Ferrari Racing Days at the Hungaroring

The asphalt of the Hungaroring, the most famous race track of the East-European country was tested by a myriad of horse power of various Ferrari road and sportscars as the fabled Italian carmaker visited the Hungaroring with its Ferrari Racing Days event. F1Technical.net's Balazs Szabo visited the action packed and dominated by the scarlet red cars.

After a year of absence, Ferrari brought its own racing series, the Ferrari Challenge back to the Hungaroring. This usually offers a festival for Ferrari with various racing and non-racing activities around the race track.

The origins of Ferrari Challenge trace back to the year of 1993 when some owners of the 348 Berlinetta wanted to become involved in racing. That wish called this racing series into being. Ferrari Challenge now encompasses three championships, one in the USA, one in Asia and one the original one in Europe.

In Europe, the Challenge features two arms: Trophe Pirelli and Coppa Shell. Previously, the series used the 348 Berlinetta, the F355, the Ferrari 360, the F430, the F458 and now the 488 Challenge is in charge.

The Ferrari Challenge Europe’s 2017 calendar features seven races. The series has already conquered Valencia, Monza before it popped up in Budapest. Le Castellet, Silverstone, Imola and Mugello are the remaining venues of the year.

The racing activities included practice and qualifying sessions and two races for both the Coppa Shell and Trofeo Pirelli divisions. The paddock gave place to Ferrari owners who could exhibit their mesmerizing machineries in a nicely arranged row. Between the various racing activities of the two Series, the owners could complete runs on the race track over the course of the event named as Passione Ferrari.

Most of the drivers of the field have already pasted their youth with only a few exceptions. The most famous driver may be 28-year-old Swiss Fabio Leimer who won the GP2 series for the Racing Engineering Team back in 2012.

Both races of the Trofeo Pirelli were won by Danielle di Amato who extended its championship lead in front of Fabio Leimer in the second place and Philipp Baron in the third spot of the championship.

The Canadian Eric Cheung scored the victory in the opening race of the Coppa Shell before the Dane Johnny Laursen took over the reign for the second race of the weekend. In the point standings, Laursen leads from Cheung by 22 points ahead of Rick Lovat in the third place.

The Ferrari Racing Days continues its action on the 21 of July on the le Castellet Circuit of France.