2022 Hungarian Grand Prix - Hungaroring, July 29 - 31

[chrisc90]

So in the end what was the reason (or should I better say reasons?) behind RUS` pole?

1. Merc set up the car more (if not entirely) towards qualy for the first time this year (at least it`s the first time when they need just 1 lap to warm up up the tyres in qualy, not to mention the moderate track temps), knowing it`s a wet race today hence at least an SC/VSC phase when you need to quickly warm up the tyres?
2. Merc or at least RUS is betting for a wet race in prospect for today?
3. Ferrari were on the back foot with track temps in qualy and not being able to get heat into the tyres?
4. VER`s PU misfortune?

I think hes really going to struggle with tyre deg if they have set the car up more towards a wet race or with the aim of warming the tyres up faster.

Russel might need to go for a Med-Hard-Med stint if they have bad deg.

[search]

3. Ferrari were on the back foot with track temps in qualy and not being able to get heat into the tyres?

Leclerc just said "It wasn‘t only the tyres, there was something else. But we found it, it‘s all good. For today it should be all fine."

No idea what exactly he is referring to there, but I'd say Ferrari's relative weakness was the main reason Russell ended up on pole. Normally both should have been able to go at least half a second quicker.

[PlatinumZealot]

Could be the deployment setting.

[Just_a_fan]

Sticking a car that should not be on pole, on pole, is really quite an accomplishment.

A car is either fast enough for pole or it isn't. No one can make a car go faster than it is physically capable of. George did a great job getting the car to give him the performance it has.

This is technically true and accurate, but don´t take into account cars are not driven by robots who get 100% out of each car.

Ironically this sort of statement underrate and overrate drivers role at the same time. Underrate because it ignores any driver can be faster or slower than any other driver, achieving results wich are higher or lower than the real position of the car (driver role actually can change car position).

Which is why I said George did a great job getting the car to perform for him.

I disagree that a driver can achieve a higher result than the car is capable of. All the driver can do is get as close to the car's maximum performance as possible. A driver can improve the car's position in a race by clever racing/strategy, yes, but the car has a single inherent best possible lap time no matter who is driving it - it's just that some drivers don't get as close to that time as others do.

The best drivers are the ones that are most consistently able to get close to a car's best possible lap time at any stage and do so lap after lap. That's what sets the Michaels, the Ayrtons, the Fernandos, the Lewises, the Maxes apart from the rest - the ability to get more of a car's performance for more of the time. Think about Lewis chasing down Max in Hungary or Max doing the same to Lewis in France. Both great drives, yes, but it was because they just drove the car as close to its available performance for lap after lap - they weren't driving faster than the car was capable. Michael used to be great at that - Brawn would tell him "you need 5 qualifying-style laps before pitting" and Michael would do 5 qualifying-style laps. No one "out drives" the car (or any other silliness that the media love to say to promote a narrative).

[Just_a_fan]

So in the end what was the reason (or should I better say reasons?) behind RUS` pole?

1. Merc set up the car more (if not entirely) towards qualy for the first time this year (at least it`s the first time when they need just 1 lap to warm up up the tyres in qualy, not to mention the moderate track temps), knowing it`s a wet race today hence at least an SC/VSC phase when you need to quickly warm up the tyres?
2. Merc or at least RUS is betting for a wet race in prospect for today?
3. Ferrari were on the back foot with track temps in qualy and not being able to get heat into the tyres?
4. VER`s PU misfortune?

2. if RUS is betting on a wet race and set up the car accordingly, he'd have been slower in dry qualifying, not faster.

3 and 4. It looks more likely that George took pole because Charles and Max didn't - both had technical issues and so weren't able to extract the real lap time that their cars have in them.

[codetower]

It looks very windy at the track. This should make things interesting.

[Wouter]

It looks like it will be a wet race!

https://trackweather.live/formula1/hungarian-grand-prix

[chrisc90]

I’d be starting on a set of softs if that’s the case looking at the weather for a 1pm local time start.

[mendis]

So in the end what was the reason (or should I better say reasons?) behind RUS` pole?

1. Merc set up the car more (if not entirely) towards qualy for the first time this year (at least it`s the first time when they need just 1 lap to warm up up the tyres in qualy, not to mention the moderate track temps), knowing it`s a wet race today hence at least an SC/VSC phase when you need to quickly warm up the tyres?
2. Merc or at least RUS is betting for a wet race in prospect for today?
3. Ferrari were on the back foot with track temps in qualy and not being able to get heat into the tyres?
4. VER`s PU misfortune?

2. if RUS is betting on a wet race and set up the car accordingly, he'd have been slower in dry qualifying, not faster.

3 and 4. It looks more likely that George took pole because Charles and Max didn't - both had technical issues and so weren't able to extract the real lap time that their cars have in them.

Setting up the car for wet means, put all downforce possible and tune the suspension to transfer as much load to tyres as necessary to heat up the wet/intermediate tyres. This works in cold tracks with still water on it and as it dries, the tyres start getting overheated. That setup helps in firing up non wet tyres better on a cold track like it was yesterday and especially for Mercedes who are struggling to bring temperature into the tyres. Its great for one lap, but may be not so much over a stint. Even with such a loaded setup, they couldn't fire up intermediates as they couldn't generate enough temperature to make the wet range work. But It worked well for soft tyres. But soft tyres cannot stand so much load for a stint, that could be a problem.

[Alonsismo]

its gonna rain

yeahhhhh

[Big Tea]

rain starting now

[InsaneX_Badger]

Chance of an opposite to last year? This time from drys to wets?

[vanburin]

Remember when some in here were claiming Mercedes were playing "PR Trickery", blaming practice issues on potential weather issues on Sunday when there was no way it was going to rain? Well, here we are!

Ferrari absolutely needs to take advantage of this poor qualifying from RB. A 1-2 is desperately needed.

[chrisc90]

Starting on the soft seems logical with chance of rain. Mediums optimistic.

[chrisc90]

Martin saying they need to keep within 10 car lengths? I thought that wasnt applicable for formation laps as we seen last year in Brazil with lewis.