Sign up here to get it in your inbox. Formula 1 drivers like to say that there is very little race car driving involved in driving race cars these days. Spend a pre-race day with one of the 20 world-class athletes at the top of motorsport and you will understand just how true this can be. After he checks in to the Four Seasons, where throngs of Hungarian F1 superfans gather all weekend, he is ferried to a photo shoot for one of his sponsors in an abandoned apartment building in downtown Budapest.
Suddenly, though, the past comes into focus. There will be cameras and recorders in his face at every turn. Jacket by Bottega Veneta. Shirt by Greg Lauren. Vintage jeans from Raggedy Threads.
His own sunglasses throughout by Ray-Ban. A piece of the facilities at the Hungaroring is being knocked down, and the drivers must commemorate the event. This is his 14th season as a Formula 1 driver, which means he has witnessed his field transform quite a bit from a rarefied European sport geared toward Rolex owners to an increasingly global spectacle with its own Netflix reality television show and a race on the Las Vegas Strip.
He has experienced the nonsense ratchet up to a level that almost feels unsustainable. The media attention has escalated too. All of this is enough to make the job of driving an 1,pound car at miles an hour for a live audience of , fans seem relaxing by comparison. Speculation on the future of his career is at an all-time high. This year the eye of that needle has become even tighter. The Hungarian Grand Prix, then, could serve as a sort of report card on his fate. It is an usually hot weekend in Budapest, and it is nearly degrees in the paddock—but all the machinery and pavement and bodies make it feel even hotter.
I know how they try to get the pressure into you. They like to get the quote. The surrounding talk, the contract talks and so on. He is South American, and he is just not as completely focused in his head. I feel very sorry for him on this one. Two weeks after Budapest, Formula 1 will shut down for its annual monthlong summer break, which includes a stipulated period when mechanics and engineers are forbidden from working on the cars, and drivers can take a breather.
