He previously raced for Williams from 2019 to 2021, leading the team to finish eighth in the 2021 Constructors’ Championship after finishing last in 2019 and 2020 respectively by scoring a podium at the wet-weather-affected 2021 Belgian Grand Prix.
As the cars began to form up on the starting grid for the 2022 Sao Paulo F1 GP, it was the first time seeing the front row having both the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS cars, with George Russell on pole. Only one more race remains and perhaps this is the start of the change of the team’s fortunes.
As the lights went out to start the 71-lap race, Russell got a great start with Lewis Hamilton right on his tail. The lone McLaren of Lando Norris was alongside the two Red Bull cars and by the first turn, it was Max Verstappen ahead. But further back, Norris’ team mate, Daniel Ricciardo had contact with Haas F1’s Kevin Magnussen who went into a spin. As the Haas car was spinning, Ricciardo bumped into it again and it went off into the barriers. The race was over for both drivers and even before the other cars had completed the first lap, the F1 Safety Car was on the move.
The 2022 Sao Paulo Grand Prix (previously known as the Brazilian Grand Prix) has certainly been producing some firsts, starting with Kevin Magnussen giving the Haas F1 team its long awaited po9le position for the Sprint Qualifying Race. And then Mercedes-AMG’s George Russell getting his first ever pole position in the race, along with his team also getting its first pole position of the season.
Just days after a dramatic race in France, the 2022 F1 World Championship is at the Hungaroring in Budapest for the Hungarian Grand Prix. This is the 37th time the event has been held and it has been on the calendar every year since being added in 1986. All of the F1 races in Hungary have been held at the Hungaroring; Monza in Italy is the only track with a longer run of consecutive Grands Prix.
It’s therefore a familiar circuit and engineers who have prepared for the hot and dusty environment. The air and track temperatures experienced at the Hungarian F1 Grand Prix are typically some of the highest of the season, with an average air temperature of 30°C and average track temperature of 49°C. In fact, during practice last year, the temperature was seen to reach nearly 60°C.!
But with climate change, unexpected weather can also occur. On the past two occasions, it’s actually rained just before the race – and this year. rain came down during final practices. Last year, that led to a somewhat surreal re-start following a first corner incident. “We’ve seen some surprises at the Hungaroring before, and that could be the case even more this year,” predicts Mario Isola, Pirelli’s Motorsport Director.
The Hungaroring circuit has 14 turns running around a valley. It is twisty and bumpy, giving a ‘street circuit’ feel like that of Monaco (or rather ‘Monaco without walls’, as some describe it). It was resurfaced several years ago, and most of the bumps were flattened out. However, the track surface is gradually starting to show its age and the irregularities are forming again.
Six of the 14 turns are left-handers and 8 are to the right. Many of these corners are combined, making good directional changes more important. The straights are relatively short and taking the corners at the right speed is crucial. Consequently, the standard setup for Hungary includes maximum downforce.
Due to its nature as a high-downforce track, the Hungaroring has one of the lowest top speeds of the season so far: 308 km/h. The F1 cars only go straight for about 10 seconds during the course of a fast lap, spending the remaining 65 seconds or so cornering. Only 65% of the lap distance of 4.381 kms will be taken at full throttle – one of the lowest ratios in Formula One.
The kerbs in the final corner can be very aggressive, and the same applies to the exit of Turn 11. However, unlike on faster tracks such as Spielberg, the kerbs in Hungary are driven over at lower speeds (but keeping within track limits, of course). The chicane (Turns 7 and 8), on the other hand, can prove problematic, especially in the wet, and take the drivers by surprise.
The twisty track makes it seem like a big go-kart circuit and this affects the average lap speed which is below 205 km/h throughout the race, but can increase to 214 km/h during the qualifying rounds. On each lap at the Hungaroring, the drivers use their brakes 11 times for a total of 14.3 seconds per lap which amounts to 19% of the duration of the race.
The hardest on the brake system is going into Turn 1: to go from 321 km/h to 95 km/h, the drivers have to brake for 2.43 seconds with a load of 142 kgs on the brake pedal, during which they are subjected to 4.6 G deceleration. In that length of time, the F1 cars cover a distance of 118 metres.
“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,” said Pirelli’s Isola.
Max Verstappen’s victory in France, combined with a disappointing DNF for Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and fourth place for Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez, gives the defending World Champion a healthy lead in the Drivers’ Championship. He is 63 points ahead of Leclerc and a further 7 points beyond Perez. Red Bull, meanwhile, pull ahead in the Constructors’ Championship and now lead Ferrari 396-314. And the Italian team is now seeing a resurgent Mercedes-AMG just 44 points behind.
