Red Bull see a chance as F1’s August break looms
budapest — Red Bull fancy their chances in the heat of the Hungaroring this weekend but given that no driver has won in Hungary and gone on to take the title in the same season since Michael Schumacher in 2004 Lewis Hamilton will not lose too much sleep about that.
While the prospect of a Daniel Ricciardo or Max Verstappen victory is of little real concern to Mercedes’ championship leader what really matters is beating Ferrari rival Sebastian Vettel before Formula One heads into the August break.
Hamilton came away from an epic German Grand Prix win last Sunday having turned an eight-point deficit into a 17-point lead but he knows the stars were aligned for him in that race and a hurting Ferrari will come back strong. “It’s usually not our strongest track,” said Hamilton, who has won a record five times at the circuit outside Budapest but never in a championship year.
Last year he sportingly handed back third place to teammate Valtteri Bottas, despite the loss of championship points, after the Finn had let him go past earlier to try to chase down the Ferraris.
“It’s not a power circuit so hopefully this extra chunk of power that Ferrari have doesn’t serve them as well there and maybe we can have a decent fight with them,” added Hamilton at Hockenheim.
“But they’ve always been really good on tyres and that’s quite a hot track so undoubtedly they’ll continue to be fast but ... I’ve got high hopes for it still.
“Red Bull ... will be very quick, I’m sure, in the next races where it is really strong for them. So it should be a closely matched race.” Australian Ricciardo, whose new deal with Red Bull is expected imminently, took engine penalties in Germany for tactical reasons to give himself the best shot in Hungary. That backfired as he retired from the race but the team say there should be no further penalties for a tight and twisty track that suits their car’s characteristics more than most.