Horrible Hungary

Alchemy has three stages: understanding, deconstruction and reconstruction. This can be applied to motorsport as well. As the Model F1 season progressed, teams completed the understanding phase as they realize the potential of their cars. Of course, no one wants to reach the next two stages; unfortunately for them, the Hungarian Grand Prix provided the deconstruction stage. The Manor Mercedes team was no exception.

The team struggled with variance throughout the week, and Felipe Massa and Pastor Maldonado qualified 16th and 17th, respectively, as a result. The two began attempting to move their way up the field until disaster struck. On lap 20, Maldonado lost the rear end of the car in turn 6, spinning into the tyre barrier and forcing him to retire. Massa began falling back, losing positions to drivers like Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo, and on lap 49, his brakes completely failed, pushing him into the Lotus of Sergio Pérez in turn 14 and forcing both of them into retirement.

Team principal macus16 expressed his frustration, calling the race weekend “utterly terrible” and “probably one of the worst [we’ve] had in mf1 all together”.

The full race results can be viewed here.

Next week, the Model F1 World Championship heads to the the national forest track of Spa-Francorchamps for the Belgian Grand Prix.

Hungry in Hungary

After the race, the Manor trio of *Manor Motorsport Weekly* head writer ZappaOMatic, macus16 and team jackman Labradooodle decided to join Maldonado in an important trip… to the supermarket. Stopping by at a local Tesco, the four bought some food for the team to (hopefully) cheer them up after a rough week, also making sure to buy some cases of beer to make it up to Mercedes for “borrowing” their kegs during last week’s beer party.

And yes, Maldonado bought some pasta.