Drivers concerned with ‘not to F1 standard’ Hungary track surface

Formula 1 drivers have expressed concerns about the state of the track surface ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The subject was raised during the drivers’ briefing on Friday after several complaints about track break up and poor grip conditions during practice, which led to emergency repairs overnight. 

But problems continued in final practice and qualifying, with drivers left unhappy and worried going into Sunday’s grand prix. 

After taking pole position at the Hungaroring, Lando Norris branded the track surface as feeling “like a bit of a lottery” in some corners. 

“With the new tarmac, and it being grippy in places and not grippy in others, sometimes it feels like a bit of a lottery in certain corners,” the reigning world champion said. 

"The track is pretty broken up in places and there are a lot of different patches of tarmac in Turn 1 and Turn 12, I struggled to get a consistent feeling of what was best or what the car was doing every time in these kinds of corners."

Williams driver Carlos Sainz was particularly critical and slammed the surface as “not to F1 standards”. 

“Having said that, the circuit acknowledged they were a bit caught by surprise by it when they resurfaced it,” the Spaniard added. 

“My message to them is, back in 2016 there was a full resurface of the track and the tarmac was the best Tarmac resurface I've seen in a long time. Similar to Silverstone, similar to Jeddah, very high grip.

“Whatever resurfacing they've done on this Turn 1, Turn 2, it is not the same quality. So they need to go back and analyse what difference there is from the 2016 tarmac to the one laid down a few months ago.”

Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto described the asphalt as “very bad”, while Cadillac driver Valtteri Bottas said: “They did some grinding work last night, but they didn't seem to do much.

“It’s still there. It's quite easy to lock up. I had a big lock-up today. And [Turn] 13 is quite bumpy as well, so I think the track has got the feedback. The last resurface was 10 years ago.”

Haas driver Ollie Bearman raised concerns about a bump at Turn 1. 

“They've resurfaced it really, really badly to be honest and we're all in agreement that they've done a really poor job,” the Briton said. 

“I think we're better off leaving it as it was because before it was much better. And now we have this huge bump in Turn 1, which could be interesting tomorrow, and also through Turn 13.

“It's super strange. And then the track is also breaking up a lot. So the grip is poor. It's weird.”

There are concerns about a repeat of June’s Monaco Grand Prix, which was red-flagged with 10 laps remaining due to the track breaking up at the final corner, where two drivers crashed.