Hungaroring

Race track in Mogyoród, Hungary

Hungaroring, Formula 1 Beyond the Iron Curtain

Built in eight months outside Budapest, the Hungaroring took Formula 1 behind the Iron Curtain in 1986 and has held every Hungarian Grand Prix since.

The Hungaroring began with a change of destination. Bernie Ecclestone had hoped to take Formula 1 to the Soviet Union, a Hungarian friend suggested Budapest instead, and in 1986 the Hungarian Grand Prix became the first championship race held behind the Iron Curtain. A street race in Népliget, the city's largest park, was considered first, but the choice fell on a purpose built circuit at Mogyoród, just outside the capital beside a major highway. Construction began on the 1st of October 1985 and was finished in eight months, faster than for any other Formula 1 circuit.

The track sits in a valley, so about 80 percent of it can be seen from almost anywhere in the grounds. The lap is twisty and bumpy, and passing in the dry is hard enough to have earned it the nickname of Monaco without the barriers, a description only half meant as a compliment. The race comes in high summer, usually hot and dry, and because the circuit is little used the rest of the year, dust from the sandy soil settles so quickly that the track often struggles to gain grip over a weekend. It took until 2006 for the race to be run in the wet.

The original lap of 4.014 km lost a chicane in 1989, once the stream that had forced it was diverted into a culvert, a rare case of a circuit being straightened by plumbing. In 2003 the main straight was stretched to 908 m and the hairpin at its end tightened, which produced today's 4.381 km.

Nelson Piquet won the first Hungarian Grand Prix in 1986, and through 2026 the circuit has held 41 championship rounds. Nigel Mansell won from twelfth on the grid in 1989 and sealed the 1992 title here, as Michael Schumacher did in 2001. The Hungaroring also has a gift for first victories. Damon Hill won for the first time here in 1993, Fernando Alonso in 2003 and Jenson Button in that wet race of 2006, and more recently the list grew with Esteban Ocon in 2021 and, three years later, Oscar Piastri. Lewis Hamilton has won here eight times, more than anyone, and the second corner now carries his name.

In 2026 Lando Norris won from pole. With a contract running to 2032, the valley at Mogyoród remains the home of Hungarian motorsport.

Every Grand Prix here

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