McLaren heads to Hungary in high spirits that the final race before the summer break could be the turning point in what has been a dreadful Formula 1 season for the British outfit.
With just two points to its name courtesy of Fernando Alonso in Azerbaijan, the team is last in the standings and in need of an upturn in performance in order to move up the championship classification.
Hungary presents the team with its best opportunity of the season so far to do just that, with the short straights and medium to high-speed corners encountered at the Hungaroring heavily dependent on a strong chassis over engine performance.
"On paper, the Hungaroring presents one of the best opportunities for us this year," commented Alonso. "The short, twisty circuit means we are less reliant on outright power, and the drivers have to really depend on the capabilities of the chassis to get the best out of the lap.
"The temperatures are high and it’s a testing weekend for the teams and drivers – especially since the summer break is so close, but a good result can be a great boost for everyone going into the shutdown period."
Alonso is however cautious that reliability issues could always derail its targets this weekend, despite some recent upgrades from Honda.
"The important thing for us, as always, is reliability," he added. "Even if our car could perform better in Hungary, we need to have a trouble-free weekend to take advantage of every opportunity for points.
"We made some big decisions in Silverstone in terms of taking grid penalties in preparation for this race, and hope that’s paid off so we can put ourselves in the best possible position for points this weekend."
Honda's Yusuke Hasegawa concurred that Hungary is McLaren and Honda's best chance at scoring big points.
"Despite showing improved competitiveness during the last few races, we’re yet to translate this into on-track results. Having said that, we’re pleased with our current development and we now head to Hungary feeling more positive about the race weekend.
"The Hungaroring is a unique twisty circuit that should give us one of our best opportunities this season. Though it is not a power-oriented track, it still requires precise energy management throughout every lap of the race. It is also a track where overtaking is extremely difficult, so qualifying will be enormously important for us," said Hasegawa.
"We know we’re capable of a good result on this type of track, so our target is to reach Q3 and be in a good place to score points in the race. Fernando claimed his first Formula 1 victory at the Hungaroring, and Stoffel won there in GP2 in 2014, so our cars are in excellent hands."
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