Latest News and Updates from the Hungarian Grand Prix Practice Session: Rain, Crashes, and Surprises

2023-07-21 11:15:00
1:49 p.m

The rain is here

All drivers are currently in the pits because the rain has set in, which, apart from the fewer sets of tyres, was the next unknown as to how much is actually driven.

You have now seen with Perez that it can happen quickly and you’re stuck in the wall. Of course nobody wants to risk that.

By the way, George Russell is currently leading ahead of Alexander Albon and Daniel Ricciardo. About 40 minutes left on the clock.

1:36 p.m

Perez strikes

What’s going on with Sergio Perez? A few minutes following the start of the first free practice session, the Mexican hit the grass when braking for turn six, flies off roughly and hits the tire wall.

grist to the mill of his critics.

1:30 p.m

admission of error

Helmut Marko, motorsport consultant at Red Bull, admitted to Sky Deutschland that the decision to put Nyck de Vries in the AlphaTauri cockpit following his impressive performance at Monza last season was wrong:

“That can happen and I admit that in hindsight it wasn’t the right decision.”

Christian Horner emphasized once more this week on “F1 Nation” that he had always contradicted Marko regarding de Vries’ prospects, and Peter Hardenacke then asked whether Marko’s say in the next driver line-up would be less:

“I don’t think that has changed and now with Daniel Ricciardo we agree that we will put him in the AlphaTauri by the end of the year and then we’ll see,” said Marko on Sky Germany.

1:01 p.m

New helmet for Ricciardo

Daniel Ricciardo now also has more freedom when it comes to his helmet design with Red Bull and AlphaTauri, as he proudly presents.

Incidentally, the helmet is painted by Jens Munser, who has already used his skills to implement the design ideas for so many drivers in Formula 1.

12:46 p.m

Drivers as avatars

This weekend, the colleagues from Sky UK and Sky Germany are all focused on children’s reporting “Sky Next Generation”. More on that later.

Formula 1 itself initiated this project and even had its own avatars created for the current field of drivers. Do you remember “McLaren Tooned”? I celebrated that very much back then and if I see it that way, I’m happy to come back!

12:31 p.m

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12:15 p.m

contract not a priority

Carlos Sainz is putting little pressure on himself when it comes to continuing his tenure at Ferrari beyond the 2024 season. Frederic Vasseur, his team boss, recently said that there are more important things at Ferrari than contract negotiations with the drivers and Sainz agreed with him yesterday at the FIA ​​press conference, but also drew attention to minor checkpoints:

“I think it’s difficult with so many consecutive races. I won’t lie, there’s a three-week break in August where I might think a little bit regarding what I’d be happy with. And then the winter break comes, I think I said that in an interview a while ago that it’s time to think regarding where I’ll be racing from 2025 onwards.”

Sainz has recently been associated with Audi more often, but himself denied that any talks had already taken place.

12:00 o’clock

Team Principal Press Conference

After the first free practice session on Friday, as always, team representatives and team bosses will answer questions from the media representatives on site at the Hungaroring. Who’s in today?

3:00 p.m.:

Franz Tost (AlphaTauri)
Otmar Szafnauer (Alpine)
Andrea Stella (McLaren)

3:30 p.m.:

Xevi Pujolar (Alfa Romeo)
Andrew Shovlin (Mercedes)
Dave Robson (Williams)

It should be very exciting, especially in group one, because we found out yesterday that Laurent Rossi is no longer Alpine CEO and we are of course very excited regarding the assessment of Alpine team boss Otmar Szafnauer.

Franz Tost is sure to face questions regarding Nyck de Vries’ sacking.

We will of course keep a close eye on all of this for you here!

11:16 a.m

The updates of the teams

The FIA ​​’Show and Tell’ document is here, here are the Hungarian Grand Prix teams’ updates:

Red Bull: front and rear brake ventilation, sidepod air intake, engine cover/”coke bottle shape”, underbody side edges
Ferrari: front wing flaps
Mercedes: front wing end plate, front suspension, rear wing “tip”
Alpine: front wing flaps
McLaren: –
Alfa Romeo:-
Aston Martin: engine cover/”coke bottle shape”
Haas: Underbody side edges
AlphaTauri: front wing, nose, underbody rear, rear wing
Williams: –

Most of the updates are track specific, with only Red Bull making a few design changes, which you can revisit in our photo gallery of the teams’ tech ideas this weekend.

Photo gallery: Formula 1 technology: detailed photos at the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix

10:59 a.m

World Champion 2002

Before things get a little more stressful in the course of the morning, let’s take a look at Formula 1’s past, okay? #OnThisDay in 2002, Michael Schumacher secured his fifth world championship title with his 61st victory.

He won the French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours ahead of the two McLaren-Mercedes of Kimi Raikkonen and David Coulthard, who would set his last fastest lap of his career in that race. It was the eleventh of 17 races of the season.

Machtdemonstration!

10:45 a.m

Tire problems on the horizon?

Things are different at the Hungaroring this weekend when we look at tire choice.

Pirelli brings only eleven sets of tires per driver to Hungary. It’s usually 13. That makes a huge difference in practice, especially as qualifying dictates the tires they have to use. Three sets of hard tyres, four sets of medium and four sets of soft tires are on offer, all in the softest variant C3 to C5, which once more might pose problems for some teams dealing with high levels of wear.

In Q1 you have to drive with hard tires, in Q2 with medium and in Q3 with the soft tires. That might get pretty expensive in the event of braking or accidents, also with regard to the race.

09:59 am

Findings on media day

Did you guys last night? on the Formel1.de YouTube channel Have you already looked at our little innovation?

Instead of live streams on Thursday and Friday, there will be dedicated videos on the day’s topics this weekend. Yesterday was of course the media day at the Hungaroring.

Daniel Ricciardo was the big topic, our editor-in-chief Christian Nimmervoll once questioned the Australian as to why he wasn’t fast enough in the simulator at first, but now enough to quickly replace Nyck de Vries and possibly be an option for Red Bull.

Our data expert Kevin Hermann can also be heard, a short walk through the Formula 1 paddock, which you should definitely take a look at.


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