Hungaroring is a pretty physical track in a current Formula 1 car, because there aren`t any long straights and it’s a very stop-start circuit, which means you are always working away at the wheel. And given the time of year, it’s usually boiling hot, which definitely doesn’t help. Also if it is dry, the circuit gets very dusty, particularly at the start of the weekend and it’s not a given that it will improve over the weekend, as wind and off track excursions brings back the sand that the cars running clear off the track. That means it will punish you hard if you get offline, or if you make a mistake, because you lose time and other drivers will be waiting to take advantage. The key corners are 1 and 14. Turn 1 you can think about a passing move but it’s a bit risky, as the straight before is too short really. There`s also potential, if you`ve had a god run on the exit of 14, but there are no guarantees

The Hungaroring is definitely one of the most technical circuits of the season and there are aspects of it which remind me of a karting track. The corners follow on from each other in quick succession and as a driver, you don’t even have much time to think. There is no part of it where you can catch your breath, because it is so frenetic. I personally like it, because it’s never easy to be competitive here. It is especially difficult to put together the perfect qualifying lap, because you have to push hard, while remembering to look after your tyres so that they last through the final sector.

Budapest is a track where cooling is usually an important factor and where cars run in maximum downforce configuration. The tyres come under a lot of stress, because of the type of corners and that even applies over a single lap in qualifying. It will be important to see if this race provides further confirmation that our car has improved on various types of track. We will be able to count on the various elements we introduced recently, as well as some aerodynamic updates. Of course, we are focusing on resolving our recent reliability problems to ensure they do not occur again.