Round 9 of this 2024 FIA Formula 2 season heads to Budapest as we get set to kick off one last double header before the summer break.
Both Championships are incredibly tight at the top and each team will be looking to steal a march on their rivals around a challenging Hungaroring circuit.
So, ahead of this weekend’s action, here is all you need to know.
FORM BOOK
Isack Hadjar is the new leader in the Drivers’ Championship after taking his third Feature Race victory of the season last time out at Silverstone. The Campos Racing driver is on 133 points and now holds a 16-point advantage over rival Paul Aron.
The Hitech Pulse-Eight driver will be looking to recover from a difficult weekend at Silverstone where he scored no points, while third-placed Zane Maloney will be keen to build on his double podium result at the British venue.
The Rodin Motorsport driver currently has 101 points, three more than Invicta Racing’s Gabriel Bortoleto in fourth, with MP Motorsport’s Franco Colapinto rounding out the top five on 92.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
DAMS Lucas Oil’s Jak Crawford sits sixth with 84 points and he is ahead of MP’s Dennis Hauger, who is on 66. Andrea Kimi Antonelli is just behind them in eighth and on 59 points after the PREMA Racing driver’s first Formula 2 victory at the Silverstone Sprint Race.
In the Teams’ Standings, Campos continue to lead the way on 171 points. MP are now up to second place on 158, two points clear of third-placed Invicta. Hitech went without scoring at Silverstone so stay on 142 points and drop to fourth with Rodin rounding out the top five on 120.
FROM THE GRID – Juan Manuel Correa, DAMS Lucas Oil
“Budapest is a very technical, tight circuit, so it’s very fun over one lap, it’s maybe one of my favourite qualis of the year. Overtaking is tough but there can still be opportunities.
“It’s also a track that tends to overheat the rear tyres quite a lot so in terms of car set up and balance we look for a car that maintains good rear tyres.
“For a good lap, you need to make sure your tyres are in the right window, and you can keep them alive until sector three. The first sector is a little bit faster, you have the only high-speed corner in the whole track, then sector two is a mix of medium to low-speed corners and sector three is the tighter part where you need a little bit of life left in your tyres. The whole track is a combination of hairpins, 90 degrees and no two corners are really the same at Budapest.
“The best overtaking spot would have to be T1, so a good exit out of the last corner, use DRS and a bit of a dive bomb into T1. It’s easy to lock the rears into the first corner which could cause you to drive into the car in front of you, so you need to be a bit more cautious. Sometimes we can pass around the outside of Turn 2, that’s a bit more difficult to do but it’s possible.
“In terms of strategy, it depends what compound you start on. If you are doing Option-Prime you are going to want to pit quite early, avoid any undercuts, and stay ahead. If you are doing the Prime-Option, you are going to try to go long on the harder compound and then come into the pits as late as possible and use the soft grip at the end to make the rest of your overtakes.
“But really no matter the strategy having good pace is the key to a good race. I want to win of course; pole and a double win would be good.”
TECHNICAL PREVIEW
The Hungaroring is another old-school circuit that many of the drivers enjoy, with its tight and twisty nature baring resemblance to a karting track.
There are two DRS zones to open the lap, the first coming down the main straight, while the second is a much shorter one on the run to Turn 2, giving the drivers a couple of good chances to overtake despite the narrow road.
With plenty of corners though, especially medium to low speed, a huge amount of downforce is required. But this also means that a lot of energy is put through the tyres, and with temperatures expected to be high this weekend, keeping the rubber alive not only during the races but also in your Qualifying lap is key.
But there is only one true heavy braking zone which is at Turn 1, meaning that braking demand is not as high in Budapest as other circuits.
RACE STRATEGY
The P Zero White hard and the P Zero Red soft are the compounds that will be in action this weekend in Budapest. It’s a different choice to 2023 when the two compounds were soft and medium and therefore contiguous. This choice has been made by Pirelli in conjunction with the series promoter with the aim of ensuring a greater range of strategy options for teams and drivers. The Hungaroring is not usually very hard on tyres in terms of the lateral forces to which they are subjected.
One of the major factors that influences degradation is track temperature and, at the moment, Meteo France is forecasting temperatures above 30 °C from Friday to Sunday. If this proves to be the case, then the Soft should last quite a while, meaning it could be used for the Sprint race as well as being the preferred choice for the start of the Feature event, given the increased grip it offers when compared to the other compound.
In Sunday’s race, the new choice of Hard, which is more consistent than the Medium used last year, could extend the pit stop window, which was already quite big last year, still further. In fact, in 2023, 14 drivers went for the red-banded tyre for the start and seven of them went on to finish in the top ten: the first three pitted for Mediums between laps 22 and 24, while the four others made their pit stops between laps 12 and 18.
STAT PACK
Isack Hadjar is the current Drivers’ Championship leader, and he is also has the most wins this season with three, followed by Zane Maloney on two.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli became the 13th driver to win a race in 2024, tying the record for the most number of different winners in a season, which was set in 2023.
However, with Antonelli’s victory at Silverstone, it means 18 drivers have stood on the podium this year, the most in any Formula 2 season.
In Formula 2 is previous six visits to Budapest only twice has the pole-sitter won the Feature Race, Oliver Rowland in 2017 and Jack Doohan in 2023.
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