Red Bulla team for which the Dutchman Max Verstappen and the Mexican Sergio Pérez drive, aim this weekend for the all-time record for consecutive wins -installed by McLaren in 1988- at the Hungarian Grand Prix, the eleventh Formula One World Cup. A test that takes place at the Hungaroring, the circuit on the outskirts of Budapest where the Spanish Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) seeks his long-awaited victory 33on the stage where, almost twenty years ago, he achieved his first.
Verstappen25, won eight of the first ten races of the year and clearly points to a third title in a row, leading the championship with 255 points, 99 more than ‘Checo’ -of 33-, who scored the other two. The Asturian double world champion (2005 and 2006), in a second youth about to turn 42, has caused a sensation so far this season and, with six podiums, is third in the World Cup, 19 points behind the Mexican.
Two legends of the premier class, the four-time French champion Alain Prost and the triple Brazilian champion Ayrton Senna, won the first eleven races of 1988 for McLaren. Thirty-five years later, Red Bull -which, except for a major catastrophe, will also revalidate the title this year of constructors – is in a position to equal that mark if he wins again in Hungary. the austrian team I would repeat, in that case, the best start in history; and it would raise the record for consecutive victories to twelve, if we take into account that ‘Mad Max’ also scored the last race last year; in Abu Dhabi. Where two times ago he dethroned the seven-time English world champion Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes).
Alonso’s aspirations
Alonso -who will celebrate his forty-second birthday next week at Spa-Francorchamps, venue of the Belgian Grand Prix- returns to the scene of his first triumph, almost twenty years ago. When, by winning a race in which he came to double the great dominator of that time, the seven-time German world champion Michael Schumacher -who would end up celebrating his sixth title that year, his fourth with Ferrari- he became the then youngest winner in the history of the F1.
That day, by relegating two other spectacular drivers to second and third place, the Finn Kimi Raikkonen and the Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya, Alonso became the first Spaniard to win in F1. And after raising his number of victories to 32 -ten years and two months ago, at the Spanish Grand Prix, in Montmeló (Barcelona)- he was still the only victorious Spaniard; until last year Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) from Madrid when he won the British GP at Silverstone (England).
If the Red Bull failed, Alonso would open the doors of the long-awaited ’33’. Something that, although he tries to avoid it, the Mexican Sergio Pérez does not see it as impossible; that last Saturday, within the framework of the exhibition that he carried out in the streets of Madrid with the RB7 -with which the German Sebastian Vettel captured the second of his four titles in 2011-, he declared to Efe that “Fernando has been close, Yeah, this season. In some races he’s been the fastest driver. He’s close. And there’s still a long season to go.” ‘Checo’, who hopes to “win a few more races” this year and who accepted that his goal is runner-up, explained that what impresses him most about Alonso is his motivation. “I believe that Formula One, more than a matter of age, is a matter of motivation. And that is what impresses me the most about Fernando. That at almost 42 years of age he continues to have that motivation,” the best Formula One driver told Efe. The history of Mexico.
Sainz, with a Ferrari which is still very far from where he would like to be, he is fifth in the world, with 83 points, 172 less than the super-predator. With a victory and fifteen podiums in F1, Carlos will look for the first drawer this season at a track where last year he started second and finished fourth. In a race in which Verstappen prevailed: on that occasion starting tenth and allowing himself the luxury of spinning, before practically leaving the last World Cup just before the holidays.
The history of the Hungarian GP
Hungary has been on the calendar since 1986, when it was still part of the communist bloc and became the first country on the other side of the ‘iron curtain’ to host an F1 race; which was won by Brazilian triple world champion Nelson Piquet. And no one matches Hamilton’s eight victories at the Hungarroring. The circuit track on the outskirts of the beautiful Hungarian capital measures 4,381 meters and has 14 curves -six to the left- of medium and low speed; that require a high level of downforce. Something that, on paper, will not hurt green cars.
The novelty of this Grand Prix will be the new qualifying configuration. That will be held, as usual, with its three rounds (Q1, Q2 and Q3), but with the exception that in the first act it will be mandatory to shoot with the hard tire; in the second with the middle; and in the decisive Q3, with the soft. The sole supplier, Pirelli, brought to Hungary the softest range of compounds: C3 (hard, recognizable by the white stripe), C4 (medium, yellow line) and C5 (soft, red).
Alonso comes from finishing seventh at Silverstone, where, behind Verstappen, they stepped forward Mercedes -with third place for Hamilton, who was on the podium for the fourteenth time in front of his fans- and, above all, McLaren: which celebrated the second place of the Englishman Lando Norris and the fourth place of the Australian Oscar Piastri, by far the best rookie of the year. ‘Checo’, after another bad Saturday, went back from fifteenth to sixth; and Sainz, in another weak strategy of his team, finished tenth.
In Hungary, the Australian Daniel Ricciardo returns to the grid, until two weeks ago a Red Bull tester and to whom the Austrian team has ‘loaned’ to Alpha Tauri, its mother team, in which he will replace the Dutchman Nyck de Vries. Another rookie, but without fortune; that he had not added a single point so far in the World Cup. The likeable driver from Perth, with 8 victories in F1 -all with Red Bull except the last one, two years ago, with McLaren- and who in his day was already a member of Toro Rosso (former name of his ‘new’ team), will return to ride with the best in free practice this Friday. Some tests that will be completed on Saturday before qualifying -with new rules concerning tires- that will order the starting line-up for the Sunday race. Scheduled for 70 laps, to complete a 306.6-kilometer route.
2023-07-20 09:01:16
#HUNGARY
