Tactics on when to send your cars out are key to success in Q1. (LAT photo)
Program note: SPEED’s coverage of Formula 1 qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix begins at 8am ET on Saturday morning.
Formula 1 hits Budapest this weekend, on the slowest and tightest permanent track on the calendar. For this reason we can expect qualifying to be among the most important of the year, with overtaking opportunities in the race always at a premium.
Traffic always comes into play during qualifying sessions on this circuit, especially in the congested Q1 period, the only time where all 20 cars are involved. Typically teams send their cars out with seconds remaining, and that always leads of drivers accusing each other of being held up. SPEED spoke to several of the key players in the opening twenty-minute segment about their approach to it.
“We have a plan which seems to work quite well for us,” said Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Bourdais, who had advanced to Q2 at the last three races. “Hopefully we’re a bit safer in Q1 these days, but it doesn’t take much to get trapped. It’s always a tricky session – do you want to stretch your luck and get the best track conditions, or go out earlier and avoid the traffic?”
Force India technical director Mike Gascoyne explained the technicalities involved. “The problem in Q1,” said Gascoyne, “is that we have the cars setup in final practice, and there are a couple of hours off, and normally some other cars go out on circuit, so the circuit deteriorates quite a lot. This is a very dirty circuit, especially when the Porsches (the Supercup support racers) go out on the circuit, because they tend to straightline corners and drag a lot of dirt and dust onto the track.”
Gascoyne was realistic about his team’s goals for this weekend’s Q1 session. “Because we’re struggling to get into Q2, we try and do three runs, to give ourselves every shot at it,” he said. “The first run really is just a sighter – it’s often a lot, lot quicker in the second run. But you’ve got to balance that against getting a clear run and not getting held up, so some cars like to go with five minutes to go, the track should have cleaned up by then, whereas others go right at the death to get the track the best that it can be, but you run the risk of being held up.”
Renault’s executive director of engineering Pat Symonds has seen his driver Nelson Piquet miss the cut in Q1 four times this season, and admitted that Piquet’s comment that he had been held up by Sebastian Vettel in Hockenheim hardly surprised him.
“For as long as I’ve been in motorsport, I’ve heard drivers say they’ve been impeded in qualifying!” he said, before going on to concur with Gascoyne’s assessment. “The trouble is that the track develops all the time, it just gets quicker and quicker and quicker, and the current generation of cars are so close that if you get anything that’s slightly out of kilter with the others, you’re just not gonna get your rightful position. So if you go out early, yeah you’re not gonna get impeded, but you’ll be on a slippery track, and overall that can be worse.”
Gascoyne concluded “the McLarens and Ferraris probably don’t need the last tenth of two that comes from the track conditions. For us, Honda and Williams, you obviously want all you can get because that tenth might make the difference.
