Fans
There are always people from many countries. There are lots of Hungarian, of course cos the organizers try to tempt people with cheap tickets combined with travel fees. Lots of people visited us from the Czech Republic, Poland, Austria and Finnland. There are still people who love Schumi and Polish people still act as Kubica was in action. Kuba Germaziak's name hasn't been even mentioned, altough he is arguably a real contender in the Porsche SuperCup. You can usually see load of people coated in Ferrari-red suits and waving Ferrari-flags, altough there was a massive camp for Kimi who had clearly more fans then Lewis or Sebastian. The Kimi-caps and shirt labelled "I know what I am doing..." were sold in a great quantity.
Drivers
The autogram session was quite challenging, but pretty successful for me, I got some signatures, for instance from Lewis, Sebastian, Max, Jules, Pastor, Sergio, Daniel. Sebastian was brilliant, he was at least for 20 minutes there for the taking, he signes load of caps, books, etc. He was in a very good mood, I talked to him in German and he laughed and repeated one of my sentence.
Romain, Lewis and Hulkenberg were the only drivers who seemed to be in a bad mood. Nico's head was filled clearly with contractual issues, while Lewis seems to still be suffering by spilting up with Scherzy. The two Ferrari drivers were the last to come to see the fans, but they only stayed for 5 minutes which was way less then any other drivers. They were laughing and waving towards us, Alonso even threw his signed cup into the crowd. People got crazy when Kimi was on the turn. He is beloved by girls for his look and the men for his attitude. There was a party organized by Burn on Friday. The organizers advertised it with Kimi, they said Kimi would be there. The Finnish drivers only stayed there for a few minutes before getting back to his hotel. There is no point in denying Kimi loves drinking alcohol, but the image people want to build around him is just a bit far from the thruth. Pastor is a very-very kind and friendly guy. His look is as one of a prisoner, but he is a good chap. Esteban is very friendly, as well.
Lewis and Seb signed my Italian Ferrari book.
On track event
Lots of things come to my mind, you can ask me if you want, I just mention a few stuffs. I was at most part of the track during the Friday practices expect the first sector which is closed for the fans.
The Ferraris are clearly out of balance, those cars are way more difficult to drive than the Lotus, Red Bull or Mercedes. The F138 has lots of understeer, it didn't want to work on used tyres or on the medium. In qualy on fresh soft it was pretty fine, but as the tyres went away it was just horrible to drive. It generally lacks of traction and tends to have massive understeer coming from mid-speed corners. It is so-so unpleasant to drive that car on a track like the Hungaroring.
The Red Bull and the Lotus are fantastic to drive. Those cars go like on a rail. Vettel, Grosjean were the ones to watch in the chicane, those cars have incredible traction on low speed, no wheel-spin and stability over the kerbs. On top of that those cars loved turn 8. Incredible stability. Amazing, stunning, breath-taking. You could see with naked eyes how dominant those cars are on this part of the track. They are even better than the Mercedes. Nico was strong in turn 9, he was very early on the throttle on low-fuel coming out from that turn. Lewis is a real gokart racer. He always want to chop away from the track by using the kerbs, even in turn 9 he tried the touch the inside kerb even it means you can't be that early on the power.
The McLaren has quite a neutral balance, although Jenson couldn't get the front tyres get up to temp in qualy, that's why he had to wait under acceleration out of the middle-speed turns. The Renault-powered cars, especially the Caterhams let sound some interesting noises out of low-speed corners, it is very similiar to the sound created by off-throttle blowing. Dunno how they manage it under so thight regs.
I have to disappoint Alonso's fans. He drives his hearts out, you can't even image how many things that guy tried out during Friday. He tried different lines for example in turn 8, he tried to gear down in the middle of it to let the rear slide, etc. The Lotus and RB guys didn't have any head-aches, their cars were nearly perfect from the first lap on.
Others
Rob Smedley tends to look self-conceited, but not this time. He was in a good mood on Thursday. He smiled and took a small gift from a fan. The RB guys always listen to music when working on the car. A McLaren's guy was polishing Sergio's car underneath its nose cone. JEV stayed until late in the evening at the track, they worked on the car cos they wanted to try load of new pieces out. They were working on the seat position at around 19 local time. Williams was carring out lots of pit stop drills, but the front left guy messed it up a few times. The Lotus guys carried out drills after 19 when most of teams closed in their garages and the pit lane has already been cleared from the visitors. They were in a good mood as well, a Lotus guy gave an umbrella to a fan. One thing to note that lots of track marshalls who stand close to the track are staning right at the wall which borders the track aren't protected by anything. Especially the GP2 guys were very aggressive at turn 9, pieces could fall onto the marshalls. The safety should be improved on that aspect, but I fear the governing body waits again til something serious happens...
Check out my pics at my facebook:
https://www.facebook...7...e=3
Sorry for the low-quality, but even surviving such an event is real achivement with so many fans who are on the rampage for their beloved drivers.
Edited by Forma1, 29 July 2013 - 14:00.
