Matt Bishop: Sparks fly when genius meets brilliance at the Hungarian GP

As the Formula 1 circus moves from soaking-wet Spa to likely-to-be-dry-and-sunny Budapest, you may be interested to know that the 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix will be the 40th to have been run at the Hungaroring, near the village of Mogyoród, in the county of Pest, which is not actually in Budapest but is about 15 miles (24km) north-east of it. Nonetheless, most F1 folk stay in central Budapest, because it is a great city.

Although Sunday’s race will be the Hungaroring’s 40th staging of a world championship-status F1 grand prix, it will also be the 41st Hungarian Grand Prix. How come? Well, although F1 cars first raced at the Hungaroring in 1986, and they have done so every year ever since then, without exception, the very first Hungarian Grand Prix was held long before F1 had been born or even thought of, in 1936, in and around Népliget, which is the largest public park in Budapest, situated in a now rather run-down quarter of the city centre.

If the 1936 Hungarian Grand Prix and the 1986 Hungarian Grand Prix both therefore have a defensible claim to be the first Hungarian Grand Prix, that is not the only thing that they have in common, for both races featured exciting battles for the lead between fierce rivals.

In 1936 the glorious Auto Union Type-C was dominating grand prix racing, winning three of the four races that counted for that year’s European Championship (Nürburgring, Bremgarten, and Monza), all three of those victories scored by Bernd Rosemeyer, who duly became European Drivers’ Champion that season. The other European Championship-status race that year, the Monaco Grand Prix, was won by Rudolf Caracciola for Mercedes-Benz.

However, in addition to those four races, there were more than 30 others in which grand prix drivers and grand prix cars took part, and one of them, held on June 21, was the Magyar Nagydíj, aka Hungarian Grand Prix.

As so often that year, Rosemeyer took the pole for Auto Union, hustling his powerful but unwieldy V16-engined behemoth around the 3.1-mile (5.0km) Népliget circuit in 2min 38.15sec. Second, albeit 1.68sec slower, was Hans Stuck in another Auto Union Type-C; third was Manfred von Brauchitsch in a Mercedes-Benz W25C; fourth was Tazio Nuvolari in an Alfa Romeo Tipo-C 8C-35; fifth was Rudolf Caracciola in another Mercedes-Benz W25C; and sixth was Achille Varzi in yet another Auto Union Type-C. The 1936 Hungarian Grand Prix may not have been a race of European Championship status, but the very top tier of the motor racing elite would take part in it nonetheless.

Security on the day was negligible, and, although 30,000 spectators had paid for tickets, 70,000 more found their way into the park without paying. The circuit layout was a busy one, consisting of 22 corners and only one straight, and Rosemeyer and Stuck both started well from the front row, leading the field into Turn 1, a tight right-hander. However, Caracciola was soon on a charge, and he hurled his Mercedes past the Auto Unions of first Stuck then Rosemeyer, taking the lead on lap 10. He might have gone on to win the race, for he was looking to be sitting pretty, until on lap 27 his engine failed. Now Rosemeyer was back in the lead, ahead of von Brauchitsch’s Merc and Nuvolari’s Alfa. The two German cars had a lot more horsepower than the Italian one, but two factors now came into play that levelled the playing field. First, the tortuous configuration of the circuit mitigated the Alfa’s power disadvantage, and, second, Nuvolari, despite his advancing years (43), was still the fastest racing driver in the world.

Before long he began to harry von Brauchitsch – who, never the coolest driver when pressured, soon made an error, running wide on a turn, letting Nuvolari into second place. Now Nuvolari put the hammer down – and, although Rosemeyer was more than half a minute ahead, il Mantovano Volante (the Flying Mantuan) began to drive in the manner that had earned him that nickname, and with every lap he ate further into Rosemeyer’s lead. He blitzed lap 31 in 2min 35.68sec – a whopping 2.47sec faster than Rosemeyer’s pole time, establishing the lap record – and on lap 32 the Alfa Romeo was right behind the Auto Union. On lap 33 there was nothing Rosemeyer could do to arrest Nuvolari’s advance, and the Italian duly swooped into a lead he would never lose. It had been a wonderful drive, a magnificent victory, and one of Nuvolari’s most impressive giant-killing triumphs. He beat the next best Alfa driver, Mario Tadini, by three laps.

Half a century later, keen to inaugurate an F1 grand prix behind the Iron Curtain for the first time, Bernie Ecclestone visited, inspected, and considered Népliget – which by that time had become a favourite haunt of beggars by day and rent boys by night – but in the end, in part because the old circuit could be made safe for 1980s F1 cars only by the removal of a trackside copse, to which operation local conservationists objected, he selected the Hungaroring instead.

The first grand prix there was run in 1986 – and, just as the 1936 Hungarian Grand Prix had showcased a heroic battle between the sport’s two fastest men, Nuvolari and Rosemeyer, so also did Ayrton Senna and Nelson Piquet, two super-quick Brazilians between whom there was no love lost, dominate qualifying 50 years later. In the end it was Senna who took the pole in his beautiful black and gold Lotus-Renault 98T, 0.335sec up on Piquet’s muscular yellow, blue, and white Williams-Honda FW11.

On race day Senna took the lead at the start, while Piquet dropped to third behind a fast-starting Nigel Mansell in the other Williams. But Piquet was not about to let his fellow countryman and arch-rival sprint away, and within three laps he had reclaimed second place from Mansell. By lap 10 Nelson had caught Ayrton, and he tried to pass him at the only point on the circuit where passing was and is practicable, Turn 1. However, Senna took a narrow line under braking, preventing Piquet from pushing his Williams inside the Lotus. For another lap the two ran nose to tail, then into Turn 1 on lap 11 Piquet tried the same move again, this time he made it stick, and he was past and away.