Mercedes wary of Red Bull threat in Budapest - but can Ferrari muscle in and take some of the heat off Arrivabene and co?
Thursday 21 July 2016 17:55, UK
Mercedes aware of the Red Bull threat
Of the 48 grands prix staged since F1's hybrid turbo era began in 2014, Mercedes have won 41 of them. Yet, for all their dominance of the past two-and-a-half-seasons, victory at one track has so far eluded them in two attempts - the Hungaroring.
In fact, through a wicked combination of unreliability, driver errors and, it should be said, some bad luck, neither Lewis Hamilton nor Nico Rosberg even finished in the top two in 2014 and 2015. But whatever the circumstances, they are jarring statistics - particularly when you consider Mercedes have claimed their habitual pole position in both years.
It was Ferrari, via a pincer movement on the two Silver Arrows at the lights, who picked up the pieces on race day in 2015, a year after Red Bull and Daniel Ricciardo came to the fore in Budapest.
Hamilton's engine plight assessed
And it is memories of that victorious Red Bull challenge from 2014 which have resurfaced ahead of this weekend's visit. After being outpaced, if not ultimately beaten, by their rejuvenated rivals on the tight streets of Monaco back in May, Mercedes are aware an outright pace advantage around the similarly tight and twisty Hungaroring cannot in itself be taken for granted this time.
Just take this from team boss Toto Wolff: "We will need to be flawless to come out on top at this track. The Red Bull, for example, is a car that functions well where high drag isn't penalised as much as at other types of circuit. So, in wet conditions and at low-speed circuits such as the Hungaroring, they are a major threat."
So, while the one-point gap between Rosberg and Hamilton in the Drivers' Championship is inevitably the focus of most pre-weekend attention, it's not assured that whichever Mercedes driver leaves Hungary in the lead of the title race will also be leaving with the race winner's trophy. JG
Ferrari: Midsummer nightmare or full-blown crisis?
It's not just the fact that Ferrari are without a win since last September's Singapore Grand Prix. It's not just the fact that the team are losing ground to both Mercedes and Red Bull, short of both performance and reliability and showing little sign of an upturn in form. The poor start to 2016 is fast-becoming a full-blown crisis at the Scuderia - and F1's glamour team must find an immediate solution.
Maurizio Arrivabene's suitability for the most high-pressure team principal role in the sport and to solely carry out his demanding boss's requests has long-been questioned and it now seems that Ferrari chief Sergio Marchionne has had enough. This is a 'midsummer nightmare', according to Gazzetta dello Sport, and nobody is safe.
Technical chief James Allison could be on his way back to England, and Sebastian Vettel, whose contract is up at the end of 2017, may consider his future if he does not see a performance resurgence. Christian Horner has even suggested the German could fancy a move to Mercedes, while there are also reports that neither Ross Brawn nor Toro Rosso's James Key fancy a role at Maranello.
With all this uncertainty behind the scenes, there could be no better time for Arrivabene to mastermind back-to-back victories at the Hungaroring - but doesn't July 26, 2015 seem like a lifetime ago? On track this season, the Italian has bemoaned that Ferrari would be topping the championship were it decided on bad luck and problems. But three gearbox failures for Vettel hardly seems like 'bad luck' while throwing away winning opportunities, especially in Australia and Spain, is an avoidable 'problem'.
The reality is that while Ferrari were best placed to capitalise on a Mercedes error or a bogey track in 2015, that mantle has so far this season fallen to Red Bull. The Hungarian GP is another opportunity to change this, so - what's next in the Ferrari soap opera of 2016? MM
Ricciardo v Verstappen: Let battle commence
With Red Bull set to launch another attack on Mercedes at a go-kart-like track, similar to that of Monaco where Ricciardo took a stunning pole - is this the weekend where his battle with Max Verstappen really ignites?
The partnership already has the potential to dominate Formula 1 in the coming years, especially with the F1 'rules reset' of 2017, and Verstappen has in fact out-scored his talented team-mate by 77 points to 64 since stepping up from Toro Rosso.
Could a first and second driver situation, similar to that of Vettel and Mark Webber, really be on the horizon?
As Sky F1's Ted Kravitz puts it: "Max Verstappen has been a points-scoring machine over the last couple of races, he's had two second-place finishes, and Ricciardo, a past winner here, needs to start putting the pressure back on Verstappen.
"Otherwise it looks like the 18-year-old is going to have the better of the Australian and we might be heading towards a Vettel-Webber situation that we've seen at Red Bull in the past, rehashed.
"This time though, Ricciardo takes the Australian Webber place and the favoured young kid role of Vettel's is taken by Verstappen."
A first race win of 2016 for Ricciardo is up for grabs here - and he certainly doesn't just have to fight off the Mercedes threat.MM
Watch the Hungarian GP on Sky Sports F1. The race begins at 1pm on Sunday. You can also watch without a contract for £6.99 on NOW TV.
