Pirelli reveals key findings after the opening day at the Hungaroring

McLaren did not waste any time in stamping its authority on the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, but Ferrari also look in fine form. F1Technical's senior writer Balazs Szabo

For the last round ahead of the summer break, Formula One's sole tyre manufacturer Pirelli has supplied teams with compounds from the softer end of its six-compound range: C3 as Hard, C4 as Medium and C5 as Soft. Up until last year, these would have been the softest tyres of all, but this year, the C6 was introduced.

The Milan-based tyre manufacturer has explained that the brand-new compound "would be too extreme a choice for a track that exerts this level of energy density on the tyres for every lap. Although the actual loads are not that high in absolute terms, the fact that the lap is short means that it increases cumulatively and significantly with each lap."

As for the Friday's running, over half the drivers used a set of Hards: eight did so in FP1 and three in FP2. Those yet to run the C3 are Oscar Piastri, Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, Andrea Antonelli, George Russell, Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly, a clear indication of their desire to keep one set of Hards for the race.

Fernando Alonso also didn’t use the hardest compound in FP2, but his substitute Drugovich did so in the first session, so the Spaniard only has one set of this compound for the rest of the weekend.

Reflecting on the opening day at the Hungaroring, Pirelli's chief engineer Simone Berra stated: "Getting back to a standard format weekend gives us much more time to gather data on how the tyres are behaving, which is particularly important on a track noted for quite significant thermal degradation.

"In fact, temperatures were a very relevant factor today, especially when compared to those on Friday last year: at times they were 15° C lower in FP1 and 10 °C in FP2.

"Cooler temperatures mean a faster track which explains much of the improvement in lap times from one year to the next – around 2”7 in the first session and 2”1 in the second. The other factor is of course the progress the cars have made in terms of performance.

Speaking of how the three compounds behaved and what strategies Pirelli expects to emerge as the quickest one for the Budapest round, Berra said that the two-stop might come out as the best approach.

"We didn’t see any graining and thermal degradation was pretty much in line with our expectations. All three compounds were used in several long runs and that meant we saw that even the Soft is not at all out of the running for a dry race.

"From what we saw today, the two-stop definitely seems the most effective option, using the Medium and the Hard. These two compounds were pretty close in performance terms so they should both have a role to play.”