EU: Series Hungaroring test summary

Daniil Kvyat is top of the testing times in Hungary.

Munich. The Formula BMW Europe drivers were back on track on Tuesday and Wednesday (25th/26th May), but this time for a test in Hungary at the Budapest track where they will be racing in two months' time. The two days were punctuated by some short but heavy rain storms, however, the hot sun soon dried the track and it was Daniil Kvyat (RU/Eurointernational) who set the quickest time of 1:49.937 on the final afternoon.

The 4.381 kilometre Hungaroring track, which is about 20 minutes by car from the centre of Budapest, is quite popular with the drivers as Timmy Hansen (SE/Mucke Motorsport), Daniil Kvyat (RU/Eurointernational), Michael Lewis (US/Eurointernational) and Facu Regalia (AR/Eifelland Racing) all have it down as one of their favourite circuits. It was, therefore, not surprising that Lewis went well at the test, even though he admitted he had never been to the track before: "I had seen the track on tv and it looked great. After the first four or five laps I began to get used to it and the speed, and it lived up to my expectations. I started off on the first day doing well, and then on Wednesday morning put on new tyres and set the fastest time of that session. The time even held up well in the afternoon, and now I am hoping to carry some of this speed to the next race with a good result."

There is just one official test left for the drivers and that is in Hockenheim next week on the 1st and 2nd June. This means they will then have to go directly from there to Zandvoort for rounds three and four of the series.

Team Focus

It was not only in Formula BMW Europe that Eurointernational was the team to beat last year, as the team that has bases in both Italy and America also won both the drivers' and teams' championships in the Americas series, and notched up five wins in the Pacific as well.

It is 21 years since its exuberant team owner, Antonio Ferrari, started the team in America and entered the 1989 CART Championship with two cars. Since then its cars have been successful in many different championships on both sides of the pond. Its proud tally up to the end of last year from 403 races was 89 poles, 87 wins, 11 teams' championship titles and 10 drivers' championship titles.

Over the years the drivers who have passed through its doors in both Indianapolis and San Pietro Mosezzo include Rene Arnoux, Christian Danner,

Roberto Guerrero, Davy Jones, Fabrizio Barbazza, Antonio Pizzonia, Andy Soucek, Giorgio Mondini, Mauro Baldi and Andrea Montermini. Of course last year its champions were Felipe Nasr in Europe, Gabby Chaves and Michael Lewis in the Americas, while William Buller won the highly prestigious Pacific series support race at the Macau Grand Prix.

Again the team is competing in both the European and Pacific series and its European Rookies, Carlos Sainz and Daniil Kvyat, have already notched up wins when guesting in the Pacific. Looking after these youngsters on a day to day basis is Technical Director, Nicola Sgotto. After the Budapest test he was delighted with the team's results, however, he explained it is not easy to have three such competitive drivers: "The problem is they can't all be happy as they all want to be first. We had a good test and gave all of them equal opportunities to do well. We used the two days to do a lot of fine tuning. We were refining the balance we had found in previous tests and now we are in quite a good shape for our next test in Hockenheim."

Talking about the results in Malaysia, Sgotto said: "That was one of the best weekends we have ever had. This result really gave our drivers a lot of self- confidence, which was important as we have not won in the European series. If the drivers and the team are happy they work hard. We now have a good momentum and hope to keep that going for the next races here in Europe. We have the saying that he who stops working is lost."

The team does not just do Formula BMW as this year it will also be competing in Formula 3 Italia. Other series it has competed in over the years include World Series by Renault, Eurocup Formula Renault V6, IRL, IMSA and US Formula 3, while in 1995 it also entered the Le Mans 24 Hour race.

-source: fbmw eu