McLaren feels like it’s growing wings before Hungary

In Germany, McLaren returned to the podium with Jenson Button’s second place after two Grand Prix, since Hamilton’s victory in Canada, where the Woking team couldn’t do better than eighth place at the finish: « The result of the German Grand Prix puts us back in the race. In this situation, there’s nothing better than going directly into another race: you get back in the driver’s seat before even unpacking from the previous event, so it’s great to keep up this momentum, » thinks Jenson Button.

The 2009 World Champion actually has excellent memories of Budapest where he won twice: « Of course, Hungary is a very special place for me: I won my first Grand Prix there in 2006. [In 2011], I celebrated my 200th Grand Prix at a party with some of my oldest friends and colleagues from the paddock and I won the race on Sunday. It was a perfect weekend and there is every reason to believe we can achieve another good result this year. »

For this, the native of Frome relies on his team’s performance at Hockenheim where he finished in second position after starting from the third row: « Our pace at Hockenheim is a source of encouragement: as always, we just need to run without problems during qualifying and the race if we want to be in the fight until the end. This level of performance simply shows how tight things are at the top of the hierarchy right now. I’m pleased to see us fighting until the end, so it would be fantastic to come away with the victory to reward all our recent work. »

After having his race quickly compromised in Germany and being forced to abandon, Lewis Hamilton also hopes to achieve a good performance in Hungary, relying on the progress glimpsed at Hockenheim: « In Germany, I rolled the dice and rolled snake eyes. That’s life, it happens, but at least I have the chance to roll the dice again this weekend and hopefully roll a double six. The new developments we brought to Hockenheim seem to have delivered the expected results and a good result before the summer break would be the best way to finish the first half of the season. »

The men from Woking are, moreover, in familiar territory in Budapest, as Martin Whitmarsh, the director of the English team, recalls: « Our statistics at the Hungaroring are excellent: we have won there ten times, more than any other team, and we go there with the clear objective of adding an eleventh victory to our record. It will certainly not be easy, but everyone in the team is looking forward to the challenge. »

But more than victory, McLaren’s objective remains the title: « With half the season now behind us, it’s important that we approach the second half with the common goal of taking as many points as possible to return to the top, » says Martin Whitmarsh. « I firmly believe that we have the drivers, the car, and the team to win in both championships, and I think the difficulties we faced during the first ten races of 2012 have strengthened our resilience and determination to fight again at the forefront. »

If he acknowledges that not everything has always gone well during this first half of the season, Lewis Hamilton sees encouraging signs for the end of the championship: We have improved and delivered the performance we needed, our strategy was good and our pit stops, despite difficulties at the beginning of the year, are regularly the fastest in the paddock. Of course, we still have work to do to fully understand the characteristics of the Pirelli’s temperature rise on wet tracks. The current forecasts are mixed in Budapest, but we are collecting more and more data on the tires, and these conditions may bring us further opportunities to overcome the problems we have recently encountered.