F1 Paddock Notebook - Hungarian GP Friday

Recapping all of the additional news and notes from the Hungaroring on Friday, Crash.net F1 Digital Editor Luke Smith brings you his paddock notebook.

- Sauber was fined €5,000 for unsafely releasing Marcus Ericsson's car during second practice on Friday. Ericsson's car was released from the pit box without all four wheels safely attached, forcing the Swede to park up at the end of the pit lane before being wheeled back to the Sauber garage.

- Renault received a €10,000 fine suspended until the end of the season for an incorrect use of tyres, having mixed up the front-left tyre from two sets of tyres during FP1 on Nico Hulkenberg's car. As the car stopped on-track, the mix-up was not realised until later in the day.

- A number of drivers raised concerns about the high levels of tyre degradation on-track through the day, leading to concerns the race may turn out similar to Monaco, where drivers could not push flat-out for fear of ruining the tyres. Brendon Hartley said he found the Soft tyre coming back to him later in the stint, while Lewis Hamiltons said he was expecting a "train race" due to the lack of overtaking opportunities.

- Nico Hulkenberg, Pierre Gasly, Romain Grosjean, Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso have all taken new gearboxes ahead of this weekend's race. All are within the regulations in doing so, so no penalties are to be awarded.

- Renault confirmed after Hulkenberg's energy store failure in FP1 it had to change it for an older unit within the pool for the season. While this will not trigger a penalty here, it means one is more likely later in the season. Technical chief Nick Chester also said the team had to complete a total review of the power unit as the energy store failure had damaged looms, meaning Hulkenberg could not get out on-track until partway through FP2.

- The FIA confirmed that the Haas and Sauber teams will be racing with an updated internal combustion engine in Hungary, with the update set to offer them a boost. Both Ferrari customers will be used as guinea pigs for the update before the Ferrari works team gets the updated-spec ICE at Spa.

- Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas both conceded Mercedes was on the back-foot compared to Ferrari and Red Bull in Hungary, having finished fifth and sixth respectively in both sessions. Bottas said Mercedes' rivals pace came as no surprise, while Hamilton said the team needs to "dig deep" overnight to get in the fight at the front.

- Concerned by the difficulties with overheating tyres, Hamilton said officials should even consider having a special tyre for circuits such as the Hungaroring. "It’s almost like for this track, they need to make special tyres, probably for different circuits that are more severe on the tyres to enable you to keep pushing and remain close to other cars," Hamilton said. "You need a tyre that doesn’t overheat because at the moment, just on your own, it overheats. So I imagine in the race it’s going to be a train race."

- Stoffel Vandoorne said he felt "back to normal" in the McLaren MCL33 after reverting to an old chassis for this weekend in a bid to remedy long-running downforce issues. Vandooren finished 19th in FP2, but spun on his only Ultrasoft tyre push lap, masking his true pace.

- Pierre Gasly was happy with Toro Rosso's day, believing it to be one of the strongest of the season so far after showing a decent pace over the long-run in FP2. Gasly stressed the importance of qualifying, though, and was skeptical of Toro Rosso's chances of reaching Q3. Teammate Brendon Hartley is still chasing his first Q3 appearance in F1.

- Haas team boss Günther Steiner was "positively surprised" by his team's pace in practice on Friday as Romain Grosjean finished four-tenths of a second clear of Carlos Sainz Jr. in the fight to lead the midfield. Kevin Magnussen suffered from some misfire issues through practice, but these were resolved. Grosjean himself lost time in FP1 due to an oil leak on his car, but Steiner said it was "nothing to worry about".

- Despite being an issue at this circuit in the past, track limits were not discussed in Friday's drivers' briefing. Brendon Hartley said this was because there were no real places to gain time, with the kerb on the exit of Turn 4 making it slower to run wide. Hartley himself admitted he ran wide once there but was fearful of damaging his car.

- Antonio Giovinazzi enjoyed his second FP1 run-out of the season with Sauber on Friday, deputising for Charles Leclerc. Giovinazzi said he has noticed a "big step" in the Sauber C37 car since first testing it in Spain in May. Giovinazzi will fulfil both Ferrari and Sauber's young driver allocation in next week's test, completing one day of running for each team.

- ExxonMobil has confirmed it has brought a new fuel update to Hungary this weekend in a bid to give Red Bull a boost in its fight at the front of the pack.

- With rain possible on Saturday, teams will be given an additional set of intermediate tyres ahead of FP3 in Hungary.

- Lewis Hamilton took to Instagram stories on Friday to respond to reports quoting him as saying he deserved more credit after the Briton criticised Sky's TV coverage of his Germany win. "Not true. I feel all drivers deserve more credit and respect especially from the old ex-drivers that commentate," Hamilton wrote. "Whether it's a personal issue they have or not, their job is to report not only how a car and team are doing but also every now and then shine some positivity on these drivers who bust their balls to deliver every weekend."

- Team boss Toto Wolff also responded to the comments by saying: "Positive headlines don’t sell any newspapers and don’t generate any clicks and I think that he is a polarising sportsman that sells papers. We could talk about philosophy and the digital revolution and the impact on it for a long time but I just think that in the now and here great achievements are never recognised in the way they should be recognised and in five or 10 years we will be looking back and saying we were part of an amazing driver’s journey that will fill books but this is just the way it goes and I think he knows that."