Mick Schumacher says he hopes to do a lap to get close to the Williams drivers but admits getting past them will be a huge challenge.
The young German managed to steal the pace of his Haas in FP1 to sit over both Alfa Romeo cars – even though Antonio Giovinazzi was unable to set representative lap times.
Haas was the backmarking team for the entire season, with the team fully focused on the new 2022 regulations before the current season got off to a serious start.
However, this didn’t make the rookie any less optimistic about trying to catch up with the cars in front of them.
“I think it was a positive start in the sense that we were able to implement our running plan,” Schumacher told Formula1.com after the free practice session on Friday. “Of course we’re a bit gloomy again when it comes to speed.
“Hopefully if I can get a good lap I will feel like we’re a little closer to Williams – I think that’s what we’re hoping for. [but] I don’t see us in front of them at the moment.
“It’s going to be cooler tomorrow so hopefully tire wear won’t be that important because we’re just a [single] shot at her. But for Sunday the temperatures should hopefully be a little cooler.
“Hopefully we’ve done enough research to keep up with the others.”
Guether has the weekend in view while we go into the #HungarianGP qualifying tomorrow 
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– Haas F1 Team (@ HaasF1Team) July 30, 2021
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In the Haas sister, Nikita Mazepin felt positive about his car’s long-term speed as he put more energy into finding the speed in the racing spec on his side of the pits.
“[It was] a physical day, but driven a lot of laps, ”said the Russian. “Unfortunately I had a flat tire in the afternoon that prevented me from using soft tires, but we made up for this with a very long run before the race distance.
“Even though it’s not perfect on a track where you can’t overtake, a lot of experience and data have been gathered, so everything is fine.
“Since Silverstone we’ve managed to stabilize the car well, and on a track where like Silverstone you lose a lot behind, we’ve achieved good pace on long runs.
“In my opinion, we have gone a step too far with stability here – the car does not yet turn in slow corners on the Budapest track, but I am sure that we will compensate for that in FP3 tomorrow.”
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