Photo: Hungaroring
Tyre management is once again one of the main talking points in Formula 2 and Formula 3, as this weekend the championships race at a hot Hungaroring.
Thermal degradation will therefore be the limiting factor for performance, and Pirelli has opted to bring what should be more durable compounds than it did in 2023, with the hard tyre replacing the medium in both F3 and F2, where the soft remains as the second compound.
Last year’s F3 feature race had to be reduced from 24 laps to 19 — the same length as the sprint race — amid concerns about the durability of the medium compound tyres.
“In qualifying and race it will be a bit more challenging with the degradation, and just in general,” said Prema’s F3 driver Arvid Lindblad, who reckoned this race weekend will be “probably the hottest of the year”.
“Our races aren’t super long, but even still in the features are like 40, 45 minutes, to be able to maintain fully the focus and stuff during a long time is not always easy. So we need to make sure to prepare well and make sure to stay hydrated.
“In the races you take the opportunities you can get, but by the nature of the circuit there aren’t many. I think playing with the tyre management to try to have a delta towards the end will be one of the main ways to create great passing opportunities.”
In F2, the hard compound will be a new challenge for teams, since there is no history of using it at the Hungaroring.
“The hard is a very difficult tyre and it’s not great on hot temperature,” MP Motorsport’s Franco Colapinto explained.
“So it’s not looking great, I guess, in terms of that. But we’ll see how the tyres are. It’s difficult to say yet [what can happen] because we haven’t run this tyre in Budapest, but the cars are not really nice to drive in the hot condition. So we’ll see how it is. I think luckily on Sunday it will be a bit colder in the morning and during the day as well when our feature race is. So that should help.”
Virtuosi Racing’s Gabriel Bortoleto was in agreement: “The soft and hard compounds are going to be quite tricky, especially the hards as we never ran them before in Budapest. So it’s going to be about understanding them also in free practice, to see how they behave and what can be the strategy for the race.
“I really don’t know what to say because I don’t know what to expect in the race with this amount of temperature. Obviously, it’s always nicer when you can race in cooler temperatures, the tyres behave better. Everything is better. You inside the car, it is not so, so hot. So I think it’s going to be probably tough for the tyres and also for us inside the car, but should be okay. Should be another challenge.”