A bit of history: the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix was the first race in F1 history to be won by a hybrid car. Back then, using the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) was optional and the opening races were won by cars with conventional engines. However, Mercedes-AMG had developed a hybrid system run by McLaren-Mercedes in 2009. So, when Lewis Hamilton won the event that year, it was the first ever victory for a hybrid F1 racing car.
Over its long history, Lewis Hamilton has been the most successful driver at the Hungarian Grand Prix, with 8 victories – twice the number of Michael Schumacher, who is the next driver on the list. McLaren has had 11 victories at the Hungaroring, the most of any team.
Even before the race started, there was already drama as Sergio Perez (Red Bull Racing) aquaplaned and crashed in the wet and slippery conditions on the way to the starting grid. His right suspension was too severely damaged for repairs to be done in time, so he was out.
Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes-AMG) and Lando Norris (McLaren) both had 5-place penalties so they were further down the grid than where the qualifying time had put them. Bottas went to 13th and Norris to 15th, the latter getting a penalty for a gearbox change. Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll was relocated to last as he too had a 5-place grid penalty from the previous race.
As it continued to rain, the start was delayed by 15 minutes and then another 10 minutes more were added, and the 19 cars would do their formation lap behind the red Safety Car from Mercedes-AMG. The conditions were bad enough that the Red Bull boss, Christian Horner, remarked to Sky Sports: “I certainly wouldn’t want to be getting into a car in these conditions. They are very brave.”
28 minutes after the original scheduled start time, the Safety Car led the racing cars out. It was still raining heavily and messages from the drivers indicated that visibility was a problem with all the spray. The situation looked too hazardous and the start process was suspended with the Safety Car leading the convoy back to the pits. There was no official word on what would happen but virtually everyone was in agreement that the conditions were too dangerous for any racing.
In the Red Bull pits, the crew was frantically working on the Perez’ damaged car in the hope that he could join the race. The team was trying to persuade the Race Director to allow Perez to ‘come back from retirement’ and be allowed to race. In the end, the Race Director allowed Perez to start but he would have to do so from the pit lane (so does Kimi Raikkonen for something else).
There was discussion about whether the race would be abandoned, or run on Monday. It was interesting that there seemed to be no clear position in rules regarding abandonment of a race due to rain, and how it would be handled. The last two races that had been abandoned due to heavy rain were the 2009 Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang and before that, the 1991 Australian Grand Prix. Older readers will also remember the horrendous conditions of the 1976 Japan Grand Prix in which championship leader Niki Lauda decided to pull out of the race as he was certain the conditions were too dangerous. The race was not stopped in spite of the rain and was won by Mario Andretti in a Lotus.
Finally, some 3 hours after the race had been scheduled to start came the news that racing would resume within 17 minutes. The teams hurriedly prepared the cars and the spectators who had been sitting and waiting in the rain cheered as the Safety Car led the field back onto the wet track.
The Safety Car remained in the lead as the first few laps were completed but did not come in, so actual racing was not taking place. The Race Director had declared that it would be a time run but the laps were not confirmed.
And then red flags appeared and the race was stopped, with the cars headed back to the pits. The remaining time in the 1-hour allocation counted down but the conditions remained too dangerous to run in. Anyway, the requisite 2 laps had been done, so half-points could thus be awarded even if the rest of the race did not take place. Some drivers would benefit and some would not, but for George Russell who was right up at the front row, even half-points would be a very good day for the British driver.
The race was not able to resume as the rain just kept falling and the Race Director made the decision to abandon it, with the order on the grid being the order for the results, and half-points allocated. It will be remembered as the shortest F1 race as only around 21 kms had been completed out of the 308 kms had a 44-lap race been run.
Race starts at 8:10 pm in Bahrain/1:10 am (Monday) in Malaysia
The big news for second last race of the 2020 Formula 1 World Championship is, of course, the replacement of Lewis Hamilton by George Russell. The World Champion was tested positive on Monday after the last race and immediately started his self-isolation, as required by the authorities and in accordance with Standard Operating Procedures applied for events. As the self-isolation will be at least 10 days, this meant that he could not race this weekend at the Sakhir Grand Prix which is also run on the Bahrain Circuit.
22-year old British driver George Russell takes Hamilton’s place so his racing number ‘63’ is now on the Mercedes-AMG racing car. Russell has been with Williams Racing since 2019 and the team was willing to release him to race for Mercedes-AMG. British-Korean Jack Aiken, Williams’ test and reserve driver, will drive in his place.
