Our time at the Hungarian Grand Prix 2019

Having been headhunting in F1 since 2004, it's somewhat of a special year for us here at FMC...

20 years in the sport makes me feel both very proud and very old all at once! To celebrate, me and Ben will be at the Silverstone GP this weekend.
 
My three wonderful daughters are something else that make me very proud. One of them, Lily, who is 14 (15 in 5 days), was keen to do some work experience with FMC. Being fascinated by (and talented with) all things creative, she's been doing some work this week with our fabulous marketing team. 
 
Whilst I've been lucky enough to visit all but one of the F1 factories in the last 20 years, I have only ever been to one Grand Prix before. That was the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest in 2019, where Lewis was victorious following an amazing strategy call by James Vowles. I drove there on a crazy road trip across most of Europe, with the whole family, and Lily has written some things about her memories of the event.

So, without further ado, here's Lily's take on our 2019 trip…

What are my best memories? 

One of my best memories of our F1 road trip was the drive. It was a long drive, through a total of 6 different countries. We started in England and drove through France, Belgium, Germany, Austria and finally, after 1,244 miles and over 21 hours, we arrived in Budapest hassle free (well, just about, considering there was no speed limit on the motorways in Germany and people were driving scarily fast!).

We weren’t so lucky on the way out of Budapest to Pula (Croatia) as our tyre popped in the middle of Slovenia, and we were stuck on the side of a busy motorway until a lovely Slovenian man called Jakob came to the rescue.

Another one of my favourite memories is one of the days when we weren't watching the Grand Prix we went to see the pop-up stalls and there was one dedicated to James Bond and the history of the cars featured in the movies. I love James Bond movies so this was amazing for me! One of the cars on display was a Lotus Esprit submarine, which Dad tells me that this features in one of his favourite James Bond car scenes. 

What happened in the race?

Throughout most of the race Max Verstappen was in the lead with Lewis Hamilton just behind him. Then, with 20 laps to go, Lewis came into the pits for new tyres, and I thought the race was over… he was 20 seconds behind, with 20 laps to go.
But he was catching him. About a second every lap, Lewis was getting closer and closer to Max. Then with about 2 laps to go, he overtook and won the race! We had Dutch fans all around us, dressed in Orange but we were happy then, and they were not. My first Grand Prix and the best British driver ever had won right at the end, I couldn't have asked for a better experience.

What’s the funniest thing that happened?

For me the funniest thing that happened whilst at the Hungarian Grand Prix was when we had just arrived at the circuit, in the middle of the night, and my dad was driving round the campsite aimlessly with no idea where we were going... We had been driving around in circles for about 15 minutes before pretty much everyone who wasn’t asleep in the car was aggravated to say the least! 
 
So, will this years’ Grand Prix at Silverstone be as exciting and thrilling as the 2019 Hungarian Grand Prix? Only time will tell…

Thanks Lily, you should be really proud of your work!
 
I sincerely hope my second Grand Prix is as eventful and exciting as my first!