Verstappen: Hungaroring not just 'Monaco without the walls'

Next weekend will see Max Verstappen lining up for his third Hungarian Grand Prix. While he's never finished on the podium at the venue, he's finished in the points on both his previous visits and is clearly looking forward to another go.

“It’s a great track, especially in an F1 car," he said. However he didn't appear especially confident about how he expects the Grand Prix will go for the team.

“It’s always a bit too early to say how we’ll do in Hungary," he cautioned.

"We’re constantly improving, trying to get a better balance and more downforce on the car," he added. "Luckily there are not too many long straights."

In fact the Hungaroring is noted for being one of the tightest, twistiest circuits on the Formula 1 calendar. Many drivers have compared it with Monaco in terms of difficulty and how punishing it can be of even the slightest errors.

"I wouldn’t say it’s Monaco without walls," Verstappen demurred. "But it’s definitely a bit more narrow than other circuits we go to."

This year's cars have been much quicker thanks to regulation changes introduced over the winter. While lap times are unlikely to drop to the extent they did at Silverstone, Verstappen still expects the new specifications to make themselves felt next week.

Max Verstappen laughs off Vettel's complaints

"We do have more grip this year so maybe you have to do a few different lines compared to the previous year," he suggested. "But all in all that’s manageable and quite straightforward."

Verstappen was fourth on his début at the Hungaroring with Toro Rosso in 2015, and was fifth 12 months ago. But his team mate Daniel Ricciardo won here in 2014 and has been on the podium in the last two races, giving Verstappen cause for optimism.

He's also looking forward to getting to know the city a little better ahead of Formula 1's summer break.

"We’re always staying in the city centre for the race week," he said. "We do get to see a little bit of Budapest.

"Unfortunately we never have time for a lot of sightseeing," he lamented. "But I’ll hopefully have one day to walk around and get to know the city a bit more after the race.”

GALLERY: F1 drivers' wives and girlfriends

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.