Track notes for the Hungaroring circuit in Budapest, Hungary.

The last race before the summer break for Formula 1 comes this Sunday in Budapest, Hungary, at the Hungaroring.  Going into the race, Nico Rosberg still leads teammate Lewis Hamilton by 14 points after a win in the German Grand Prix and 53% of the season completed:


Schedule:

• Practice 2: 8 a.m. EDT  
• Qualifying: 8 a.m. EDT
• Race: 8 a.m. EDT

The Race:
The last two years Lewis Hamilton won this race in commanding fashion, he has also won it two other times, making him the most winning driver at this circuit in the current grid. Jenson Button is second on that list with wins in 2006 and 2011.  Expect this year to be no different than the last two, Hamilton has been dominant at Hungary and amazing so far this season.  The only driver more dominant than Hamilton at this track is the German driver Michael Schumacher.

Nico Rosberg is the driver that should be worried about his championship position to his teammate.  Over the course of the last three years, his average finishing position here has been 12.6.  This includes a 19th place DNF and only one top 10 finish.  Hamilton’s average is 2.0, a 10.6 spread and enough to swing the points standings into Hamilton’s favor.  If Hamilton was to win, Rosberg would need to finish 4th or better to keep his lead in the points.

If Hamilton does manage to get the lead, he certainly won’t be home free for the season.  In the second half of the season (races after Germany) in 2013, Hamilton managed an average finish of 6.9. This is compared to his first half of the season results of 4.8.  Rosberg is on the good side of this stat, improving to 6.7 in the second half from 8.3.  Rosberg will be coming for Hamilton if he loses the lead going into the summer break.  He should only get better when the season resumes in the fall.  

Over at Williams Racing, Valtteri Bottas is coming off a huge third place in Germany and will hope to continue that form going into the break.  With that finish, Bottas helped Williams move into third in the constructors championship ahead of Ferrari.  Last year, Bottas suffered an engine failure but his teammate, Pastor Maldonado, managed to put the car into 10th position.  We expect Bottas to do that easily and have a good chance of cracking the top five again as well. 

A maximum of 250 points are available to any one driver throughout the duration of the remaining races.  Look for the Mercedes duo, Ricciardo, Bottas and Alonso to all be in the hunt for podiums and points in the last ten races.  

Who do you think will take home the Hungarian Grand Prix win and lead going into the break?  Let us know in the comments or on twitter.  

Hungarian Grand Prix Articles:

• Is Williams Regaining Their Success?
• The Battle For the Formula 1 Driver’s World Championship
• Current Points Standings

The second race in Toronto began with a standing start.  Source: Getty Images

Each week, we’ll take a look at our most popular articles and stories from around the web and put them into one post. Some of them will be data based and some will be just interesting or important news stories in the racing world.  Welcome to the first installment of the Weekly Report:


Popular On Our Site

• Should Race 2 in Toronto Have Been Started Based on Road Course Points?  
• Is Tony Kanaan Out of His Prime?  
• Is Williams Finally Regaining Their Old Success?
• The Battle For the Formula 1 Driver’s Championship

From Around The Web

• How Hamilton Could Win 13 Races But Lose The Title – F1 Fanatic
• Post race Statistics of the 2014 German Grand Prix – F1 StatsBlog
• Bourdais, Conway Win Honda Indy Toronto Races – TSN
• Selected Team and Driver Quotes – F1

Note: If you have an article you think should make it into the Weekly Report next week, let us know by sending it in through the form on the contact page. We’ll take a look at it and perhaps put it in next weeks edition! 

The Leaders

IndyCar – Helio Castroneves – 533 points

Formula 1 – Nico Rosberg – 190 points

            – Drew Bennison

Lewis Hamilton at the 2013 Hungarian Grand Prix:  Source: Mercedes AMG

With Nico Rosberg’s win in the German Grand Prix, he extended his championship lead on teammate Lewis Hamilton to 14 points.  This was largely due to Hamilton’s qualifying troubles and gearbox change which saw him starting Sunday’s race in 20th.  Even with that starting position, Lewis Hamilton managed to climb the field and finish on the third step of the podium behind Williams’ Valtteri Bottas.  Hamilton and his great drive kept him in the Driver’s Championship running with Rosberg:

The current points standings in the Driver’s Championship.

