Hungarian GP July 24th, 2016 11th Race Practice 1 Fri 4 AM Practice 2 Fri 8 AM Practice 3 Sat 5 AM Qualifying Sat 8 AM Race Sun 8 AM If you re not first, you re last Ricky Bobby s Dad Official Outcome Great Britain OdiousLewis MadMax Mr.Petronas PrettyRicky No-Smiles JumpingBean Hulkenberg YoungSpanierd Vettel Kyvat
Rewind with rob (P1) Scuderia Drew (P2) O Brien Red Bull Audi (P3) Tonka BMW Blimey, that was a good race. With wet-dry conditions and most drivers flying off the track at Turn 1, the British Grand Prix lived up to its reputation for action. While the scores rebounded a bit in the Pit Road Hooligans league, the results were still fairly unpredictable as no one got the podium correct again. Places 2 through 7 were separated by a measly 7 points, showing that anyone can win on any given Sunday. Key Corners The seven participating teams put Odious Lewis in P1 and Mr. Petronas in P2; the Silver Arrows do seem dominant this year. Vettel was the more popular pick to fill out the podium, although Tonka BMW and Sauber Alfa Romeo F1 put Pretty Ricky there. Generally the Ferraris and Red Bulls were used to fill places P3 through P5. The Troll and Bottas did make an appearance on some teams boards. Hamilton did sit pole, as the top 5 teams predicted. Rosberg had the fastest lap, as only Scuderia Drew predicted. For the second race in a row, Nasr had the most positions gained. For the second race in a row, no one predicted that. Watch out for that Sauber. Scuderia Drew (62) This team ran away with the race, easily outpacing the rest of the field. This is the second top step for Scuderia Drew in three races and he is making his way up the leaderboard. He got the same 20 points that everyone did for Odious Lewis in P1, but he put the field a lap down by successfully foreseeing the resurgence of Kvyat (P9, +5) and Hulkenberg (P7, +10). He missed out on even more points by expecting Ferrari to best Red Bull, which it could not do on the high speed turns at Silverstone. O'Brien Red Bull Audi (49) This team secured second place although the field was in DRS range. O BRBA had the same podium as Scuderia Drew (Odious Lewis, Mr. Petronas, Vettel) but successfully predicted that the Red Bull cars would have a better day than at least one of the Ferraris. Interestingly, the team predicted Odious Lewis to secure both pole position and most positions gained. That s an impossibility but an interesting hedging strategy. Tonka BMW (47) One of the few teams to predict that Red Bull would have great success, it needed all of the points it got for the top 5 because it struck out behind that. Tonka BMW was far too optimistic about the McLaren comeback, slotting Alonso at P7 and Button at P9. Grosjean s comeback (P10) will also have to wait at least another week. Tonka BMW did smartly guess Vettel to gain the most positions after his gearbox penalty. If not for the surprising driving of Nasr, that could have been another 5 points. FO Racing (46) It s heartbreaking to be only 1 point off the podium but we are seeing that more and more often as the teams get dialed in on the field s performance. FO Racing gets credit for being the highest placed team to see that young Mad Max would out drive his more experienced teammate Pretty Ricky. Like Tonka BMW, FO Racing badly missed with its predictions that Alonso, Button and Grosjean would thrive at Silverstone. Schweizer F1 (45) Schweizer F1 put up the same podium as Scuderia Drew, O BRBA and FO Racing. It could have had a banner day if it had had a bit more faith in the number 2 drivers at Ferrari and Red Bull and swapped their predicted positions with those of their teammates. Schweizer F1 was notable for its great faith in the Williams. The Williams cars suck in the rain and we ll never know what could have been here. Sauber Alfa Romeo (44) This team picked the exact same top 5 as Tonka BMW. Unfortunately for Sauber Alfa Romeo, it did not get the additional 5 points for Odious Lewis on pole. Those 5 points, minus 2 for the Young Spaniard (P10), are all that separate the last podium place from 6th at the British Grand Prix. JBone (42) No one likes bringing up the rear and this must be getting old for JBone. The rumours in the paddock are that the team principle is mulling over whether to bring in a new racing director. The good news is that JBone is only 5 points off the podium and didn t lose much ground in the overall standings this week. Pit Road Hooligans (35) What more is there to say at this point? PIT ROAD HOOLIGANS might consider pulling a Lotus and selling the entire operation if it doesn t want to put in the effort anymore.
