It was a “sweltering” day Friday in Budapest as the Formula 1 grid roared back to life with the first two practice sessions ahead of this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
Over at Mercedes, the Silver Arrows have some work to do if they are going to continue their incredible run of form.
George Russell posted the fourth-fastest time in FP1, and then the fifth-fastest time during the second session. On the other side of the garage Lewis Hamilton, back in action after his win at the British Grand Prix, was tenth fastest in FP1, and seventh in FP2.
Both drivers opened their post-practice comments with a reference to the conditions.
“It was a very hot day out there today! It wasn’t quite as bad in the car as I was expecting it to be, but I am sure that will change during the race on Sunday,” said Russell. “Everyone in the garage is doing a great job working in such challenging conditions, with temperatures upwards of 35°C [95°F]in there.”
“It is definitely very hot here this weekend,” described Hamilton. “It typically is here in beautiful Budapest at this time of year!”
As for how they fared, both drivers conceded that Mercedes has some work to do tonight and into Saturday’s final practice.
“We got a lot of laps in today on the long run. That is really useful data for us to go through tonight. It will help dictate our strategy for the rest of the weekend and inform any improvements we can make to the car ahead of tomorrow. The McLarens and Red Bulls looked very quick today, so we know we’ve got some ground to make up,” said Russell. “We don’t seem to be quite as competitive in these very hot conditions so that is something we need to understand. We’re excited to see what we can do tomorrow and hopefully we will be in the mix in the top-five.”
Today wasn’t our best day of the season so far. The car set-up didn’t feel great, and we weren’t on our best form. We made a few small tweaks between the sessions but nothing major. We’ve got some ideas as to why the car wasn’t at its best though so we will work hard on it overnight, looking to make improvements ahead of tomorrow,” added Hamilton.
”The competitive order is very close once again out there. Whilst our single lap pace wasn’t the best, our long run was decent. We are still a step behind the ultimate pace at the front but will do what we can to close as much of that gap as possible for Saturday.”
Andrew Shovlin, the team’s Trackside Engineering Director, dove deeper into the details.
“We’ve had a productive day. We’ve got some development parts on the car and have been using the sessions to understand the effect they are having on the car balance. The track has been very hot, which is giving the tyres a tough time, but it’s a good test of whether we’ve improved our long-run performance,” said Shovlin.
”The single lap balance isn’t where we need it yet, but we’ve got time to work on that overnight and in FP3 tomorrow,” added the Mercedes engineer. “There’s plenty of areas where we can find a bit more pace on both the single lap and long run, so it’s encouraging that if we can make a bit of progress, we should be in a strong position for the rest of the weekend.”
The Silver Arrows enter this weekend the hottest team in the sport, having outscored their rivals over the past four race weekends. But if that is going to continue, they will need to find a bit more overnight ahead of a critical Saturday in Budapest. Overtaking comes at a premium at the Hungaroring, so if you want to finish up front, you need to start there.
We will see if Mercedes can find the answers overnight.
