The gray, dark clouds that hovered over the Hungaroring on the day of the Hungarian Grand Prix matched Scott Speed’s mood after the race.

A wrong strategic call probably cost American F1 rookie Speed a point. But he brought his Toro Rosso home in 11th place in a race many drivers failed to finish.

Races on two consecutive weekends means extra work for the F1 crews and hospitality people who have to disassemble everything at one track, truck it to the next race, and set up everything again to be ready to go in just a few days.

This was the case with the races in Germany and Hungary. But for the drivers, there is no real extra strain.

“It is easy,” Speed said. “Both races were within a very short flight away.”

Monaco without the houses. That’s how the tight, twisting 14-turn track in Hungary has been described.

It’s not Speed’s favorite track on the F1 tour.

“I don’t like this track all that much,” he said. “It is cool because all the corners are close together and you don’t have to wait for them. But there are no real cool corners except for one at the top of the hill that is blind and fast.

“It is a difficult track to pass on. Hockenheim (in Germany), I really liked because you can overtake there.”

Heading into the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, round 13 of 18, Speed wasn’t sure how his Scuderia Toro Rosso would perform.

“At this point I have a completely different view than I did at the beginning of the season,” he said. “I actually think that we are going quick in Monza and struggling here.”

Originally, Speed thought the STR-Cosworth would be quick on tight tracks like Monaco and struggle on high-speed tracks like Monza that demand a lot of horsepower.

Speed ran a total of 23 laps in the two practice sessions Friday, Aug. 4, and posted the 21st fastest time. He still wasn’t sure how his car would work in race conditions.

“I was unhappy with today’s work,” he said. “The conditions did not suit our car. Tire choice is very straightforward, but I had some oversteer and understeer. The track is very dirty.”

In qualifying on Saturday, Aug. 5, Speed set the 19th fastest time. He started 20th after officials deleted his three fastest laps for impeding another driver during his qualifying run.

“We knew that we were going to struggle in qualifying,” he said, “so we concentrated on getting as well prepared as possible for the race. Given our tire choice, I think we are looking quite good, especially as I think we will have excellent race pace. Overtaking is hard here, but you never know how things can turn out. We’ve been slow all weekend, but we are looking in reasonable shape for the race.”

It rained on race day, making this the first time Speed raced a F1 car in the wet. Track conditions were incredibly slippery and challenging, and by starting so deep in the field, Speed could barely see through the maelstrom of spray.

Speed drove fast but carefully, avoiding trouble as others spun off or crashed on the tricky, slick track. By Lap 19, the Californian was up to 10th place. By now the rain had stopped and the racing line around the track was starting to dry, but it was still incredibly treacherous off that line.

Pit stop strategy is difficult in these conditions because it’s hard to judge the best time to switch from extreme rain tires to intermediate rain tires and then to dry-weather tires. Speed’s Toro Rosso crew got it wrong.

“At the first pit stop, they decided that we were going to fill the tank to the end of the race,” Speed said. “The idea was that I would not pit again. It was crazy. The race was over.”

In retrospect, the crew should have put in less fuel because the track was drying, and Speed would have needed to come in and change to dry-weather tires anyway. As it was, with a full tank and a heavy car, Speed collided with Rubens Barrichello and then spun.

Speed then pitted for dry-weather tires, but the track was still too slick, and he had to pit again for intermediate tires and once more for dry weather tires. All this dropped him to 12th place, although that eventually became 11th when Robert Kubica’s BMW Sauber was disqualified for being underweight.

Had things gone differently, Speed probably would have scored a point. But then again, every driver had a tale to tell after the wet and wild Hungarian Grand Prix.

[USGP PR]

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