HUNGARIAN GP 2014 PREVIEW

The Hungarian Grand Prix (Hungarian: Magyar Nagydíj) is a motor race held annually in Hungary. Since 1986, the race has been a round of the FIA Formula One World Championship. The first Hungarian Grand Prix was held on June 21, 1936 over a 3.1-mile (5.0 km) track laid out in Népliget, a park in Budapest. The Mercedes-Benz, Auto Union, and the Alfa Romeo-equipped Ferrari teams all sent three cars and the event drew a very large crowd. However, politics and the ensuing war meant the end of Grand Prix motor racing in the country for fifty years.

The Hungaroring circuit is 19 km from the centre of Budapest, alongside the M3 motorway at the border of the village, Mogyoród. The track is in a natural valley, surrounded by 50 hectares of rolling hillside. With this exceptional natural advantage, almost 80 percent of the racetrack is visible from any point. This is the reason why it is called "The Shallow Plate", it is because the spectators are watching races sitting by the side of an imaginary plate.Hungary is a much maligned circuit, due to its tight low speed nature and the difficulty of overtaking, but it has produced a surprising number of exciting races.

The Hungaroring circuit is rarely used and so the track is usually dirty at the start of the F1 race weekend and the grip improves as the weekend goes on. This means that it’s very easy to be misled by the tyre performance on Friday and the only really meaningful work that can be done on car set up and planning race strategy is often the one hour session on Saturday morning.

Track Characteristics

Track length : 4.381km kilometres.
Race distance : 70 laps (306.630 kilometres).
Corners : 14 corners in total. Average speed of 190 km/h is the lowest of any permanent track on F1 calendar.
Aerodynamic setup : High downforce.
Top speed : 305 km/h (with Drag Reduction System active on rear wing) – 295km/h without.
Full throttle : 55% of the lap (low).
Time spent braking : 14% of lap.
Number of brake zones : 11.
Brake wear : High.
Total time needed for pit stop : 16 seconds.
Fuel effect (cost in lap time per 10kg of fuel carried) : 0.35 seconds (high).
Lap Record : 1:19.071 - M Schumacher (2004)

Weather Forecast

The forecast is for temperatures around 30 degrees on Friday and Saturday, but there are thunderstorms forecast for Sunday, which could bring rain, as we had here in 2011.

Once again the strongest chance of rain is on race day. It arrived on Sunday in Hockenheim but too early to affect the grand prix – although it did help produce a cracking GP2 race.

For Friday at least the conditions should be warm and sunny though not quite as hot as in Germany, around the high 20C mark.

Temperatures will rise slightly on Saturday but with cloud cover also increasing the possibility of thunderstorms is introduced. Sunday is most at-risk again, but the unpredictable nature of the storms makes it hard to say at this stage whether the race will be affected.

Tyres

Pirelli tyre choice for Budapest: Soft (yellow markings) and Medium (white markings). This is the same as the last two years. This combination of tyres was used in Australia, Bahrain and China. There was around 0.6s performance difference between them in Bahrain.

The Hungaroring circuit is rarely used and so the track is usually dirty at the start of the F1 race weekend and the grip improves as the weekend goes on. This means that it’s very easy to be misled by the tyre performance on Friday and the only really meaningful work that can be done on car set up and planning race strategy is often the one hour session on Saturday morning.

DRS

There will be two DRS zones sharing a detection point 5m before Turn 14. The activation points are 130m after the apex of Turn 14 and 6m after the apex of Turn 1.

The guardrail to the left of the run-off area at Turn 3 has been re-aligned to better protect the recovery vehicle and to allow space for a car that has been recovered. Also, speed bumps 50mm high have been installed two metres from the track edge in the run-off area at Turns 6/7, while new debris fencing has been installed close to the guardrail on the left between Turns 11 and 12 and around the outside of Turn 14.

Safety Car

Safety cars are surprisingly rare at the Hungaroring. One possible explanation is that there are few gravel traps for cars to get stranded in, with tarmac preferred through most corners. The chances of a safety car are only 10% and there have been only two in the last seven years.

