With the poor car performance in Silverstone, the Scuderia will have been delighted, if not feeling fornuate, that they came away from the weekend with their seventh podium of the season. The result only came about when the typical British summer decided to rear its ugly head, and the rain fell. Ferrari, who were a long way down the road, were able to get a jump on the front running Williams pair, due to weather and strategy. As they come to the Hungaroring, the Maranello outfit will be hoping for the same variable weather conditions again, as at the moment they seem to have slipped to third best, behind Mercedes and Williams.
2015 Hungarian Grand Prix Ferrari Preview
No. 5 Sebastian Vettel (DEU)
2015 Form: 3,4,5,2,3,5,3,1,3
2014 Hungarian Grand Prix: Grid P2, Race P7
Even though Vettel has got two pole positions here, in 2010 and 2011, he has never won the race. His best result was second place in 2011, and he got two more podium finishes, in 2010 and 2013. Before his championship winning streak started, he never scored in his first three outings. A 16th place in 2007 was followed by two consecutive retirements, an overheating engine in 2008, and a broken suspension due a first lap incident in 2009.
No. 7 Kimi Räikkönen (FIN)
2015 Form: 8,DNF,4,6,5,2,4,4,DNF
2014 Hungarian Grand Prix: Grid P17, Race P6
Räikkönen has a better record here than his German team-mate. He has been on the podium seven out of the twelve times he has raced here, and two of those non-podium finishes were due to retirement. One of those times he retired, in 2006, he had achieved pole position, and was leading for the first few laps before a collision took him out. His sole win here came in 2005, where he took the win from Michael Schumacher in the final round of pit-stops. The Finn has been on the second step of the podium five times, with 2013 been his last outing, and has finished no lower than seventh place.
With the tragic passing of academy driver Jules Bianchi, who succumbed to injuries suffered in that horrific crash at last year’s Japanese Grand Prix, the whole F1 community will be remembering and paying tribute to the adored French driver. Ferrari will be displaying messages of support to their Twitter account around their garage for the weekend. This gesture won’t be lost on the many fans and critics who recognise that Bianchi was part of the Ferrari family, and was destined to be their next driver. A win here this weekend would be a lovely, if not emotional, way to close what has been a truly difficult week for the motor-sport community.
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