Mike Conway brings home the victory in Toronto, Canada.  Source: Fox Sports

This Sunday we saw rain-filled racing in Toronto, with the first “true” double header in IndyCar since June 28th, 1981.  That race was won by Rick Mears at Atlanta Motor Speedway.  Both Mike Conway and Sebastien Bourdais took home impressive wins in their races, but the races get even more impressive when we look at them by the numbers.  


4:05 Drivers had just around four hours between races Sunday, about 1/6th of the time they were expecting to be able to recover for the second race in.  If the race was a week away, (like the normal schedule), drivers would have had roughly 36 times more rest before they had to get back into the car.  

15 The number of points Will Power gained on Helio Castroneves’ championship lead after Castroneves finished 12th in the second race in Toronto.  The gap is down to just 13 points separating first and second place, with only four races left in the season.  

266 Points are available over the course of the final four races.  The 500 mile Fontana race receives double points (as did the two other 500 mile races this year).  Strictly speaking, any driver in the top half of the points standings (roughly) could still win the championship.  

20 Caution laps in race 2 of the double header.  This was over the course of 7 cautions (the second most in a race at Toronto in the last five years), and the race worked out to be under yellow for 35.7% of the time.  Race 2 had the 5th most caution laps of any race this season.  Race 1 was under yellow for only 7.7% of the time.  

73.168 Was the average speed (mph) of Race 2 in Toronto.  This is attributed to a relatively large part of the race run under caution.  This was the lowest average speed at this track during an IndyCar race over the last 5 years.  

2443 Days before Sunday’s race was Sebastien Bourdais’ last racing win.  The win came at Mexico City in late 2007.  With this win, Bourdais climbed to 10th in the standings, 175 points behind Castroneves.  

The Toronto races brought some interesting numbers out to play and tightened up the championship race, with about half of the field gaining points on Helio Castroneves.  Between the next three races and double points in Fontana, the championship standings are only going to get tighter.   

          -Drew Bennison

Williams drivers Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa in front of the 2014 Williams F1 car.  Source: motorsportchannel.com

Back in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, Williams Formula 1 team was a powerhouse of the sport. Their drivers included Keke Rosberg, Nigel Mansell, Nelson Piquet, Michael Schumacher and Aryton Senna.  They had tremendous success with these drivers, bringing home multiple driver’s and constructor’s World Championships.   But in the last couple of years, Williams has been at an all time low, finishing 9th, 8th and 9th again the last three years in the Constructor’s Championship.  


But this year has been different.  Williams seems to be regaining their game after the addition of Felipe Massa to their team and keeping Valtteri Bottas.  Ten races into the season, Williams is third in the Constructor’s Championship (just ahead of Ferrari) and Bottas is fifth in the driver’s side of things, with no sign of slowing down (Figure 1).  At the German Grand Prix this year Bottas started second and Massa third, a tremendous qualifying result for the team.

So what’s making them so strong?  To start, they have a strong and experienced Massa paired with 24 year old Bottas, and they are both performing at a very high level.  

Bottas has been on the podium three times and has an average finish so far of 6.3.  This is far better than last years stats of no podiums and a 14.4 finish.  If Valtteri Bottas continues his form through the rest of the season, he could definitely see a new contract offer from another team.  Bottas is all set to keep improving in the coming seasons, with his points going from 4 in 2013 thorough all 19 races to 91 this season through just 10.  Bottas’ success this season is a huge part of the Williams team great success so far.  

The other half of the team is governed bye ex-Ferrari driver and 11 time winner Felipe Massa.  He is the veteran of the team with 12 years of F1 experience under his belt. Although he was never a world champion, Massa has been crazy consistent in a Formula 1 car.  His average start and average finish are 8.4 and 12.8, respectively.  It is very valuable for Williams and in particular Bottas to have an experienced driver to help with getting the car set up.  

Figure 1

Williams as a team has had it’s fair share of retirements, (4) but only on three other occasions have one of their drivers finished outside of the top ten.  This is a testament to the drivers and teams consistency.  They haven’t been good on just one track but have performed well on all of the circuits.  These types of results are what put Williams in the Constructor’s Championship running.  I don’t think they have the car or driver (yet) to win a Driver’s World Championship, but they certainly are moving in the right direction.  

If Williams can continue to improve the reliability and speed of the car, as well as continue to get young talent like Bottas on the team, they are looking as if they can regain their success of the past in the coming years.  As for the rest of the season, we’ll have to see if either Bottas or Massa can get a win and truly put Williams back on top.  

          – Drew Bennison