Russell is no stranger to Mercedes-Benz though, having been a member of the Mercedes-Benz Junior Programme since 2017, when he won the GP3 Series championship as a rookie, before repeating the feat in Formula 2 in 2018.
“It will not be a straightforward task for George to make the transition from the Williams to the W11, but he is race-ready and has detailed understanding of the 2020 tyres and how they perform on this generation of cars. George has shown impressive form this year with Williams, playing an instrumental role in their climb up the grid, and I am optimistic that he will deliver a strong performance alongside Valtteri, who will be a demanding reference for him,” said Team Principal and CEO Toto Wolff.
In practices during the week, Russell seems to have settled into the W11 and clocked fastest laps. “It’s been good working with the team and I’m learning a lot every single lap I’m in the car. I think my lap times are a bit deceiving at the moment and not the true representation of the pace. There’s still a lot of work to do to get comfortable in the car and with the set-up,” he said.
He is the fifth driver to race for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team since 2010, and the third British driver to represent Mercedes-Benz in F1 after Sir Stirling Moss and Lewis Hamilton.
Brazil’s Pietro Fittipaldi will also make his F1 debut, taking the place of Romain Grosjean who was involved in the horrific accident during the last race. Fittipaldi, the grandson of 2-time Formula 1 world champion Emerson Fittipaldi , is test and reserve driver for the Haas F1 team. The last time there was a Brazilian driver in F1 was Felipe Massa in the 2017 Abu Dhabi GP.
While the race takes place at the same circuit and also at night, the layout is different as the Outer Circuit is being used. This is a shorter track – 3.5 kms instead of 5.4 kms – and 11 corners instead of 15. The drivers will have to circulate for 87 laps compared to last weekend’s 57 laps to get an almost similar total distance of 300+ kms, with each lap being less than a minute.
This is the first time that the layout has ever been used for an international race, and 87 laps is the highest number on the F1 calendar. There is no historical data for the new middle sector which starts from the usual Bahrain Grand Prix layout at the exit of Turn 4.
Track surface is always a big topic with new tracks and while the surface on the new section in Bahrain is similar to the rest of the circuit and made from the same material, it’s not been used anywhere near as much, so is therefore less worn and ‘greener’ as a result. Pirelli is supplying the same tyres as last weekend, with the C2 compound as the white Hard tyres, the C3 as the yellow Medium, and the C4 as the soft tyres.
The different layout will require some set-up changes, though not great. Though there are few braking points, those that exist will be hard on brakes so effective cooling will be important.
“In terms of the race itself, firstly the person putting out the pit board is going to be busy… with 87 laps worth of updates and only 60 seconds (compared to 90 seconds) to place the correct lap number and gaps to the car in front and behind. And on the pit wall, there will be less time for decisions to be made, with a smaller window to consider, decide and action those crucial strategic calls,” said a member of the Mercedes-AMG team.
Lewis Hamilton is under self-isolation due to a positive result in COVID-19 tests and will be unable to race at the Sakhir Grand Prix this weekend. Taking his place is a fellow British driver, George Russell who has been released by Williams Racing, his current team.
“First and foremost, I wish to thank our loyal partners at Williams for their collaboration and open-mindedness in making it possible for George to race for Mercedes-AMG this weekend. The conversations with the team at Williams were positive and pragmatic, and those were the key factors in reaching an agreement,” said Team Principal and CEO Toto Wolff.
“It will not be a straightforward task for George to make the transition from the Williams to the W11, but he is race-ready and has detailed understanding of the 2020 tyres and how they perform on this generation of cars. George has shown impressive form this year with Williams, playing an instrumental role in their climb up the grid, and I am optimistic that he will deliver a strong performance alongside Valtteri, who will be a demanding reference for him,” said Wolff.
Mercedes-Benz Junior Programme driver
He will be the fifth driver to race for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team since 2010, and the third British driver to represent Mercedes-Benz in F1 after Sir Stirling Moss and Lewis Hamilton. He is not a stranger to Mercedes-Benz though, having been a member of the Mercedes-Benz Junior Programme since 2017, when he won the GP3 Series championship as a rookie, before repeating the feat in Formula 2 in 2018.
He has been a fully-fledged Formula 1 driver with Williams Racing since 2019, demonstrating impressive qualifying and race performances during the past two seasons. “This race will mark a small milestone for us, as we see a member of our Junior programme compete for the works Mercedes team for the first time,” Wolff noted.