Budapest Story: bittersweet memories for Ferrari at the Hungaroring

What will take place on Sunday will be the thirtieth Hungarian Grand Prix in history. The race has always been held on the Hungaroring track, just outside Budapest, a track which has undergone several changes over the years, although never significant. Scuderia Ferrari has won 18% of the occasions, precisely five times over the course of its long history.

The debut on the calendar came in 1986 when the inclusion of a race behind the Iron Curtain caused quite a stir, in a period in which the Cold War was still a reality and the boycotts of the opposing blocs were still fresh in the sporting world at the 1980 Moscow and 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. The intuition was spot on and the race is still among those with the highest number of spectators, despite the Hungaroring being narrow, short, slow and very difficult to overtake.

Formula 1, however, has been able to write some great pages here too. One of these bears the signature of Nigel Mansell and Ferrari. The English driver ran into terrible qualifying and managed to get only the 12th time. In the race Nigel started well and immediately gained four positions. In front of everyone was Riccardo Patrese chased by Ayrton Senna. Mansell managed an incredible comeback, lapping even a second faster than everyone else.

Once Patrese left the scene, Senna and Mansell remained fighting for the victory, but the Ferrari driver seemed unable to overtake. The Englishman however succeeded in a real feat, overtaking Senna taking advantage of a moment of uncertainty from the Brazilian during the lapping of Stefan Johansson with the Onyx. It was an incredible comeback: Nigel won by 25 seconds over Ayrton.

To see a winning Ferrari again in Hungary it was necessary to wait until 1998 and Michael Schumacher. The German, in fact, was once again the author of one of his masterpieces: Michael had a faster pace than that of the McLarens ahead of him and so, together with Ross Brawn, he decided to switch from the two-stop strategy to the three-stop strategy. . For success, the German needed to lap at a qualifying pace.

Obviously Michael succeeded by mocking both Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard. In 2001, Hungary tasted particularly sweet for Schumacher and Ferrari: Michael won ahead of teammate Rubens Barrichello and became world champion with four races to spare.

The following year it was instead a parade finish with the victory going to the Brazilian. Ferrari's last victory is linked to 2004, which was a record triumph for Michael Schumacher: the German won and equaled Hakkinen's record with 9 fastest laps in a season and Ascari's record of 7 consecutive successes.

Fernando Alonso's first Formula 1 victory is also linked to the Hungaroring. It was the 2003 season and the Spaniard brought Renault success again after 20 years of waiting, crowning a perfect weekend which had started on Saturday with pole position. The Spaniard, at 22 years and 26 days, thus became the youngest Grand Prix winner in history. But for Scuderia Ferrari, Budapest is also synonymous with great fear. In qualifying for the 2009 edition, Felipe Massa was hit in the face by a spring that came loose from Barrichello's BrawnGP.

The Brazilian lost consciousness and ended up against the barriers. Extracted from the car and taken to hospital, he completely recovered and returned to the car regularly from the following year. Much disappointment however regarding the 2014 edition, where, despite an almost heroic race by Fernando Alonso with the modest F14-T, Daniel Ricciardo managed to snatch the victory from the Spaniard with three laps to go.

We'll see if Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen will be able to write another important chapter in Ferrari history at the Hungaroring in Budapest.

Roberto Valenti
Twitter: @RobertoVal94