Five Things to Know About the 2025 Hungarian GP

Summer is nearly here in the Formula 1 world, but there is one more race before the sport takes some time off.

Hungary awaits Carlos, Alex, and the rest of the F1 circus, as does the so-called "Monaco without walls" Hungaroring circuit.

We're going to get you ready for our trip to Budapest with five things to know about the race.

Like Abu Dhabi at the end of the season, Hungary often has a last day of school feel to it with its placement just before F1's mandatory summer shutdown.

However, that pre-summer slot traditionally assigned to the Hungarian GP has fluctuated a little over recent years, and 2025 marks the first time since 2022 that Hungary waves us off into the sunshine.

The return of the Dutch GP in 2021 busied up the European leg of the season, with Hungary, Belgium, and the Netherlands moving back and forth around F1's summer holidays.

2020's pandemic also shifted the race to Round 3, albeit still in July, in that unusual condensed season. 2025 has Hungary sending us into summer again, though, and the 2026 calendar also has it as our pre-shutdown Grand Prix.

There will be additional laps of the Hungaroring circuit around the Grand Prix, although they won't affect anything for Sunday's race or the 2025 season.

Pirelli will bring their 2026 tyres for development testing days on the Tuesday and Wednesday after the race to fine-tune their compounds for next season.

With such a regulatory change to the regulations coming, the Italian manufacturer will seek to learn as much as possible to get their rubber ready for the new cars.

Atlassian Williams Racing will not partake in this particular test, but Pirelli has scheduled further days at Monza, Mugello, and Mexico City, too.

Williams Racing have many Hungarian victories, with Damon Hill, Nelson Piquet, Jacques Villeneuve, and Thierry Boutsen taking the chequered flag there.

One driver who never won at the circuit in Williams colours but will always treasure his Budapest memories is Nigel Mansell.

Our Nige finally took his Formula One World Drivers' Championship title in 1992 and secured the crown with a P2 finish in the Hungarian GP.

Teammate Ricardo Patrese pipped Nigel to pole position, and Ayrton Senna beat him to the flag, but it was Nigel's weekend, with the Briton taking the title with five rounds spare.

The dominance of our FW14B saw Nigel win eight of the first ten rounds to help him set the then-record of earliest championship victory in Round 11 of 16.

Sticking with making history, Damon is another Williams champion who can enjoy his Hungarian times after becoming rather adept at the track.

The Hungaroring was Damon's best finish in his short maiden season with Brabham, but became iconic for our 1996 champ when he took his first F1 win there in 1993 during his maiden Williams season.

He'd never finish lower than P2 there during his time at Grove, and even excelled at the track after switching to Arrows, the team that finished 9th in the 1996 standings.

Jacques won that 1997 race ahead of Damon en-route to his own title, but Damon took a surprise P3 qualification, and then led the race from Lap 11 until Lap 74 before a mechanical fault dropped him to P2 with three laps remaining.

Although the circuit hasn't changed dramatically since the Hungarian GP's debut in 1986 (the stretch between Turn 4 to Turn 11 is identical), there will be a new feel for this year's event.

Spurred on by the contract extension announced in 2023, the circuit committed to improving the facilities by 2026 and we will see some of the changes this weekend.

Phase one of the circuit's redevelopment was completed before the 2024 round, but a visually dramatic shift is set for this year after major construction to the main grandstand and pit building.

This won't affect any lap times as the track itself hasn't changed, although the circuit has resurfaced the pit lane and the grid area of the start-finish straight.