Lance Stroll, Aston Martin, Silverstone, 2022

Stroll hopes 2022 cars will make “tracks like Budapest” better for racing

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In the round-up: Lance Stroll says he hopes that the radical new cars for 2022 will encourage better racing at circuits like the Hungaroring

In brief

Stroll hopes 2022 cars will make “tracks like Budapest” better for racing

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Lance Stroll says he is hopeful that the radical new cars for the 2022 Formula 1 season will improve racing a tracks that are traditionally more difficult to pass around, such as the Hungaroring.

Formula 1 cars have undergone dramatic regulation changes this season to try and reduce the dirty air effect and encourage better racing. Stroll says he hopes the new cars help address races like the Hungarian Grand Prix where qualifying position is often critical.

“I really hope the racing is a lot better,” said Stroll. “I’m crossing my fingers for racing to be better.

“I hope we can follow wheel-to-wheel and go to a track like Budapest and have chances to overtake and race. It’s boring to see those kind of races where it’s just like a Saturday weekend. Of course last year in Budapest, we had all the weather changes and stuff and it was very exciting. But in general, it’s kind of using it as an example of a difficult race to overtaking. It can be quite boring. It would be great to see more of those tracks become exciting and fun to race on Sunday.”

Verstappen set to win iRacing Bathurst 12 Hours for Team Redline ahead of Palou

Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen is on course to win the iRacing Bathurst 12 Hours special simracing event after dominating the race with Team Redline team mate Luke Bennett.

The race, simulating the actual Bathurst 12 Hour GT3 race, saw Verstappen and Bennett team up in a McLaren MP4-12C for Team Redline Orange, with IndyCar champion Alex Palou running alongside Maximillian Benecke in a sister Redline BMW.

After starting from fifth on the grid, Verstappen move up into the lead after passing the Coanda Simsport car. Verstappen and Benecke then began to pull away from the chasing field. With less than an hour remaining in the race,

It is Verstappen’s third attempt at a major simracing endurance victory of the F1 off-season, following the 24 Hours Le Mans Virtual – in which he crashed out from the lead – and the Daytona 24 Hours, where his team pulled out of the race after a myriad of technical problems took them out of the running.

Red Bull’s Hadjar resists Mercedes’ Aron to win first FRAC race

Red Bull junior driver Isack Hadjar held off Mercedes junior Paul Aron to win the first of three Formula Regional Asian Championship races at the Dubai Autodrome this weekend as two Ferrari academy drivers collided.

Aron led from pole at the start, until Hadjar was able to make a move past him on the opening lap of the race. After an early Safety Car when Ferrari academy drivers Ollie Bearman and Dino Begaonivc made contact, leading to the latter’s retirement, the race resumed with Aron putting Hadjar under pressure.

Hadjar was able to hold off Aron’s advanced and take his first race win of the campaign, with Pepe Martin third. Championship leader Arthur Leclerc finished fourth, with his advantage at the top of the table now sitting at 32 points. There will be two more races in Dubai today, followed by a final round at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi next weekend.

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Comment of the day

With McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl accepting that Formula 1 should have mechanisms to correct consequences of mistakes made by race control in grands prix, @bosyber believes the FIA would benefit the sport by being more willing to admit their mistakes…

I like how Seidl made this completely not about the person, but instead about the process, also mentioned that teams, ie. McLaren included had a role to play.

And then goes to a quite strong implicit blame to the FIA who, unlike most teams who are punished on track when they don’t self-correct and thus had to learn to admit to faults even if only internally, have proven quite reluctant to admit fault even though they as the arbiter, should ideally be the most open about it. Seems consistent with Brown’s earlier start-of-the-year address and also quite a smart way to go.
@bosyber

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Geo132, Jason, Sebastien Carter, Shyguy2008 and Sparky!

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Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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17 comments on “Stroll hopes 2022 cars will make “tracks like Budapest” better for racing”

  1. Profile Photo

    Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
    13th February 2022, 1:56

    There is a way Stroll can help overtaking at tracks like Budapest…

    1. Profile Photo

      Jere (@jerejj)
      13th February 2022, 8:09

      @peartree What do you mean? I don’t get your reference.

