F1 2007 Hungarian GP

[Bartek S.]

Jenson Button has ruled out a repeat of his Hungarian Grand Prix victory last year as he travels to Eastern Europe for this weekend's race.
British driver Button, 27, claimed his one and only Formula One win in a wet race at the circuit a year ago, breaking a 39-year winless streak for Honda in the process.
But, after a frustrating season that has yielded just one point so far, Button will settle simply for an improvement in pace from his Japanese machine.
"It [the Hungarian race] was never really one of my favourite races before, but for obvious reasons that all changed last year," said Button.
"It will always be a special place as the scene of my first win.
"Obviously it will be quite a different race for us this year but hopefully we can keep up the steady progress we have been making and take another step forward."
The progress Button is referring to saw him race to a season's best eighth place in France.
Only a weighbridge incident in British Grand Prix qualifying and a crash in torrential rain at the Nurburgring denied him the chance to show further proof of Honda's step forwards.
The team's technical director Shuhei Nakamoto believes last weeks's three-day test at Jerez, in which they focused heavily on high-downforce running, will bear fruit this weekend.
"At our test in Jerez this week we worked on our set-up for Hungary and conducted an evaluation of our aerodynamic updates for this race. I am pleased to say that we found a good baseline.
"The Hungaroring provides a mixture of high and low speed turns and so mechanical grip is very important. We had a good opportunity to test the engine and again the result was positive with good reliability."
"We hope to be in a position to score a point or two."
Hungarian GP - Button rules out repeat of 2006 win - Yahoo! Eurosport UK

 

[Remy Zero]

damn. a lil early for the HUngarian thread .

anyways, i'm expecting a Ferrari victory. Massa will be fired up that ever, and Kimster would really like to win and close the gap. unless it rains, it's gonne be a helluva boring race.

 

[NarutoRamen]

I'm hoping for Kimi to win this...but we'll see.

 

[PanterroR]

1. Hamilton

BMW in the top 5 and not giving any damn for anything else...

 

[Remy Zero]

1. Hamilton

BMW in the top 5 and not giving any damn for anything else...

Hammi has been looking a bit messy since the British GP. but who gives a damn. he's a rookie

i got a strong feeling Kubik will do well here.

 

[PanterroR]

I'm sure that was just temporary...

 

[MoSs]

hamilton had the wronge stratagy on france , the wronge setup at Brit , and the bad luck at nurb. but he still is damn fast , i have high hopes for him

 

[Imhotep Evil]

I would have thought that a tread like this would have been started with some other article than this one mentioning than the irrelevant chance of Button's repeating his win.


As for Hamilton:

- the bad luck at N-ring true and false, everyone has bad luck sooner or later, and well in many ways he was quite that unlucky (crane pulling him out; un-lapping himself during safety car period);

- for Silverstone he didn't have the wrong setup, he had the "right" setup based on his capability on making his own setup instead of copying Alonso's;

- so for Hungary it will be interesting and even decisive to his performance if he gets Alonso's setup;



The interesting part will be to see who has the better car. Ferrari were faster in the last 3 races (on dry), but McMerc judging by Monaco could/should be better suited for this track.

All speculation at this point.

 

[Bartek S.]

Vettel replaces Speed at Toro Rosso

Germany’s Sebastian Vettel is to replace Scott Speed at Toro Rosso for the remainder of 2007, it was announced on Tuesday. Vettel has been released from his position as BMW Sauber’s test and reserve driver with immediate effect.
Speed’s departure was widely anticipated following his recent run-in with Toro Rosso management at the Nurburgring. Vettel, who made his Formula One race debut with BMW earlier this year, is backed by Toro Rosso co-owners Red Bull.
“Having joined the Red Bull Junior Team in his early karting years at the ageof 12 and been guided by us and BMW through his Formula BMW and Formula Three career, we now welcome Sebastian back to the Red Bull family,” said Toro Rosso.
Commenting on BMW’s decision to release the 20 year-old, team principal Mario Theissen said: "As our test and reserve driver Sebastian has carried out sterling work for us. When he stood in for Robert Kubica in the USA Grand Prix he made history by becoming the youngest debutant to earn a world championship point.
“However, the current testing rules mean that he barely gets a chance to drive for us. Now he has been offered the opportunity to get inside a Toro Rosso cockpit. We have sponsored and coached Sebastian over a number of years. To place obstacles in his career path now would go against our concept of talent promotion."
Vettel’s move means fellow German Timo Glock steps up to the role of reserve driver for BMW Sauber.