Conclusion

A Hamilton victory could go a long way towards the 2008 world champion overhauling a points deficit to his rival for the second time this season, while another win for Rosberg could restore his points lead to the heights he enjoyed pre-Silverstone – and deliver a crucial psychological blow to his team mate.

Despite losing ten points to Rosberg last weekend, Hamilton will likely take heart from the fact that this weekend’s race takes place at a circuit where he has so often dominated – having taken four victories here in his career, including the last two Hungarian races.

Lewis Hamilton can become the first driver to win three successive Hungarian Grands Prix if he wins again at the Hungaroring on Sunday, which would make him become the first man to win three on the trot in Hungary, while it would also make him the most successful driver at the Hungaroring, with the British competitor locked on four wins alongside F1 icon Michael Schumacher. Hamilton has won back-to-back races in Budapest - a feat shared with past champions such as Nelson Piquet (1986-87), Ayrton Senna (1991-92), Jacques Villeneuve (1996-97) and Mika Hakkinen (1999-00).

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WINNERS AND LOSERS: GERMAN GP

A fantastic race, exciting with crazy overtaking up and down especially Lewis Hamilton's kamikaze slicing of the field to P3. Here is the winners vs losers piece by Andrew Davies of PlanetF1. Original article HERE.

Not the best result, but Daniel Ricciardo drove the finest race of his F1 career on a storming afternoon at Hockenheim

Star of the Race
Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 6th
What a guy! On the first lap he was run so wide avoiding the Felipe Massa accident that he put two wheels into the gravel and could have gone off, but he scrambled and finished the opening lap in 15th place. He steamed back though the field with Lewis Hamilton attached to his gearbox, cutting through the backmarkers and midfield almost as quickly as the Mercedes would have done it. Except the Mercedes was behind. He found a cheeky little way past Kimi Raikkonen much quicker than Lewis could get past the Ferrari, and he only succumbed to Lewis once his SuperSoft tyres started going off.

Dan didn't stop battling through the race; he put a fantastic move on Jenson Button on Lap 56, selling him a dummy that he was going up the outside of Turn 8 before diving for the inside to grab P5. It was a joy to watch. And if that wasn't enough, he did the same thing to another World Champion, Fernando Alonso, at the same place, while duelling with the Ferrari all the way from laps 58 through 61. In the end he had to give best to Alonso's fresher tyres, but bizarrely caught up with him on the finishing line - the timing screens registering that there was 0:0 between them. Alonso had no fuel left because Dan had pushed him so hard.

Overtaking Move of the Race
Lap 5: Lewis Hamilton on Romain Grosjean for P13
There are regular editorials these days along the lines of 'What's Wrong With F1?' There's nothing wrong with F1, as evidenced by the serial overtaking moves and epic defences in this race and the one a fortnight ago at Silverstone. Lewis knew he had to get through the field quickly and that involved taking risks. He came across Grosjean on the Start/Finish straight on Lap 5 and instead of waiting for the run to Turn 2, (the sensible thing) decided to go up the inside of the Lotus into Turn 1. Turn 1 at Hockenheim is a bit like Copse at Silverstone - but even more dangerous. It's very rare you see an overtaking move there and Lewis pulled it off, but what a risk.

Winners

Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1st
From the moment that Lewis Hamilton's new brake disc exploded on Saturday afternoon, Rosberg had this in the bag. The duo had already demonstrated that a lack of FRICS might have slowed the team up a touch, but they were still in charge. Thus after the start and Turn 1 negotiated for Rosberg, it was a question of keeping one eye on the weather for rain and another on a Safety Car once Lewis had cleared the pack and was up to the vicinity of P4, P3 or P2. Neither happened and he was clear for the win.

Valtteri Bottas, Williams, 2nd
Bottas didn't get to indulge in the kind of wheel-to-wheel action enjoyed by almost all of the cars behind him, but his greatest feat was to keep his tyres together, especially for the final stint. It looked to all the world that Hamilton would steamroller past him, but Valtteri had kept enough tyre life back to make his straight-line speed advantage count in the DRS zones. He also noticed that Lewis's left front was graining (a result of the wing damage) and so he was safe and could maximise his advantage through all the key right-handers.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 3rd
Pitched to the back of the grid through no fault of his own in qualifying (and it has to be said, while he was making a much better job of it than his team-mate, who had blown two laps in a row by running wide and was even forced into taking a set of SuperSofts to get into Q2) Lewis had a combative afternoon of getting back to the front. He almost, almost made it back to P2, but the early dive for his second set of SuperSofts, when by rights we should have had a second Safety Car, meant that he ran out of tyres (as David Gates might say) just when he needed them most.

