Sauber travels to Budapest with renewed confidence
After a strong race in Hockenheim, where the Sauber F1 Team scored its best result of the season so far by getting 20 World Championship points for Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Pérez finishing fourth and sixth respectively, the Swiss team travels with renewed confidence to the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Next week’s race in Budapest is the last one before the 2012 FIA Formula One World Championship’s summer break. Kamui and Sergio once again want to make the most of the Sauber C31’s potential. The Sauber F1 Team has now scored 80 points in the first half of the season, which is 36 points more than in the entire 2011 season.
Kamui Kobayashi (car number 14): “In the past our car has not been brilliant on tracks like the Hungaroring, but with this year’s car it’s different. The Sauber C31 has proven to be quick on such twisty tracks as well, so I believe we can be strong there. Recently we were struggling a bit in the rain, but in Hungary the weather has been excellent for the majority of the Grand Prix weekends. I’m looking forward to what I hope will be a dry and hot race. The Hungarian Grand Prix is the final race before the summer break and therefore it’s particularly important. If you achieve a good result you can enjoy the break a lot more and I think after our strong performance in Hockenheim we have all the chances to manage that.”
Sergio Pérez (car number 15): “The Hungaroring is a very special track. It is a bit like the Monaco street circuit with many changes of direction, and the middle sector is especially tricky. I quite like the circuit and also the city of Budapest. We still have to improve our qualifying performance to get better grid positions as, for one reason or another, it went wrong at the recent races. I am sure our car can be as good at the circuit in Budapest as it was in Hockenheim. Last year I made it into Q3 in Hungary and this year we have got a much better car. I will give my utmost this coming weekend. I believe it will be important for the entire team to get in another good result in Hungary because we then disappear into the summer break and we should be able to do that in a positive mood.”
Giampaolo Dall’Ara, Head of Track Engineering: “The Hungaroring is traditionally a high downforce circuit, and it requires almost the same level as Monaco. This is mostly because of the time the drivers spend cornering compared to the time they spend on the straights. So the main focus is on downforce. The difference to Monaco is that the corners – mainly slow and medium speed – are flowing. Therefore it’s important to work on the balance for these kind of corners. Also the changes of directions are important. There are several of those at different speed levels from the slow chicane at turn six to the high speed corners two and three. Also important is the fact there is only one racing line, which makes qualifying even more important. Left and right of the line it‘s often dirty. It can be windy over night and blow the sand back on the track. So the way the tyres behave changes a lot from Friday to Sunday. Pirelli is allocating the soft and the medium compound tyres, which is one level higher than one year ago. With lower temperatures this would be a conservative choice, but for the race weekend hot weather is expected, so this should work out well.”