 

[450SEL6.9]

If a driver gets extracted from a gravel trap with a crane and gets placed back on the track, I don't think he should be considered unlucky. I'm not sure he was on the "wrong" strategy at Magny Cours either. I think the explanation that he had a bad strategy in France came from none other than Ron "Mr. Integrity" Dennis himself. I reckon he only commented on the Magny Cours strategy "blunder" to explain why the Ferraris were a half-minute faster.

Anyway, Hungary is suitable for Mclaren. Hamilton should take this one and build back his lead. Massa threw away a win last week with his poor rain driving and Kimi is too far down. Ferrari has been playing against a rival that saw their cards. No chance. It's a Mclaren fight from hereon.

 

[Remy Zero]

bad call from Toro Rosso to take an inexperienced rookie in bid to make 'em go faster.

 

[NarutoRamen]

I don't think toro rosso's problem is the driver...I think their car just sucks big hairy balls.

 

[Zonda]

Kimi likes this track so I have big hopes for him.
Also think this will be a tough fight between Ferrari and McLaren, will be very interesting to see who has the better car. All top four drivers will be tough I think.

 

[Remy Zero]

I don't think toro rosso's problem is the driver...I think their car just sucks big hairy balls.

fully agreed. they can't even produce a car to make the drivers fin the race...

 

[NarutoRamen]

fully agreed. they can't even produce a car to make the drivers fin the race...

Exactly, their cars are unreliable but when they're working they're so damn twitchy. Idiots. Let's see how far Vettel takes them.

 

[Remy Zero]

Exactly, their cars are unreliable but when they're working they're so damn twitchy. Idiots. Let's see how far Vettel takes them.

well, IMO, the car itself is a piece of crap. SPeed, on the other hand, has been improving a lot. for me, STR's a whole screwed up team.

they didn't even inform Tonio about the 1st corner mayhem at the Euro GP 2 weeks back. instead, he went flying and almost collected the SC with him. how much more silly can a team get?

they're blaming everything on their drivers. i hope, for some reason, Scott gets a test drive role at BMW or Toyota or something.

 

[Imhotep Evil]

STR car is crap and their management too.

 

[Remy Zero]

STR car is crap and their management too.

which manager gets physical with he's drivers? only STR's....

 

[Bartek S.]

Hungarian GP - Vettel confirmed at Toro Rosso for 2008

Sebastian Vettel will race for Scuderia Toro Rosso in next year's Formula One World Championship, the team have confirmed.
Hungarian GP - Vettel confirmed at Toro Rosso for 2008 - Yahoo! Eurosport UK

 

[NarutoRamen]

well, IMO, the car itself is a piece of crap. SPeed, on the other hand, has been improving a lot. for me, STR's a whole screwed up team.

they didn't even inform Tonio about the 1st corner mayhem at the Euro GP 2 weeks back. instead, he went flying and almost collected the SC with him. how much more silly can a team get?

they're blaming everything on their drivers. i hope, for some reason, Scott gets a test drive role at BMW or Toyota or something.

Not only this man. did you see their explanation today? Scott wanted to know why his pit-stop took so long. The answer? Because he passed his team mate (isn't he supposed to?) and the team didn't notice that it wasn't Tonio who was coming in but Scott. WT-F? So how is that Scott's fault that the team wasn't paying attention? Isn't his race engineer supposed to know EXACTLY was Scott is doing?