Charlie s Chatter If these tracks could talk Listen, I was raised in a household with three rules: 1. Chicken Paprikash will be served on your birthday 2. Never tell Grandma that Easter dinner was not actually blessed by the priest over in New Brunswick's Little Hungary 3. And most importantly, the F1 season does not officially begin until the lights go out at the Hungaroring outside of Budapest So yeah, I am somewhat of an authority on the Hungarian Grand Prix. Say what you want about the track; no overtaking, poor conditions, blah blah blah, but this race has not seen a Mercedes victory since 2013 and we can all cheer for that. The Bulls dominate in Hungary, Ferrari holds their own, and the Mercedes chassis is not suited for the twisty design of the track. This race will not simply reward straight line speed as most of other tracks do. You need a skilled driver inside a well balanced car to perform well in Hungary. You heard it here first, the front row on Sunday will be Daniel and Max, or my name isn't Janos. And they will hold those positions through lap 70. So join me in slamming some palinka shots when Mercedes is left off the podium this weekend. One tip if you ever visit Hungary, leave the WAG at home, guaranteed she won't be heading back to your 2.5 star hotel room with you. Too many studs walking around, trust me. That one was free. Charlie s Chatter Ferrari is in the midst of a midsummer nightmare, according to Gazzetta dello Sport, with the team preparing to make sweeping changes to its management structure and personnel. Vettel, finishing the second year of a three year contract, is believed to be reluctant to commit his future to Ferrari unless they give him certain assurances. Nico Rosberg says maintaining a relationship with Lewis Hamilton has been as hard as ever this season as the Mercedes duo continue to battle for the world championship. Stoffel Vandoorne admits 2017 has to be his year as younger and younger drivers continue to make the step-up to Formula 1. The 24-year-old is highly rated but is still McLaren's reserve driver, and is up against Jenson Button to land the seat alongside Fernando Alonso next year. Longbow Finance has bought out the Sauber Holding Group, of which the Formula 1 team is a part.
With the 2016 Rio Olympics fourteen days away, this week s WAG is Emilia Pikkarainen. Pikkarainen, a 23 year-old swimmer, holds the Finnish records for the 50 meters butterfly, 100 meters butterfly, 200 meters butterfly, and 200 meters individual medley. Emilia s first Olympic games came in 2008 when she competed as a 15 year-old. She also raced in the 2012 London Olympics but has yet to win a medal outside of the European Championships. Despite Zika fears, the Finn is gearing up for her third Olympics in a few weeks. Did I mention Pikkarainen is dating Williams Martini driver Valtteri Bottas? Bottas and Pikkarainen, who have been dating since 2010, are not a couple to shy away from the limelight. An avid lover of horse-riding, Emilia has been seen with Bottas at a number of black-tie events as well as F1 charity fashion shows. Pikkarainen also holds a number of high-profile endorsements including coconut water and skincare brands. Wag of the week Judging by poorly translated Finnish websites, the recently engaged couple plans to get married this fall. A busy F1 schedule and grueling Olympics training program may put these plans on hold. Perhaps we hear wedding bells in 2017?
SuperSoft, Soft, Medium. Those are the compounds available this year at Hungaroring. Last year it was just the Softs and Mediums. During the 2015 race, all but the lead two cars made 3 pit stops. After starting on their Softs, they generally switched to another set of Softs, thence to the Mediums to get square with the regulations and then back to the Softs for some real racing in the waning laps. A virtual safety car at lap 42 (of the 69 in the race) allowed most drivers to get off their mediums after only 8 or 9 laps, while losing minimal time. Soft will be the optimal racing tyre this weekend. The SuperSoft is only good for about 0.6 second advantage and is thought to wear much faster. The Medium, on the other hand, is a whopping 2 seconds slower than the Softs. So most drivers will start on the SuperSoft qualifying tyre, run that for 10 to 15 laps and then switch to Softs. Last year Kyvat managed 36 laps on the Softs but its thought that they start going after about 25 laps. So perhaps the optimal strategy will be SS, Soft, Soft. In 2016, we ve seen teams really try to stretch tyre life in an attempt to minimize pit stops. Unless we see safety cars or rain in Hungary, expect more of the same here. Hungaroring was resurfaced this year, which some say could change matters. Probably not. Although the new surface in Hungary is supposed to be more abrasive, that s the same thing we heard about Austria, which got the same surfacing over the off-season. Although most teams did take an additional stop in Austria this year, Verstappen and Raikkonen did not and they did well in P2 and P3. Furthermore, the additional stops for the other drivers could have been attributable to the use of a softer compound rather than the track surface. All in all, the new surface should not be a dominant factor. Given the expected poor performance of the Medium compound it is no surprise that most teams have taken the minimum one set. Only Force India, with its wear problems, has taken two. The rest of the teams have loaded up with between 7 and 9 sets of the SuperSofts, which they will run through in the qualifying sessions. Then have between 3 and 5 sets of Softs. If this analysis holds true, they ll want to save at least two of those for the race. Tyre me out
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