The Track 
Ah, the Hungarboring, how we haven't missed thee. Back in the distant past, a Hungarian Grand Prix made a lot of sense. It was the first major motorsport event to cross the dreaded Iron Curtain, and was possibly the direct reason for the onset of Glasnost. Possibly. Either way, it was all very hands-across-the-divide and everyone was very happy. Though now, some decades after the whole Cold War problem disappeared, why we're still bothering to come back here is anyone's guess. perhaps because the Hungarians were laxer than most when it came to banning ciggie advertising, or possibly just because the Hungaroring always manages to sell out. Actually, probably both of those reasons.
The track itself is an unloved, twisty mess, which is underutilised over the year and is often dust-covered and green when the F1 circus arrives. The constricting layout and fast flurry of niggly corners means that overtaking is nigh-on impossible, this not being a recent invention as the rose-tinters may have you believe. Witness Thierry Boutsen's easy win over the faster Ayrton Senna back in 1990 if you don't believe me. The reprofiling of the first corner back in 2003 was done with passing in mind, but it didn't work all that well. Still, the weather could play a part. The 2006 event was full of incident, and even garnered Jenson Button's sole F1 win to date, after a bit of rain confused most of the drivers. If it stays dry though, expect a resumption of last years borefest.
As an aside, while "researching" the Hungarian Grand Prix, imagine my joy at finding a review of the 1936 pre-war event around Népliget Park, which included the note that two drivers, Britain's Charlie Martin (for Alfa Romeo), and Hungary's Laszlo Hartmann (for Maserati) "swapped grid positions for tactical reasons". If only Ferrari and McLaren had that option these days. Read all about the olde-worlde race here, if you want: http://tinyurl.com/6p9rhm
Talking Points
This is the final grand prix before F1's slightly unnecessary "summer break", with three weeks off between this event and the Valencia race at the end of August, which will allow the F1 fraternity to head off to the beach for a load of keg parties, wet t-shirt contests and the like. Maybe. The "ING Magyar Nagydíj", as it improbably translates to in the native tongue, looks to once again be Lewis Hamilton's to lose. The McLaren man has back-to-back wins to his name already, won here easily last year, and the recent Jerez test offers no real evidence that Ferrari have managed to peg back the performance gap that has recently opened up between the top two teams. Add to that Heikki Kovalainen's continued combination of bad luck/slow driving, and Hamilton is a shoe-in for that top step. Unless we've just gone and cursed him there.
Despite the McLaren resurgence, Ferrari can comfort themselves by the fact that they will probably still be able to scrap with Kovalainen for the other podium spots, and with the point system the way it is, remain within groping distance of Hamilton in the drivers standings, as well as remaining clear in the constructors championship. The longer they can perfect the art of damage limitation, the more time they give the techy bods to come up with some sort of Macgyver-like rescue plan to get the Italian cars back ahead of the Anglo-German ones.
Behind the trifling issue of the championship scrap, BMW Sauber look set to spend another weekend scrapping with the midfield teams, as their lead over McLaren for second place in the constructors continues to dwindle. Why exactly the team that at times throughout the season has led both championships is now looking so cack-handed is still a mystery, other than the apparent fact that the trickiness of setting up the F1.08 seems to be mirrored in the ability to develop the wee beastie. Good news for the likes of Red Bull, Toyota and Renault, who are separated by just two points in 4th, 5th and 6th in the constructors, and know that if one of them can pull off another Piquet-esque fluky bag of points here, it will leave them in a very strong position indeed, relatively speaking.
Toro Rosso look set to continue to be the big gainers, and now will be looking towards getting up to and past the likes of Honda and Williams in the points table, both of those teams looking set for another desperate weekend as the former continues to concentrate on 2009 and the latter realises that their development budget barely covers the cost of two tins of Turtle Wax and a new starting grid umbrella. Meanwhile, will a Force India make it out of Q1 and onto the TV screen? Probably not, no.
Modern Classic
1998
A race that has been much talked about, and a performance from Michael Schumacher that ranks near the top of the masturbatory fantasies of most Schumacher fans. The simplicity of the race was that it unsurprisingly boiled down to a pit stop fight, with Schumacher electing to switch to a three stop strategy in an attempt to beat the faster McLaren pair of Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard.
Of course, the gamble paid off, as Schumacher reeled off a string of quick laps while the McLarens toiled in heavy cars, and Schumacher won at a canter from Coulthard, while Hakkinen's problems got worse in the closing stages after he fell to 6th place with a gearbox problem, leaving Schumacher just 7 points behind in the drivers standings.
Elsewhere, "defending" champion Jacques Villeneuve picked up a rare podium finish for 3rd, in the astonishingly useless Williams-Mecachrome machine, while Damon Hill scored points for Jordan in 4th for the second race in a row. Hill himself was one race away from his final F1 win in the chaotic Belgian Grand Prix that followed this one.
One Year Ago
One year ago, we all got bored rigid by the Hungarian race. Lewis Hamilton won comfortably from pole, with Kimi Raikkonen second. The main talking point from the weekend happened during the qualifying session, as the bitter McLaren rivalry between Hamilton and Fernando Alonso reached fever pitch, with Hamilton failing to let Alonso past during the fuel burn stage of final quali, which led to Alonso seeming to block Hamilton in the pit lane as they took on fresh tyres for their final runs, meaning that the Brit missed out on his last quali lap. Alonso took pole, but was penalised five places for the blocking incident. Dissect the mentallness of all that here.
Facts and Guesses
Number of Laps : 70
Lap Record : 1:19.071 - (Michael Schumacher - 2004)
2007 Pole : Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
2007 Winner : Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
Free Practice 1 & 2 : 10:00 & 14.00 (Local Time) / 09.00 & 13.00 (BST) - Friday 1st August
Qualifying Start : 14.00 (Local Time) / 13.00 (BST) - Saturday 2nd August
Race Start : 14.00 (Local Time) / 13.00 (BST) - Sunday 3rd August
On Patronise
Patty will offer it's usual full range of delights for the weekend of boredom ahead of us. Qualifying and the race will be described in the usual fashion on Saturday and Sunday, while we'll review everything as we go. Which is all very nice of us.
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