Nico's Hungarian GP Column

Posted on Tuesday 05 Aug 2008 and tagged with nico, hungary.

Nico_s_column_article

All in all, we had a disappointing weekend in Hungary. I expected the FW30 to be more competitive at the Hungaroring than it was at Hockenheim, Silverstone or Magny Cours, but I wasn’t able to show the car’s true potential due to a frustrating series of incidents.

We made a lot of progress with the set-up of the car on Friday and I ended the day in 10th place, which is where I thought I’d qualify on Saturday. That didn’t materialise because a hydraulic problem stopped me completing a lap in Q2, so I had to line up 14th on the grid.

Prior to the race I analysed previous starts in Hungary and decided that the inside of the track was the best position to be in on the approach to Turn 1. That’s what I did, but Jenson Button braked really early ahead of me and I lost a couple of places as a result.

I made my first pitstop on lap 30, but a re-fuelling problem cost me a couple of seconds and I emerged behind Giancarlo Fisichella’s Force India, which ruined the rest of my race. I used only eight tenths of the car’s potential while behind Fisi, but it’s so hard to pass at the Hungaroring that I couldn’t overtake and spent the whole of the middle stint stuck behind him. I eventually got ahead at my second pitstop and finished 14th.

It’s now the three-week summer break and I hope that everyone in the AT&T Williams race team manages to have a few days off ahead of the final seven races of the year. I’m heading into the Alps for some high altitude training, which I’m looking forward to. We have a tough programme of physical training planned, but I love being in the mountains during the summer because they are so beautiful.

I’ll then head to the factory during the week prior to the European Grand Prix to begin my preparations for the race. It’s always exciting to go to a new racetrack and from the drawings that I’ve seen of Valencia it looks like an interesting layout. There are a couple of long straights that should see us reaching speeds of 190mph, which could make the circuit quite tough on brakes – a bit like Montreal.

Given that no-one has any prior experience of the track, it will be interesting to see which team-driver combinations learn the track fastest. Being a street circuit, I’ll build up my pace throughout Friday practice because the walls will be unforgiving and the track surface will get quicker as more rubber goes down, so it will be hard to know how much grip is available.

I haven’t scored any points since the Turkish Grand Prix at the beginning of May and I’m hungry for more. Valencia would be a good place to add to my tally.

See you in a few weeks,

Nico

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