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        Mashiat (@mashiat)
        13th February 2022, 8:48

        @jerejj Perhaps bulldozing into cars at T1 and leaving a mixed up grid with the midfield and backmarkers at the front? Not like that has happened there before?

        1. Profile Photo

          Jere (@jerejj)
          13th February 2022, 9:02

          @mashiat Good point.

  2. Profile Photo

    Jere (@jerejj)
    13th February 2022, 8:08

    Hungaroring, Circuit de Catalunya, Suzuka, Sochi Autodrom, Imola, Zandvoort, & Albert Park combined with track alterations are circuits that should give a decent idea or at least some.
    For Yas Marina, respective configuration changes didn’t necessarily improve racing, but perhaps car changes do.
    Monaco definitely won’t improve, while I have reservations on Marina Bay. Judging Baku is slightly harder.

    A decently interesting post by Alpha Tauri.

    I agree with COTD, which I essentially did already in the original article.

  3. Profile Photo

    Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
    13th February 2022, 9:41

    I remember back in the late 90s whenever money is mentioned in sport, you’ll see Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and Michael Schumacher names on the list… On another note Tyson Fury could have ended somewhere in the list if it was not for Usyk taking his 100m $ payday against Joshua :)

  4. Profile Photo

    Qeki (@qeki)
    13th February 2022, 9:47

    That STR2 livery was and is good

  5. Albo94
    13th February 2022, 10:37

    I doubt that things will change that radically, especially if they get rid of DRS. Racing has never been good in Hungary.

    1. S
      13th February 2022, 13:14

      There have been plenty of great races there… Just not so many in F1 cars.
      Other categories – including F2 and F3 – have had some wonderful ones. As always, it’s F1 cars that ruin racing everywhere.
      I don’t expect that will change much.

      1. Profile Photo

        Dutchguy (@justarandomdutchguy)
        13th February 2022, 14:03

        Last year’s race was pretty good if you remember, exactly because DRS isn’t always enough for a free pass due to the short straights and the possiblilty of alternate lines in sector 1.

        1. S
          14th February 2022, 5:59

          That requires that a faster car be behind, of course.
          Slower cars behind have no chance to race – never mind actually overtake.

          Now, how could we get faster cars to be behind in F1, I wonder….?

      2. albo94
        13th February 2022, 18:40

        Having a great race does not entirely depend on how good a track is for “wheel-to-wheel” racing. Most of the time, races at the Hungaroring were good due to Safety cars and whether (2019 is the only exception).

        1. Peter707
          13th February 2022, 21:54

          I agree. There were quite a few races on wet (or drying) surface since the first rainy event there in 2006. I think Hungarian GP’s bad reputation is at least partially due to the trickery of the weather: according to the local climate averages, there is about 15-20 % chance of afternoon rain in July and August, yet Hungarian GPs went on for the first twenty years without seeing a single drop of rain.

        2. S
          14th February 2022, 7:40

          So because the cars are perpetually rubbish at racing each other, we have to rely on rain and crashes…

          I hope other people see a problem with this.

    2. RandomMallard
      13th February 2022, 15:13

      I think Hungary has always been a race that goes under the radar a bit. It seems to come up with surprisingly good races fairly often. Obviously that isn’t all down to racing, things such as weather, unexpected performances and mixed up grids do contribute to it, but it’s races are often quite fun to watch, even if the wheel to wheel racing isn’t always amazing (and sometimes it can be). But just off the top of my head, there were fun races in 2006, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2019 and 2021

    3. Profile Photo

      Mashiat (@mashiat)
      13th February 2022, 15:16

      Oddly enough, we usually get better racing at the Hungaroring than at Monza. The 2014, 2015, 2019 and 2021 races were all a 9/10 for me.

      1. S
        14th February 2022, 6:04

        Entirely predictable, @mashiat.
        Low drag F1 cars at Monza make for dull racing.

        At Hungary – they know that to make up a position, they either need to be substantially faster and/or run a significantly different strategy.
        Track position is so important. If Hamilton had pitted along with everyone else last year, he’d have easily walked away with it.

Comments are closed.