26/07/2011
NEWS STORY
Dr. Vijay Mallya, Chairman and Team Principal: The Hungarian Grand Prix is always a popular race with Force India. The city of Budapest is full of life, beautiful architecture and the fans always give a warm welcome to Formula One. We head there off the back of our strongest showing of the year and determined to build on our momentum. We've steadily been improving the car and Adrian's sixth place finish in Germany was a welcome reward for all the hard work that has gone on at the track and back at base. Considering our competitiveness at the start of the year, this is an achievement the entire team can be proud of. We also know that we need to keep our heads down because there is still a big task ahead of us in the second half of the year. But I believe we have a solid basis to build on and that we can continue fighting for points this coming weekend.
Paul di Resta: The Hungaroring is a short track, but it's very demanding on the drivers physically and mentally. I suppose it's like a street track in terms of the layout and the number of corners mean the aero performance of the car is very important there. All the corners seem to flow into each other and you need to find a good rhythm. I had my first experience of the track last year during free practice. It's not easy to learn much from a handful of laps, but I know the layout and main challenges of the track. Because of the tight nature of the lap, it's never been a track where there has been much overtaking, so it will be another good test of the DRS. It's the last race before the summer break so it would be good to come away with a strong result. At the half way point of the season I'm feeling good about things. Each race makes things a little bit easier, especially for getting comfortable with all the procedures of Formula One. I'm enjoying my first year as a Formula One driver and I just hope the rest of the season continues in the same way.
Adrian Sutil: The race in Budapest is always a really nice event. The weather is usually great and there's quite a relaxed feel to the weekend because it's the last race before the summer holidays. It's a very small track that's tight and twisty without many places to overtake. You are nearly always in a corner so it's a bit like Monaco and you don't get any chance to relax, apart from maybe the main straight. We will run with maximum downforce there because after Monaco it's the slowest circuit on the calendar. The track is not used that much so it's usually quite dusty when we arrive. It cleans up as we start running, but Friday practice is always quite hard work. By the start of qualifying it has usually improved and the grip just builds up and up. When the track is like that it's really nice to drive.
To experience the Hungaroring in more detail click here