Winning the Hungarian Grand Prix is an unlikely prospect for Ferrari according to Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, despite their strong pace at high downforce tracks this year. Leclerc took pole position at the Monaco and Azerbaijan GP whilst Ferrari have been very quick in recent events, which included a podium for Leclerc at Silverstone. "It’s good to be optimistic," Leclerc told RacingNews365.com and other select members of the press. "I think we all want to be optimists after such a good performance in the last three races. On the other hand, we also need to be realistic. “It’s good and we are in a good mood but I feel like going for the win in Budapest might be a bit optimistic. Realistically, I think I would be happy if we are just behind the two top teams.” Sainz feels that the characteristics of the Hungaroring has moved away from a low-speed circuit towards a high-speed cornering track due to the wider, faster cars which were introduced in 2017. Last year's F1 cars were the fastest ever at some venues. Despite changes to the floor regulations, this year's machines are still very fast in the corners. "Budapest recently has become actually a medium to high speed track with these cars,” said Sainz. “If you look at Monaco and Baku, there are second and third gear corners. Budapest nowadays with these crazy high downforce cars, you have a middle sector that you are in fourth, fifth gear all the time. “So it’s not a pure low-speed track anymore like it used to be in the past. I don’t think it’s going to be such a good track for us. "I do think that is a great opportunity to be right behind the Red Bull and Mercedes but downforce is still king and we see from data that these guys still have a bit more pace than us and they should be ahead in Hungary."
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