The first Hungarian Grand Prix was pre-Formula 1 World Championship, in 1936 in Budapest and held in Népliget, the largest park in the capital. It was won by Scuderia Ferrari with Tazio Nuvolari driving an Alfa Romeo.
The Grand Prix was not revived until its modern incarnation in 1986 and the Grand Prix has become more highly regarded as time has gone by, somehow surviving on the calendar where some may have expected it wouldn’t. This will be the circuit's thirty-fifth consecutive Grand Prix; only Monte Carlo and Monza have hosted more consecutive races. It can be tremendously difficult to pass here, but the Hungaroring has nonetheless thrown up some enthralling races.
High downforce and therefore sometimes simplistically described as ‘like Monaco without the houses’, it actually has some reasonably long and winding corners, which lend it a relentless nature; in Sector 2 particularly, there is little respite for the drivers. Some drivers love it for this reason and have talked about how it is great to be able to get into a groove here. The misnomer also fails to take into account how with more run-off than the Monte Carlo street circuit, limits can be pushed differently.
The downhill Turn 1 plunges tight-right, with another straight the critical preparation for a sort of hairpin at Turn 2, several approaches to it meaning that passes are possible here on the opening tour. After then shooting around 60 degrees right, a straight takes the drivers uphill before the quick left, Turn 4, is soon halted by a tight right, Turn 5. The track then heads into a quick chicane with a 90 right and a much more open left on the exit, daring drivers to push harder to gain more time through there.
After a left at Turn 8 and the 90-right Turn 9, the track sweeps through 10, goes 90 right at 11 and 12 and then goes into two long hairpins to end the lap, a constant test of balance and throttle control as drivers wait eagerly to stamp on the throttle again. The DRS detection zone is just before the final of these and there is activation on the start-finish straight and just coming out of Turn 1.
In the inaugural world championship Grand Prix in 1986, Williams's Nelson Piquet put a great pass around the Lotus of Ayrton Senna at Turn 1 on opposite lock. After a wheel nut came off Nigel Mansell's car the following year on Lap 70, he took that one too. Like Hamilton in Hockhenheim, Derek Warwick drove ill and took the final point in sixth despite driving with flu and conjunctivitis. Jonathan Palmer came seventh and won the Jim Clark Cup that year for normally-aspirated cars.
In 1988, Alain Prost made an audacious move on Ayrton Senna and the drivers they were lapping, Gabriele Tarquini and Yannick Dalmas. However, he ran wide at Turn 1. Senna went on to win from Prost and Thierry Boutsen, who often seemed to figure well at this circuit. Nigel Mansell retired, feeling unwell with chicken pox before he missed the next two Grands Prix.
The next year, Mansell made a decisive move on Ayrton Senna exiting Turn 3 as they caught Stefan Johansson's Onyx, and went on to win the race after scything his way through from 12th on the grid. Boutsen was once again third for Williams.
In 1990 Thierry Boutsen held Ayrton Senna at bay for lap after lap to provide himself with his final win and many people, rather unfairly, with fodder to say it’s too difficult to overtake here, instead of congratulating him on a decent defensive drive.
The following two years, Senna won and Nigel Mansell took his championship here in 1992.
First-time winners at the Hungaroring include McLaren’s Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button, Heikki Kovalainen (his only Grand Prix win) and Damon Hill.
Damon's first win was in 1993, following two races he had led and had failures in. As he usually did in 1994, Michael Schumacher won in his Benetton-Ford. He was followed home by Damon Hill and Jos Verstappen.
In 1995, Damon Hill won from pole position in a race in which Taki Inoue was hit by a marshal's car as he tried to put a fire out on his Footwork. Jacques Villeneuve won in 1996, followed home by team-mate Hill.
It was, in fact, Damon who was the star of the slightly bizarre 1997 race, which he so nearly won for Arrows before lugging the car home runner-up. There were few Bridgestone-shod teams in that first year for the Japanese manufacturer and that day the Bridgestones were the tyres to have. Damon came within a whisker of a win, a hydraulic pump failure three laps before the chequered flag giving him an intermittent throttle and only third gear at his disposal. Villeneuve again took the win.
