Lewis Hamilton is the Hungaroring King but there have been many SHOCK wins at the historic track

Hungarian Grand Prix

1 reactie

Hamilton is the Hungaroring King but there have been many SHOCK wins at the historic track

Although the first world championship race was in 1986 - its history is much richer

Gary Gowers

Saturday 22 July 2023 14:17

It goes back a long way does the Hungarian Grand Prix. To 1936 in fact.

While that first race didn’t form part of the official FIA World Championship (there wasn't one then), it did attract cars from Mercedes, Ferrari and Alfa Romeo and a massive crowd to the track in Budapest’s People's Park.

For the record, it was won by Tazio Nuvolari – a legendary Italian racer of the 1930s – in an Alfa Romeo.

Article continues under video

But it was a one-off and it would be 50 years before the showpiece returned to Hungary with politics - internal and external - and the small matter of World War II intervening to deny the Hungarians access to the fastest cars and racers in the world.

When it did, in 1986, it was a breakthrough moment in many ways, not least because it was the first F1 Grand Prix to be held behind the Iron Curtain.

Bernie Does the Deal

It was Bernie Ecclestone who brokered the deal although his original plan wasn’t to take the F1 roadshow to Hungary but instead to the USSR, which would have had repercussions, good and bad, across the sporting and political worlds. But he was persuaded by a Hungarian friend that Budapest would be a more suitable and less controversial choice.

Ecclestone was sold but his initial plan for a street circuit – something akin to Monaco – was met with resistance from the Hungarian government. Despite F1’s then-impresario having a preference for a redeveloped track inside the People’s Park, the authorities saw more potential in a site outside Budapest near a major highway, and so the Hungaroring was born.

The Hungarians didn’t mess about. Construction work started on the site on October 1, 1985 and less than six months later, on 24 March, 1986, the track was laid and the first race held. Two months later, the whole infrastructure was complete – just eight months – making it the quickest build of any F1 circuit.

And the people of Hungary didn’t have to wait long for the F1 action to begin. On 10, August, 1986 – just 313 days after work begun to turn an area of wasteland into a motor racing circuit – the Formula One bandwagon rolled into town.

Lewis Hamilton took his first win for Mercedes in Budapest in 2013

First Time Behind the Curtain

Massive crowds from all across the Eastern Bloc made the trip to Hungary for qualifying, which saw Ayrton Senna put his Lotus-Renault on pole ahead of Nelson Piquet in his Williams-Honda and Alain Prost in his McLaren-TAG, but those crowd numbers were dwarfed when 200,000 turned up on race day – an F1 record that stood for a decade until 210,000 poured into Adelaide for the 1995 Australian Grand Prix.

The race itself developed into an all-Brazilian affair with Nelson Piquet and Ayrton Senna going toe-to-toe for many of the 76 laps, with Piquet eventually bringing his Williams home with a 17-second cushion from Senna. Nigel Mansell, also in a Williams, made it to P3.

That race and the whole event was regarded a success to such an extent there has been a Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hunagaroring every year since. However, the track itself, due to its tight twists and turns, and dusty surface, did develop a reputation as another Monaco (maybe to Ecclestone’s liking) with a dearth of overtaking and often processional races, but was modified in 1989 and again 2003 with the aim of allowing more overtaking manoeuvres.

As a result, the quality of the racing improved and there have been some memorable races around the circuit, including debut wins for Damon Hill in 1993, Fernando Alonso in 2003, Jenson Button in 2006, Heikki Kovalainen in 2008 and, of course, Esteban Ocon in 2021.

Jenson Button (right) with Hamilton has twice won in Hungary including at McLaren

Button’s Debut Win in the Rain

The Button win in 2006 was particularly memorable for it being a wet race, the first ever in Hungary, and the Brit using a series of safety cars and strategic pit stops to bring his Honda home in first from a starting position of 14th on the grid.

It was the first of Button’s two wins – he also won in a McLaren in 2011 – but the record for the most wins is with Lewis Hamilton, who has developed a liking for the Hungaroring, winning there no less than eight times. Michael Schumacher is the best of the rest in terms of number of wins with four, with Ayrton Senna third on the list with three.

As far as the constructors go, McLaren lead the way with 11 wins – the most recent coming via Hamilton in 2012 – with Williams and Ferrari both having seven wins apiece, Mercedes five and Red Bull with three.

Unsurprisingly, the 2022 race was won by Max Verstappen in Red Bull’s RB18, and it will surprise no-one to learn that the Dutchman is already a massive odds-on favourite to repeat the feat on Sunday.

Can the legendary Hungaroring provide the season with a much-needed twist?