Welcome to The Briefing, where you can get a jumpstart on the Hungarian Grand Prix with our guide to the key topics.

Every race weekend, we’ll speak to one of our engineers to discuss the key talking points ahead of the upcoming Grand Prix and simplify them so that you can dive straight into the action with a better idea of what to expect and what you should be looking out for.  

This week, powered by Google Cloud, we spoke to Adrian Goodwin, who explained why there will be such a heavy focus on our tyres this weekend, with factors including the heat in Hungary and the track’s smoother surface in comparison to previous years. Adrian also delved into why our choice of rear wing won’t be as straightforward as in the past and whether we run the apex kerbs.

Here’s what you need to know…

1. Why this weekend is all about the tyres

We don’t have any real updates on the car this weekend, just a few miscellaneous lower-order items that aren’t visible. So that allows us to prioritise understanding the tyres, with everything else being more background. This weekend really is all about tyres, tyres, tyres.

First thing to note about the Hungaroring is that these temperatures are here to stay all weekend. It’s very hot. It usually is, though somehow, we still manage to remark on it each year. It’s going to be 30-35°C ambient, very high track temperatures and the big question will be what impact that has on tyre management.

It’s a bigger question here than it might be elsewhere, because the Hungaroring features a lot of traction zones, and rear-slip management is very difficult, so the high track temperatures are going to make that a bit more difficult.

Everything points towards this being geared towards the usual two-stop Hungarian Grand Prix, so it becomes a question of which tyre sets we want to take forward. We have the C3 to C5 tyres, the same as last year, so one of the questions to answer today is whether to take an extra Hard set or an extra Medium set into the race.

It isn’t necessarily a case of doing what we did last year. In 2023, we had the experimental ATA tyre allowance, which changed things slightly, and it was slightly cooler than usual – although it’s relative as that still featured track temperatures of 40-50°C. We’ve seen 60°C here in the recent past. It’s one of the more severe circuits. Brazil, with the altitude, might have hotter track temperatures if the sun’s out – but not many others.

We took the two Mediums last year, and that is the more likely scenario – but the Hard tyre looked OK on some cars and not so good on others. It can swing quite quickly as to how well you can manage that tyre to get the best out of it. Trying to understand it a bit better is the key here – though obviously, with only two sets available, if you decide to study one in practice, then you only have one for the race.

2. The impact of a smoother surface than in previous races in Hungary

For the previous generation of cars, the Hungaroring was considered a low-speed circuit: maximum downforce, not really much overtaking. These days, even Turn 1 is 90km/h in these cars, and it’s dominated by medium-speed corners. Since being resurfaced and made smooth, the cars can run quite stiff and low, which you need in this era of F1.

The thermal overheating of the tyres is what impacts overtaking ability. The ability to pass – or defend – is less about straight-line speed and more about being quick getting out of Turn 14 – the long final corner.

In terms of aero testing, we did quite a lot of aero work at Silverstone, which means we’re pretty much caught-up with our data-gathering requirements. We’d still like to have greater understanding of the new front wing we put on the car recently, so there will probably be a flap-angle sweep, where the drivers do a lap with the wing first at one end of the range, then box to have it moved to the other. This will help us understand the full range of balance it offers, which will be useful in the future at circuits with lower downforce levels.

For the rear wing, we’ve got the Monaco rear wing fitted, though the track is slightly less biased towards those maximum-downforce Monaco levels than it has been in the past. It’s a choice between this and the slightly lower drag version that was used in Barcelona, with the question being whether maximum downforce will provide the aero load to help protect the tyres, or will running a bit lower have a thermal benefit?

We think it’s still a Monaco wing, but we’ll be able to see at the end of today if we’re significantly different to competitors and need to consider a change. It’s not a track where we’re just going to be chasing end-of-straight speed. We need to be quick in a quite rear-limited corner. That’s what we’re considering with our wing choice.

For suspension, the track is generally quite smooth, though there are a couple of bumps that require some attention. There’s one in braking for T1 and another braking for the T6-T7 chicane. It’s not that you would skew the set-up to accommodate these, but you need to be mindful of their existence, because you can damage the tyres if you’re locking up.

3. Working out whether or not to run the apex kerbs

The kerbs for T6-T7 are another factor. You need to run the apex kerbs – probably. Last year we ran quite a bit of kerb, in common with most cars, but the pole-sitter wasn’t using the kerbs so much. There’s a trade-off here: you can stiffen the car and not use the kerbs, or have a car that’s a bit more compliant to give the drivers a few more lines they can use. Something to look at.

There’s also track limits and potential damage to the car in the T4 exit and T11 exit, which has double-serrated kerbs where the cars are carrying quite a lot of lateral load. There’s always a risk to manage here.

4. Deciding how we should execute Qualifying

Regarding Qualifying, with last year being an ATA event, we only had the one mini-session with the Soft tyres fitted – but even from that, it was pretty clear these are single-lap tyres – and the expectation with the hotter conditions is that this will be even more the case this year.

Our job during practice is to work out how best to prepare the lap with the minimum time delta that’s imposed on the out-lap. It’s pretty well understood – and is more a question of execution: if we’re only going into Qualifying with four sets of Soft tyres, we need to understand how best to get though the sessions robustly.

Is it a lap where the drivers can push the whole way around? If you asked the drivers, they’d say yes – but there’s definitely a tyre budget that you’re working to. The configuration of the Hungaroring means the rears are in an overheated state by the time you get to Turn 12, and if you've abused the tyres in the first sector, you’ll see that reflected through the final sector. You can’t over-push early in the lap, you’ve got to keep the tyres alive.

This means we need to open the lap with the tyres on the colder side, and make sure we get through T1 without front-locking, to keep the rears in the best state for the final sector, where we’ll get the reward.

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