Hungarian GP: Will strange tarmac and wind get in the way of the F1 drivers?

Will the Hungarian Grand Prix be blown away by the wind? Or will ‘strange’ tarmac turn it into a race over a mogul slope? Friday’s practice session presented the Formula 1 drivers with major challenges at the Hungaroring. McLaren struggled on Friday, with Lando Norris only managing to finish in the top three in FP2.

After the second free practice session, his team-mate Oscar Piastri said of his outing at the Hungaroring: “It was really tough.” For Piastri, the 60 minutes in FP2 (briefly interrupted by a red flag following Franco Colapinto’s crash) were his only practice minutes on Friday. In FP1, rookie Leonardo Fornaroli had taken the wheel of his car for a mandatory session for young drivers.

“Very, very challenging for everyone”

Piastri: “I’d obviously heard all the comments from the first free practice session, but experiencing it for myself was a completely different matter. I think it was very, very demanding out there for everyone. There were lots of variables at play. It’s very windy. The car is already pretty much at its limit by nature, and when you add wind to the mix, it becomes very difficult.” Lewis Hamilton had also struggled with the wind.

On top of that, there’s a problem with the tarmac. Piastri: “The track surface is rather odd in places, particularly on the new sections where it had worn away and they’ve added some strips of tarmac. It’s quite patchy. All these things make it quite difficult.” Before the race, the circuit operators had resurfaced the tarmac in two corners. But the new surface is causing at least as much frustration amongst the drivers as the old tarmac probably would have. Whether the two crashes in practice involving Stroll and Colapinto were also (at least partly) down to the conditions isn’t entirely clear.

Will the conditions change?

Piastri is, however, in a positive frame of mind after glancing at the weather forecast: “I think the wind is set to change completely on Saturday, and the conditions will probably change as well. So we’ll just have to wait and see.” On Friday, it was unusually cool and windy for Hungary at the time of the Grand Prix.

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McLaren has brought a new underbody to Hungary. On Friday, however, only Lando Norris had it fitted to his car. On Saturday in FP3, Piastri will also get the new parts. Piastri: “It feels as though there’s about three seconds to be gained, if I had to put a figure on it, but of course that’s not the case. Tomorrow I’ll be running the new parts. Hopefully that’ll improve the situation a little, but I don’t think it’ll change the world.”

And the competition? Piastri: “I thought the Ferraris looked very quick.” They were in the top three with both cars in both sessions and were the fastest car on each occasion. “Lando looked pretty good too. It’s hard to judge. I get the feeling that if you can put in a good, relatively clean lap at the moment, you’re right up there with the front-runners.”