Formula 3 heads to the Hungaroring for the eighth round of the 2024 championship, starting off the final double-header of the season. Feeder Series spoke to Leonardo Fornaroli and Arvid Lindblad about how they handle tracks with little opportunities to overtake and high temperatures across a race weekend.

By Tori Turner

The Hungaroring is often considered one of the most difficult circuits on the current F3 calendar, proving itself to be a challenge for junior drivers. Characterised by a tight track which prevents drivers from making moves and a short layout of only 4.381km, many draw comparisons between the track and street circuits such as Monaco. 

Throughout the four occasions F3 has raced at the Hungaroring, half of the feature races have been won from pole position. Both of these instances have occurred in the past two seasons, placing an emphasis on qualifying due to the features of the track. 

Prema Racing’s Arvid Lindblad highlighted the importance of a perfect run during Friday’s half-hour session. 

“Due to the nature of the circuit, quali is super important,” he told Feeder Series. “There’ll be a lot of emphasis on that tomorrow to try to be as far up the grid. Then in the races, you just take the opportunities you can get, but there aren’t many.”

Trident’s Leonardo Fornaroli echoed Lindblad’s thoughts, stating the “track being small” as one of the main factors to why qualifying is important. After failing to score a podium in the last two rounds, Fornaroli hopes to achieve the “best possible result” in qualifying to help his championship efforts this season. He qualified 3rd on the grid for last year’s race in Hungary.

Unlike 2023’s races in Hungary, which used the Pirelli medium compound of tyres, the hardest compound will be used this weekend. This choice has been made to combat the degradation issues that occurred across the race weekend last year. Even with this issue being accounted for, the drivers still believe that tyre management will be crucial across both quali and the races.

“I think it will be a similar story as Bahrain, so it will be more tyre management instead of degradation management,” Fornaroli spoke about his expectations, having raced at the circuit last year in his rookie season. “I will try to manage everything as good as possible because apart from the start and the first lap there are not many chances to overtake unless you have the DRS to the car in front. I will try to manage everything as much as possible to try to attack at the end if the other drivers find it difficult.”

Lindblad also agreed with the strategy of preserving and managing tyres until the closing stages of the race. “Playing with the tyre management to try to have a delta towards the end will be one of the main ways to create great passing opportunities. I don’t think it will be as exciting as some of the more recent race weekends, where passing has been very, very possible.”

The F3 drivers’ tyre management skills may be further tested by high temperatures across the weekend which can pose further issues for the tyres. Whilst the circuit’s pitlane may have been flooded after torrential rain earlier this week, excessive heat warnings have been put in place for Mogyoród, where the track is located.

The circuit may see highs of 34°C across the three days, although F3 races are held early in the mornings when the temperature will be significantly lower. These temperatures are more likely to affect their qualifying session on Friday which is scheduled for 15:00 local time.

“This weekend will definitely be the hottest so far this year, probably the hottest of the year, which will be something slightly different,” Lindblad told Feeder Series. “In general, our races aren’t super long, but even in the features of like 40 to 45 minutes to be able to maintain a full focus during a long time is not always easy.”. 

Lindblad and Fornaroli also highlighted the importance of preparing for varying temperatures which can make racing more challenging.

“We need to make sure to prepare well and make sure to stay hydrated, simple stuff like this. In the end, it’ll be warm, but I don’t think it will change massively our approach and how the weekend will play out.” Lindblad said.

“I knew that it would be very hot this weekend so last weekend I trained a lot under the sun to be as prepared as possible for this weekend,” Fornaroli added.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency