How F1 teams balanced cooling and downforce in Hungary – and where McLaren made the difference

The Hungaroring presents a potentially tricky combination of demands, given that it’s a track which heavily rewards raw downforce but which can have very high cooling demands.

The combination of a Budapest summer with the relative lack of straight-line running, plus long corners where the front wheels are on lock for a long time, diverting airflow away from the radiator inlets, means that the bodywork will have to be opened up extensively.

This extracts a high cost aerodynamically. So, the conflict in demands and the jeopardy involved in trying to maximise performance, is quite explicit.