From Silverstone and Spa to the winding Budapest
Ferrari comes out with its head held high from the challenge of Silverstone and Spa, closing the doubleheader of theoretically the toughest races of the season – at least for a team suffering this power deficit from the power unit – with a first and a second place. A very respectable haul that also allowed the Rossa to claw back points in the Constructors’ Championship against Mercedes, helped by the technical issue of Andrea Kimi Antonelli at Silverstone and the heavy zero of George Russell after the start collision with Lewis Hamilton. However, Frederic Vasseur still does not commit and, while admitting that the Belgian GP was overall a good result, does not want to raise expectations ahead of Budapest.
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The track that will host the Hungarian GP next weekend is in fact slow and winding, even tortuous if you will, with rather short straights. Practically the exact opposite of Silverstone and Spa, so much so that over the years it has earned the nickname (initially not very flattering) of “Monte Carlo without walls”. A circuit that, therefore, on paper can be considered more favorable for the SF-26 which has a chassis of excellent quality and should not suffer excessively from the lack of horsepower on the short straights of the Hungaroring. But then there is the fact that even in last year’s Monaco GP Ferrari arrived as a big favorite on paper, only to have to endure a monster performance from the Mercedes rivals and the “usual” Antonelli.
Hungaroring, an opportunity for Ferrari?
“Budapest? It’s not at all a given – explains Fred Vasseur to Sky microphones after the end of the Belgian GP – and not because the track is no longer favorable to us, but because it’s not so certain that we will win. We will see next week, and on paper the track will be slightly better for our car. But then it’s also a matter of execution, we will have to do a good job, go there totally focused without thinking it will be easy but, on the contrary, that it won’t be. This means we have to try to perform work of the same quality as that done in the last two weeks, or even better”.
And not even the thought of the evolved engine with the second ADUO token, which should arrive after the summer break between Zandvoort and more likely Monza, makes the Cavallino boss commit: “Before thinking about ADUO, let’s think about Budapest because it is something more achievable on paper. We try to put both cars in a good position in qualifying, and have a clean weekend, without mistakes, with good execution and no penalties. It’s not a given that you will win even when you are the fastest… Look also at Mercedes this weekend, with Russell who had a great car but who did not score points. We must not overestimate the situation in any way”, concluded the Ferrari team principal.
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