Lewis has done this kind of roll-your-sleeves-up-and-get-stuck-in kind of drive before, now it's time for Rosberg to have a couple of grands prix when he gets demoted back there and see how he copes.

Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, 4th
It's nice to hear that after all the radio bitching we had at Silverstone that Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso sat down afterwards and had a beer and laughed about their intense duel. And the two were together again for Hockenheim, although this time the different strategies meant they couldn't spend as much time together as before. Seb also got the second best radio message from an engineer in the event (after Sergio Perez): "Sebastian, respect the beeps in Turn 13"

Fernando Alonso, Ferrari, 5th
Yet another race where Fernando Alonso dragged his Ferrari forward, when the benchmark performance was probably about four or five places further back. He thought that it was his best race of 2014. "For the last stint I was saving fuel but I was battling with Ricciardo so I had to decide to give up the position and cross the line or fight with Ricciardo and be on the limit to cross the line. I decided to fight with Ricciardo to be in the position and then try to manage the fuel as well as I could. On the last lap I had to massively save fuel - I was in eighth gear all lap and was lucky the race wasn't 100m longer!"

Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, 7th
There was some fantastic onboard footage in the race after Nico Hulkenberg's race engineer, Bradley Joyce, had got the Force India User's Manual out and was trying to get Nico Hulkenberg to re-set his car to "Chassis 2". Hulkenberg spent most of the long back straight at 200mph flicking through buttons, knobs and dials, like he'd just been thrown out of Minecraft and was trying to get back in the action.

Jenson Button, Mclaren, 8th
Button put together a strong opening lap which was the foundation for a good result, that was then totally undermined by a weak McLaren strategy. It also didn't help that an overlong first pit-stop didn't manage to get him in front of Nico Hulkenberg. As for the incident with Hamilton, after the race Jenson expressed surprise that Lewis would think he was letting him though. Maybe he ought to sit down and listen to some of the races where engineers tell their drivers not to lose time fighting a driver coming through the field because they're not racing them. It was still Hamilton's fault that the two made contact and it was the Mercedes driver who came off worst.

Button could also listen to some of Dan Ricciardo's post-race interviews and have a motto inscribed on his steering wheel - 'Moan Less'.

Sergio Perez's Race engineer
Sergio Perez has got a reputation for being bit 'chippy' but the Force India pitwall were taking none of it in Hockenheim.
Engineer: "Lift and coast Checo, lift and coast."
Perez: "What about the rain. (it was forecast that it might rain towards the end of the race and thus fuel consumption would be lower)
Engineer: "We can't rely on that so please lift and coast. That's the last time I'm going to ask you..."

Losers

Charlie Whiting, FIA Race Director
Whiting must be relieved that nothing happened to the marshals after Adrian Sutil's car got stranded in the middle of the circuit after he spun it at Turn 1. What seemed like an inevitable Safety Car was handled under yellow flags and the marshals had to push the Sauber away with cars racing past at speed. Fernando Alonso was one of the many who couldn't understand it: "We were hoping they don't bring the Safety Car out because it was 17 laps to the end and if we put the super-softs on, 17 laps was tough. But being objective and honest, probably we were expecting a Safety Car in a normal situation. Sometimes they put the Safety Car out for a piece of front wing on the track and now it was a car there and it was not a Safety Car.

Apart from this misjudgement Whiting also set an unusual precedent, allowing both Mercedes cars to change brake discs in parc ferme before the race and not making them start from the pitlane. Although Lewis's was demonstrably for safety reasons, nothing had failed on Nico's car.

Felipe Massa, Williams, DNF
Broadcasters wanting to spice up the highlight tapes will be grateful for Felipe Massa's run of accidents and incidents (Montreal, Silverstone, Hockenheim) and he must be tempted to buy one of the Mario Balotelli T-shirts, 'Why Always Me?' Although he was pretty angry with Magnussen, it's hard to know what else the McLaren driver could have done with Bottas in between them.

Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, DNF
Kvyat's great qualifying was undone by a rookie overtaking move round the outside of Perez, and then cutting off the line to the apex so that Checo had nowhere to go. Except tip him into a spin. As the Mexican rightly said: "What is he doing?"

Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 11th
It's always an interesting race when Kimi gets angry on team radio and he had a lot to be angry about this race, as everyone passing him thought it was a NASCAR event and they had to rub bodywork. At one stage he had Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso pinballing his Ferrari F14T from either side into the hairpin. However he got most angry when asked to make his SuperSoft tyres last longer than necessary: "We have to stop! We HAVE TO STOP!" yelled the iceman.

Media Watch
There's so much more to a trucky's job these days than just driving the transporters between races. BBC's Jenny Gow talking about Kimi Raikkonen's car after Saturday's FP3: "They'll have to change over the fuel pump, which is a trucky procedure."

Three Times Le Mans Winner Allan McNish introduced us to a new phrase that Eddie Jordan would have been proud of saying. "He's staring down the back of the barrel in 4th place..."

Three Times Le Mans Winner Allan McNish: "As Ron Dennis looks on with an impassioned expression, a stoney face."

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WINNERS AND LOSERS: BRITISH GP

Here is the winners vs losers piece by Andrew Davies of PlanetF1. Original article HERE.

It was a feast of brilliant overtaking at Silverstone with immaculate passes into Brooklands, Luffield, Copse, Stowe and Club:

STAR OF THE RACE

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1st

Given the kind of start he got in Austria last time out, it was always likely that Lewis would have clear sight of his team-mate early in the race. And rather than put the hammer down straight away, he sat back and let the gap to Rosberg go out before pegging it back.

Yet again he got the faulty pit-stop, 4.1 seconds compared to 2.7, but on the hard tyre he was over a second quicker than Rosberg. However by then Nico had got his downshift problem, (although Nico still claimed a Fastest Lap on Lap 21 with the problem). It was one of those days when Hamilton looked totally dialled in, and Rosberg's retirement spoiled what could have been a lot of fun. One more retirement for Nico and a few duff tyre stops and the team-mates will have parity. Rosberg's absence allowed us to watch the battle of Alonso vs Vettel, whereas if he'd continued we'd be watching two silver arrows duke it out and recalling Mansell vs Piquet in '87 (as if that doesn't happen enough).

Overtaking Move of the Race

Lap 35: Fernando Alonso on Sebastian Vettel for P5

On a day when there were some spectacular overtaking moves all round the circuit the battle of Alonso vs Vettel took top billing. Alonso had already dispatched Magnussen into Copse, Ricciardo around the outside of Club and was homing in on Jenson Button's fourth place. When Vettel emerged from his second pit-stop, just in front of Alonso on fresh tyres, it looked as though the four-times World Champion only needed to keep in front down the Wellington Straight till Brooklands and that would be job done. Alonso had other ideas.

The Luffield complex of corners allows drivers to take varying lines through Woodcote and out onto the old start/finish straight and Fernando took it wide, cut back in to get the power down early though Woodcote. Vettel saw him coming, jinked right to stop him going down the inside and Alonso just steamed down the outside and overtook on the outside of Copse. For anyone who has stood on the outside of Copse and watched that happen in the race, it is a hair-standing-on-end moment. Even watching on television it was that kind of moment. It's what we all watch F1 for, whether or not you wear Scuderia red, it is simply awe-inspiring.

Alonso's subsequent defence of P5 was heroic and Vettel shouldn't really have been allowed to take the place back when he returned the favour on Lap 48. Vettel's move was equally as brave but started on the previous start/finish straight when he ran outrageously wide through Turn 18 to gain momentum and get into the DRS zone for the Wellington Straight, in which he closed up on Fernando and put his car alongside through Luffield.

Vettel got his car beautifully placed on the inside, made a similarly brave pass into Copse, but then ran wide, over the line, at the exit. So clearly he gained an advantage by running off the track limits. Whereas Race Director Charlie Whiting had been giving the drivers warnings, this was now a stewards' call and they didn't make it. Presumably because both drivers had been skirting very close to the white line and Alonso had already collected a warning not to transgress again.