1998 was another notable race, where Michael Schumacher was ordered by Ferrari to build an enormous lead (24 seconds) in order to emerge from his final splash-and-dash stop ahead of McLaren’s David Coulthard. He managed 27 seconds. Mika Hakkinen won the next two races, in 2000 jumping ahead of Schumacher and Coulthard off the grid to take the lead.
A Ferrari one-two for Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello in 2001 meant that the Scuderia clinched their third consecutive constructors’ championship, while Ferrari grabbed their fourth in a row the next year as this time it was Barrichello who finished in front of Schumacher, with Ralf Schumacher in third.
Alonso led home Räikkönen and Montoya to take his first win in 2003, becoming the youngest driver to win a world championship Grand Prix until Vettel beat that record. It was another Ferrari 1-2 for Schumacher and Barrichello in 2004, while Räikkönen led home Michael and Ralf Schumacher in 2005.
Button’s first Hungarian Grand Prix win in 2006, and first Grand Prix win overall, was from 14th on the grid, the furthest back anyone has won at the circuit, in a wet race. Pedro de la Rosa was second for McLaren.
In 2007, we saw the McLaren qualifying controversy when Fernando Alonso waited in the pits to stop Lewis Hamilton from getting around to the start-line in enough time to make it for a hot lap and a livid Ron Dennis could be seen on the pitwall. Lewis turned the tables in the race. Lewis’s team-mate Heikki Kovalainen took his only win in 2008 after Felipe Massa’s engine blew up on Lap 67. Timi Glock followed home in second for Toyota.
The next year, it was Massa who was injured in qualifying when a spring from Barrichello’s Brawn flew off and hit him in the helmet. Hamilton won the race. In 2010, Mark Webber went back into the lead of the world championship after winning with Red Bull.
McLaren took the next two wins, with Button in 2011 and Hamilton in 2012.
Hamilton took his first win for Mercedes in 2013, the last race of that season that was not won by Sebastian Vettel.
In 2014, one of the stars of the season, Daniel Ricciardo came through from 4th on the grid to take the last of his three 2014 wins.
In 2015, both Mercedes drivers had particularly scrappy runs. Daniel Ricciardo collided with Hamilton and Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel took the victory. The next year, eventual world champion Rosberg won from Hamilton and Ricciardo.
In 2017, it was the Red Bull team mates' turn to collide. Vettel won from Räikkönen and Bottas, who had been let back through by Hamilton, who had earlier given him the same favour.
A year later, Lewis Hamilton won from pole and would become the first driver since Michael Schumacher in 2004 to win the race and go on to win the championship that year. Bottas was in 2nd, but had made contact with both Vettel and Ricciardo while being overtaken, ending up down in 5th.
Last year, Hamilton beat Max Verstappen after hunting him down from 15 seconds back with 14 laps to run, while Vettel came 3rd.
In 2020, Mercedes arrive hot on the back of a double success in Austria. It wasn't a perfect delivery, but the underlying pace looks ominous for rivals. Nonetheless, the battle behind is taking on a fresh dimension, with Ferrari struggling and Red Bull apparently the greatest pretender to the Mercedes domination. The ever-slicker operation of McLaren and the plucky Racing Point are hot on their heels and getting in among it. In fact, it is the latter team that is under particular scrutiny, due to potentially courting Vettel for the new Aston Martin era and after Renault's protest of the 'pink Mercedes'.
Elsewhere, the tricky question of driving standards is again in the spotlight, as Daniel Ricciardo has questioned what is acceptable and what is not, following his incident with Racing Point's Lance Stroll in the Styrian Grand Prix. The issue is due to be raised in the drivers' briefing.
Circuit length: 4.381 km
Number of laps: 70
Race distance: 306.63 km
Dry weather tyre compounds: C2, C3 and C4
Race Lap Record: 1:17.103 (2019 - Max Verstappen - Red Bull-Honda)
First Grand Prix: 1936
First World Championship Grand Prix: 1986
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