Hungarian Setups F1 2021

Hungarian F1 2021 setup guide

Hungary is a fun track to race around in F1 2021, and it’s a track which favours a high downforce car setup.

In many ways, Hungary is similar to a track such as Monaco. Its weaving corners and lack of straights make it a tricky track to follow and overtake other cars, and often results can be dictated by pit strategies. This is why it’s more important than ever to nail your Hungary setup in F1 2021.

There is one long straight, where the majority of overtaking will happen, and that is the pit straight. With this pit straight in mind, we shouldn’t opt for a very high downforce car setup. You need a little bit of straight line speed to allow for overtaking and defending during the race.

Like many tracks in F1 2021, you can setup your rear aerodynamics to be higher than the front. This will help the rear of the car stick to the ground through medium speed corners. But it’ll also impact your top speed much less than increasing the front aerodynamics would.

You should look to have your front aerodynamics setup around average, with your rear aero medium – high. This should provide the best combination of downforce and speed.

Traction, traction, traction

With many of the corners around Hungary being slower turns, you will need to ensure your car is setup with traction partially in mind. There aren’t as many heavy traction zones when compared to tracks such as Monza, or Bahrain.

Instead, there are slower sweeping corners. However, much like the Nurburgring, you will still be required to have good traction to maximise your corner exit.

You should try to setup your on-throttle differential quite low. This will allow your wheels to turn more independently of each other, giving less wheelspin under acceleration.

Tyre management isn’t too much of a worry

Hungary isn’t known to be too harsh on tyre wear. With the majority of corners being slower, there isn’t the same level of sustained load put on your tyres that faster corners generate.

This allows you to run more camber angle without worrying too much about tyre wear. Higher amounts of camber will let you lean on your tyres more through the longer sweeping corners. Ultimately this should give you higher mid corner speed.

You can also run more toe around Hungary compared to other tracks. With there only really being one long straight, straight line speed isn’t too crucial. And we shouldn’t have to worry about the extra tyre wear that increased toe brings.

Soft suspension setup

Hungary is very much a track where you’ll be driving all over the kerbs. Especially through the middle sector. This combined with the bumpier track surface means you will have more success and confidence with a softer suspension setup.

A soft suspension will prevent your car acting unpredictable when positioning your car over kerbs. You will have a much more predictable car to drive, giving you more confidence. And a softer suspension setup also results in less tyre wear. Win, win.

You can also get away with running softer anti-roll bars than other tracks. There aren’t many high speed corners, or corners which require quick direction changes. This means we don’t need stiff anti-roll bars.

Setup your ride height to be on the lower side of medium, without going too low. Too low and you may start to lose control over kerbs.

For your brake setup, you can go with a higher brake pressure setup without risking locking a wheel too much. The braking zones aren’t too heavy meaning they’re slightly more forgiving than some other tracks.

Your brake bias can be balanced, with a slight forward bias. Around 56% is a good spot to start. This will keep the car stable under braking, while giving you enough stopping power at the front of the car.

As tyre wear isn’t much of an issue, and there aren’t many heavy traction zones. You can setup your tyre pressures at Hungary with more pressure. This will help add a little more responsiveness into the car.