people are out of position will definitely be interesting.

    Times for weekend-

    Friday 29th-

    • Free Practice F3- 08:30am – 9:15am (BST)
    • Free Practice F2- 09:40am – 10:25am
    • Free Practice 1 F1- 13:00pm – 14:00pm
    • Qualifying F3- 14:30pm – 15:00pm
    • Free Practice 2 F1- 16:00pm – 17:00pm
    • Qualifying F2- 17:30pm – 18:00pm

    Saturday 30th-

    • Sprint Race F3- 10:00am – 10:45am (BST)
    • Free Practice 3 F1- 12:00pm – 13:00pm
    • Qualifying F1- 15:00pm – 16:00pm
    • Sprint Race F2- 17:00pm – 17:45pm

    Sunday 31st-

    • Feature Race F3- 09:05am (BST)
    • Feature Race F2- 10:35am
    • F1 Race- 14:00pm

  • Mansell in for Charouz

    Christian Mansell is racing for Charouz Racing System this weekend in Budapest. The Czech team confirmed that Mansell would be competing in both Rounds 6 & 7 of the season in Budapest and Spa in place of Zdenek Chovanec in the #15 car.

    The 17 year old, has been racing in EuroFormula Open this year and is currently second in the Drivers’ standings. He has secured multiple wins and podium finishes already this season, including runner-up results at both Hungary and Spa.

    The Australian driver, who is racing under a British license said that he was looking forward to the challenge of jumping into a Formula 3 car and his hoping his experience would bode well around both upcoming circuits.

    I’m super excited to be joining FIA Formula 3 with Charouz Racing System. This is a fantastic opportunity for me to put myself against an incredibly talented grid of drivers and get my name out there racing on the Formula 1 weekends. It will be my first time in the car so there will be a lot to learn from the start, but I like both circuits so I will be able to hit the ground running with those. I’m mega excited and can’t wait to get started this weekend in Hungary.

    Mansell on his opportunity this weekend.

    I’m really happy to welcome Christian in the team and I’m looking forward to see him in the car. He’ll need all of our support to get confident with a single-seater different from the ones he already raced with, but I’m confident that it will happen very naturally and very quickly given how talented he is. The fact that he already had experiences at both Hungaroring and Spa-Francorchamps is definitely an optimum starting point for his debut. The team and I are really excited to have him on board, I’m sure that he’s excited too and he’ll show everybody what he’s capable of.

    Antonin Charouz, team owner.

  • Hungary Tyre Allocation

    We are at our last race before the summer break, and Pirelli has chosen the tyres for this weekends Hungarian Grand Prix, we also have Formula 2 and Formula 3 with us aswell.

    We have the middle of the range this weekend: C2 (Hard), C3 (Medium), C4 (Soft).

    The Hungaroring has a reputation for being an extremely hot and dry track, last years track temperatures during a free practice session peaked at nearly 60 degrees.

    But the reality is that it’s actually rained just before the race for the past two seasons in Hungry. Last year led to a somewhat crazy re-start following a first corner incident, when Lewis Hamilton was the only person to get going on intermediates from the grid whilst everyone went into the pit for the slicks.

    The Hungaroring isn’t a particularly high energy circuit, with smooth asphalt that’s sometimes bumpy in places and the demands on tyres being more about traction rather than braking.

    In the past, the Hungaroring has been known as a place where it’s difficult to overtake, but the new package of cars and tyres this year helps drivers get much closer to each other, which is why we have seen some great races with plenty of overtaking so far this season. Hopefully that’s going to be the case at the Hungaroring as well; a tight and twisty track where the cars are often grouped together. Hungary is also known for being very hot, but it’s also rained for the last two years there: so the moral of the story is never to jump to conclusions! We’ve seen some surprises at the Hungaroring before, and that could be the case even more this year.

    Mario Isla, Motorsport Director

    Formula 2

    For Formula 2 this weekend, the medium and soft tyres have been nominated. It’s only the second time the combination has been used this season, after round two at Jeddah.

    Formula 3

    In Formula 3, the medium tyre will be nominated for the second time this season, with its previous appearance being in Imola for round 2.

  • Campos confirm Goethe to replace Yeany

    Campos Racing has announced that Oliver Goethe will replace Hunter Yeany for the sixth round of the 2022 FIA Formula 3 season in Budapest this weekend.

    Yeany was forced to withdraw from the previous round in Spielberg after sustaining a broken wrist in the Sprint Race. The American rookie still managed to finish the race but pulled out of the Feature Race the following day.

    Seizing the opportunity, Goethe is determined to gain lots of knowledge and an understanding about the car at a track he is fairly familiar with.

    After beginning his single-seater career in Spanish F4 in 2019, Goethe made the step up to Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine in 2021. Earlier this year he competed in the Formula Regional Asian Championship and won on his debut in the 24H GT Series, taking victory in his GT4 class at the Dubai 24H.

    Currently, the Danish-German driver, who is racing under a Monegasque licence, sits at the top of the Euroformula Open Championship standing, with eight wins and four podiums to his name across the first five rounds including a victory in the Hungarian capital earlier this month.

    I’m extremely excited to make my FIA F3 debut this weekend with Campos! I can’t wait to try out the car and compete amongst the best! It’ll be a great learning experience and I will make the most of it.

    Oliver Goethe on racing this weekend