"They say that Hungary is
somehow similar to Monaco: true, the
corners are very slow, but the
Hungaroring is definitely more
“forgiving” than the track at the
Principality, where the tiniest slip
will almost certainly make you end up in
the barriers. Having said that the next
race will definitely be the most similar
one to the one at Monaco. This year we
gained a place on the podium at Monaco
and this is our objective for Budapest:
we were able to fight for the pole until
the last moment and I think that if we
had gained it, the race would have gone
in a completely different direction.
We’ll retry in Hungary, but it will be
difficult. The F60 should adapt pretty
well to the track, but we know that all
the other teams have improved their cars
considerably after the race at Monaco,
so there will be fierce competition:
we’ll get a better picture of the
situation on Friday morning after the
first free practice.
"The qualifying result
is really important at Budapest, because
overtaking is even more difficult than
usual: if you don’t start from one of
the front rows you risk transforming the
race into a long hot and difficult
afternoon, without any hope for a good
result. After two race weekends not
really with summery weather at
Silverstone and the Nürburgring there
should be finally some high
temperatures: our car is quite kind to
the tyres compared to many others, which
means that these conditions should help
us more.
"This year the tyre
performance has varied a lot over the
weekends. The crucial point is the
temperature and it’s clear that the
perfect window to use them is really
narrow; but it’s the same for all the
teams, as we could see at the last
races.
"We’re at the tenth race
of the championship, which has been very
difficult up to now. We’ve been working
hard to close the gap we had since the
start between us and the leaders;
naturally also all the others have been
improving their cars. Furthermore with
the fact that we can’t test this year
during the championship it’s even more
difficult to make up ground. How the
season’s second part will go also
depends on the decision of how to use
the resources, because the work on next
year’s car is now already in full swing.
"After Hungary there will
be a longer holiday than usual. The
first week I’ll dedicate to the Rally in
Finland, where I’ll drive a Fiat Grande
Punto Abarth. After that I’ll relax a
bit together with my family and friends,
before starting with the preparations
for the race at Valencia on 23 August."
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