Hungarian GP - 11 August 1996.
Red Bull Sauber-Ford Press Release

The result of the Hungarian Grand Prix did not really tell the full story of our weekend in Budapest. For the Red Bull Sauber-Ford team, it was encouraging overall because we improved our performance quite a bit and that was chiefly thanks to the new specification of the Ford V10 engine introduced for the race at the Hungaroring.

Okay, I didn't finish in the end and I dropped out after only 36 of the 71 laps, but I felt things were going pretty well for a lot of the time. In the race I didn't make a storming start, not one of my old-fashioned blinders, anyway, but it didn't seem to matter that much. All the other cars and drivers around me were just as slow off the line as I was.

We all seemed to get away at a similar pace before things quickly warmed up. I got held up a bit in the first section of the race by Mika Häkkinen in his McLaren Mercedes-Benz but as usual at this circuit, where it is very difficult to even try any moves, I just didn't get close enough to pass. I knew I would have to wait for the pit stops and so that is what happened. In fact, I had more or less expected that after the way things had gone in qualifying.

After the first lot of pitstops, I was ahead of Mika - always a position I enjoy because of knowing him well after all our time together at Lotus - and thanks to the new engine, I was able to pull away. Unfortunately just before the second stop things fell apart.

There was a noise from the engine which did not sound right at all. It just tightened right up without warning and that was it. It was very disappointing, obviously, but I was reasonably encouraged overall for all the reasons we had discovered in practice and qualifying.

The engine was the real thing, at last. And for that reason, I was delighted. Before I was always saying that I felt it had it had a big hole in the power range and that this made the car very difficult to drive. Well, the Ford guys got it right this time because they really filled that hole in.

The car had always felt very unsettled before, but now it is much more driveable. It has given me a much better feeling altogether everywhere and can enjoy it more. The hole was a big one and they've fixed it.

It means that I can carry the car's speed into and through the corners much better and, on a circuit like the Hungaroring, that is obviously vital. Instead of being all violent and unpredictable in the middle of a corner, the car is now controllable and I can carry it all the way through.

It was absolutely perfect for a circuit like Budapest's and that is why my qualifying was so much better. You really need all the speed you can get and carry there because it is all corners and no straights. So, I must say Ford did their job at the right time and the right place. Eighth on the grid is much more like where you want to be.... It is no good being down in 13th, particularly in Hungary!

Bearing that in mind, before the race, I guessed I would need good pitstops to carry me through if I wanted a finish in the points. Well, we might have had that, but our reliability let us down for the first time in a while. Having said that, I was also quite pleased to qualify ahead of Heinz-Harald again. I know he was complaining about the understeer, but I have pointed that out before and you have to say that the Hungaroring is a place where just about everyone is going to have pretty major understeer problems. It is that kind of track, dusty and so on. I was lucky as I had none of those problems and I am now interested to find out what our top end power is going to be like with the new engine.

It was impossible to tell in Hungary because of the kind of track it is. I just did not notice much of a change but it will help if there is some more when we get to Spa, although the track there, in Belgium, is not as top-endy as most people seem to think. I think we can go well there.... I certainly hope we can anyway.

Finally, a word about Budapest. People tell me it is the last time we will go there, but I am not so sure. No-one really knows. It is the kind of place I quite like and I will be sorry to miss it if it is dropped from the calendar as the place has a lot of atmosphere and some really nice architecture. Yes, nice architecture, as I have mentioned before and so I quite like it. I'd be happy to come back as the track also is not so bad, quite technical and interesting, but just very difficult to overtake on - except in the pit lane. That is not the case at Spa so I am hoping we can show our true colours there with a bit of reliability too.

We had a slight problem with the engine at the test on the brand new Austrian track, the A1-Ring, but we changed it and I was immediately able to go faster than the lap record. To be twelve seconds faster than the Superbikes is an achievement and I am proud to have done that. It was fun watching the television commentary team driving the cars afterwards. Jonathan Palmer (BBC), Marc Surer (DFI) and John Watson (Eurosport) all had a go and were as impressed as Le Mans winner Alexander Wurz, who also tried out the car.

With thanks to Johnny, Red Bull Sauber Ford and Bob Herbert
Photos used by kind permission of Red Bull Sauber-Ford
This page prepared 15 August 1996. All rights reserved.