However nothing will take away from the moment when Alonso passed Vettel on the outside into Copse, and sixth place was ultimately a handy reward given that they were thinking about retiring the car at one stage with battery and rear wing issues.

WINNERS

Valtteri Bottas, Williams, 2nd

For a circuit that wasn't supposed to suit the Williams FW-36, Bottas got a great result, often barrelling down the outside of cars going into Stowe. In fact the top three all got the kind of result they might have expected in a wet race - 6th to 1st, 14th to 2nd and 8th to 3rd. Williams have now overhauled Force India, but they look to be the second best team on power circuits and the third best team overall.

Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 3rd

Dan held on despite the collective willpower of over 100,000 fans hoping that Jenson would be able to overhaul him and claim a podium in memory of his father. Ricciardo's tyres were going away at the end, but he made no mistakes and held on. He thought at the time: "If they have a sniff of DRS, especially with the ponies they've got behind them, then we're in trouble."

Jenson Button, McLaren, 4th

Before the race Jenson was doubtful whether the team could keep anything like the positions that he and Kevin Magnussen had qualified in, but he was only 0.8 seconds away from doing it. This was helped in no small part by his defence against Fernando Alonso earlier in the race. Given the Ferrari's practice pace it looked inevitable that Alonso would find a way past, but Button worked out his advantages and kept him at bay. Fourth still equals his best ever result at his home GP.

Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, 5thSeb got a nightmare start and was lucky to be 5th on the opening lap. His early pit-stop looked to be in reaction to a potential Safety Car for the stricken Gutierrez, but that was a roll of the dice that didn't pay off. He then took so long to get past Alonso that when he did, Button was out of reach.

Like Perez, Button and Alonso, he was keen to share information about his rival exceeding the track limits but added playfully after the race: "I do not know who was keeping score on the list, obviously it was easier for me (to see) as I was behind Fernando. I don't know what the resolution of his mirrors is, but they must be very good."

Kevin Magnussen, McLaren, 7thMore points for Kevin but more importantly a few lessons on where to overtake at Silverstone. Vettel's pass of the Mclaren in Luffied going into Woodcote was genius.

Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, 8thNeither Force Indias got a good start thanks to the team 'over-torqueing the rear wheels', but Nico has still scored points in every race this year. Only he and Alonso have done that.

BBC Race Coverage

If that wasn't a BAFTA-winning sports broadcast, I'd like to see one that was better. From the preview films, through to the commentary and post-race analysis, the BBC's coverage of the race was exceptional. Obviously we like to take the mickey out of EJ and Three Times Le Mans Winner Allan McNish when they say the odd thing out of context (see below) but take nothing away from the overall package, it showcased F1 at its very best.

From the pre-race film of Jenson Button and David Coulthard touring round London on Harley Davidsons, and then DC and Lewis Hamilton going back to the Rye House karting track to race, plus the footage of Lewis 'skydiving' with Suzi Perry and the behind-the-scenes film piece of Susie Wolff's Friday, it made F1 look a very impressive sport.

LOSERS

Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, DNF

Full marks for Rosberg for not giving up in Qualifying. That will be a learning curve for everyone, as Hamilton, Ricciardo and Perez all assumed the worst at the end of Q3. In the race he got an exemplary get-away, but looked to be losing out in what was presumably his middle stint (of a two-stopper), however it's difficult to know when his gear-shifting problem kicked in. Although the leader has the privilege of stopping first, this time round, by stopping first, Mercedes were able to see that there was actually quite a lot of life left in Rosberg's tyres and so Lewis was able to go much further.

Before anybody starts feeling sorry for Nico, he's had a 24-race run of finishing GPs. The kind of thing that Pastor and Esteban can only dream of.

Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, DNF

Raikkonen couldn't have imagined the bounce he was going to get when his Ferrari returned to the track and snapped to the right on the opening lap.

Felipe Massa, Williams, DNF

Not the best way to celebrate 200 races. When Jenson reached that landmark in 2011 he won the Hungarian GP. All Felipe had to show for making it into that rarest of motorsport clubs, the 200 Club, was a smart bit of Ferrari T-boning avoidance.

