2006 HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX
BUDAPEST 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.
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