The Hungarian Grand Prix will represent an important milestone for Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg this weekend – his 100th grand prix start.
However, the German is not particularly concerned about these numbers, and is more interested in how well he can do at the Hungaroring on Sunday.
“Hungary will be my 100th Grand Prix which seems crazy when my father completed 114 races over his whole career,” said Rosberg, whose father Keke won the 1982 drivers’ championship. “It’s a nice number but statistics aren’t that important to me.
“I’m looking forward to the weekend in Budapest as I like the Hungaroring very much, and I’m hoping for a better time than in 2010 when unfortunately I didn’t finish the race. We need to work on our race set-up to see what improvements we can make as the car that I had in qualifying in Germany was better than the one that I had in the race. I’m sure we can do it and take another small step forward.”
For team-mate Michael Schumacher, the race in Budapest will be number 280. He enjoys going to Hungary, the race in which he picked up title number four, back in 2001.
“We have had two home races in a row now, and Hungary too feels like it is linked with me in a way,” he said. “I will obviously never forget that I won one of my world titles there, and I always enjoyed the support of a lot of fans travelling to Budapest.
“Ideally we can help them enjoy their weekend, and I am hopeful we can as we have seen some progress lately with our car. I am impressed with the effort the team and the guys back in England are constantly putting into it and it is good to see developments. I am looking forward to travelling there.”
Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn thinks that the Hungaroring will put on a technically intriguing race this weekend, and is hoping that the team continue to demonstrate their continuing progress towards the front of the grid.
“The Hungaroring is renowned for being a technically challenging track and it will be very useful for us to gain further experience of our latest developments there,” he said. “It’s not a track where overtaking has been easy in the past, so it will be interesting to see how the combined effect of DRS and KERS improves the possibilities this year.
“Our recent performances in Silverstone and Germany have been encouraging, although the pace is still not there to compete with the front-running teams, and we will keep working hard to continue to find improvements.”