Esteban Gutierrez, Sauber, DNF

Just as Gutierrez had been launched into the air by Maldonado in Bahrain, the Mexican got him back at Silverstone by launching Pastor with an inept move into Club. There was some impressive air beneath the Lotus chassis. In fact it was a tribute to the robustness of the Lotus that it continued as long as it did. Gutierrez's three-place grid penalty for the German GP was hardly enough, given his love of leaving the track.

Media Watch

The STBO Award

Three Times Le Mans Winner Allan McNish gets two nominations. For the first he was speculating about the stresses on engines when they need to do multiple starts in 2015 instead of a rolling start behind the Safety Car:

"It's going to be hard - they've got five engines - that's the internal combustion engine..."

When Valtteri Bottas lost part of his engine cover on the Hangar Straight:

Allan thought he better fill us in on its function. "The engine cover is very light. It's made to - well - cover the engine."

Eddie Jordan: "The special thing about Silverstone is that the circuit is so close to the track."

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BRITISH GRAND PRIX 2014 PREVIEW

The British Grand Prix is a race in the calendar of the FIA Formula One World Championship. It is currently held at the Silverstone Circuit near the village of Silverstone in Northamptonshire in England. The British and Italian Grands Prix are the oldest continuously staged Formula One World Championship Grands Prix. It was designated the European Grand Prix five times between 1950 and 1977, when this title was an honorary designation given each year to one Grand Prix race in Europe. All British Grands Prix dating back to 1926 have been held in England; where the British motor racing industry is primarily located.

Silverstone this year will be interesting on a number of levels; with the teams using the hybrid turbo cars on the track for the first time, as it’s one of the lowest braking energy circuits on the calendar; only 9% of the lap is spent braking, so harvesting energy for the MGU-K unit will be an interesting challenge.

Silverstone has the fastest corner combinations on the F1 calendar and is loved by the drivers, but it can be a real headache for the engineers and strategists, as it shows up aerodynamic instabilities and it can be very difficult to get a good reading on the tyres, especially as there is usually some rain during the practice sessions.

Track Characteristics

Track length : 5.891km kilometres.
Race distance : 52 laps (306.198 kilometres).
Corners : 18 corners in total. A high speed circuit based on an old WWII airfield. Lots of high-speed corners, aerodynamically challenging, very easy on brakes.
Aerodynamic setup : Med/High downforce.
Top speed : 311km/h (with Drag Reduction System active on rear wing) – 301km/h without.
Full throttle : 66% of the lap (medium).
Fuel consumption : High.
Time spent braking : 9% of lap (very low). 9 braking zones.
Brake wear : Low.
Total time needed for pit stop : 25 seconds.
Updates : The FIA has revealed that artificial grass has been removed from the exits of Turns 5, 8 and 9. While the wall to the driver's left before Turn 6 has been extended, drainage has also been improved at a number of places around the circuit.

Weather Forecast

The weather in England, even in summer, is notoriously hard to predict. Last year saw rain affecting the practice days. It could be warm and sunny, or cold and wet. The long range forecast for this weekend is for temperatures around 19 to 20 degrees, with rain showers forecast for Saturday and Sunday.

Tyres

Pirelli tyre choice for Silverstone: Medium and Hard. This is a similar combination to what we saw at Malaysia and Spain. This year the teams have not spent much time on the hard compound Pirelli tyres. They have been used only in Malaysia and Spain, where they were around 4/10th slower per lap than the medium tyres.

Pirelli - "Silverstone is one of the fastest circuits of the season with high energy loads going through the tyres. Because of this, the two hardest tyres in the range are best-suited to the British track."

The wear rate of the tyres at Silverstone is high because of the lateral loads through the high speed corners, like Copse and Abbey. The surface of the track is not particularly grippy or aggressive, unlike Barcelona, so this will lead to less rampant tyre degradation, while the cooler temperatures will also help with degradation, even if they make tyre warm up something of a challenge.

DRS

There will be two DRS zones at Silverstone. The detection point of the first is 25m before Turn Three, with the activation point 30m after Turn Five. The second detection point is at Turn 11 with the activation point 55m after Turn 14.

Pit Stops

Because the new pit lane at Silverstone is quite long, a stop is relatively slow by F1 standards at 25 seconds total pit lane time. This encourages teams to do less, rather than more stops.

Safety Car

Silverstone is a fast, open circuit with lots of run off areas. So for marshals it’s relatively safe to recover a broken car. The chances of a safety car are therefore quite low – 57%, with 0.6 safety cars per race.

British GP Fast Facts

► The British Grand Prix is one of two ever-present races on the Formula One World Championship calendar. The other race featuring every year since 1950 is the Italian Grand Prix.
► Three venues have hosted the British Grand Prix during the World Championship era. Silverstone shared the early races with Aintree, which held races in 1955, ’57, ’59 and 1961-2. Aintree was replaced by Brands Hatch, which held the British Grand Prix in even years between 1964-1986. Silverstone has hosted all of the other races.
► 2014 marks the 48th running of the Formula One World Championship British Grand Prix at Silverstone. The circuit, however, is celebrating it’s 50th race, having hosted pre-World Championship grands prix in 1948 and 1949. Both of those races were won by Maserati, courtesy of drivers Luigi Villoresi and Baron Emmanuel ‘Toulo’ de Graffenried respectively. Giuseppe ‘Nino’ Farina won the inaugural world championship race in 1950. Before Silverstone, a British Grand Prix was held at the Brooklands circuit in 1926 and 1927.
► Silverstone is situated in an area known as ‘Motorsport Valley’. Eight of the 11 F1 teams are clustered within 125km of the track. In order of distance they are McLaren (125km), Williams (65km), Caterham (59km), Lotus (40km), Red Bull  (33km), Marussia (24km) and Mercedes (13km), with Force India based a few hundred metres from the front gates of the circuit. Additionally, Mercedes High Performance Powertrains’ manufacturing facility is based 33km from the circuit and Toro Rosso’s wind tunnel is located 23km away.
► Mercedes have dominated 2014 with seven victories and seven poles from the eight races so far. Neither driver, however, has shown dominant form at Silverstone in the past. In Nico Rosberg’s eight races he has been outqualified by his various team-mates five times. Lewis Hamilton has been outqualified by his team-mates three times in seven attempts. As team-mates in 2013 Mercedes locked out the front row with Hamilton on pole – but Rosberg won the race after Hamilton suffered a tyre failure.
► Jim Clark (1962, ’63, ’64, ’65, ’67) and Alain Prost (1983, ’85, ’89, ’90, ’93) share top billing at the British Grand Prix with five victories each. One behind them is this weekend’s driver steward Nigel Mansell who won in 1986, ’87, ’91 and ’92. Mansell did, however claim five victories on home soil, winning the 1985 European Grand Prix at Brands Hatch a year before winning the British Grand Prix at the same circuit. Mansell is one of only two drivers to have won differently titled grands prix at the same circuit (Nelson Piquet won the 1980 Italian and 1981 San Marino Grands Prix at Imola.)
► Austria marked Mercedes’ sixth one-two finish of the eight races so far this season. McLaren hold the record with 10, set in 1988 by Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna.

Conclusion

Silverstone this year will be interesting on a number of levels; with the teams using the hybrid turbo cars on the track for the first time, as it’s one of the lowest braking energy circuits on the calendar; only 9% of the lap is spent braking, so harvesting energy for the MGU-K unit will be an interesting challenge.

Traditionally Silverstone has been a circuit, which suits the Red Bull car, with its aerodynamic design very effective in high speed corners. Red Bull has won the race in three of the last five years. This year the Mercedes pair have won all but one of the eight races with Red Bull winning the other, due to reliability issues on the Mercedes cars.

It is looking like a Mercedes track so watch out for a resurgent Lewis Hamilton who really needs to cut down Nico Rosberg's advantage. And what a better place to do it then at your home race. This and the British weather. Should be a cracker of a race.

If you enjoyed this posting, please do share it with your network so more people can enjoy it as well. Also, check out my t-shirt design for Lewis Hamilton fans below (designs for other teams and drivers also available), click on image.