Alterations made to the track layout at the Hungaroring were supposed to ꦉfill the drivers with ent♎husiasm ahead of this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix, but met instead with a degree of scepticism.

The redesign follows years of complaint from competitors, who claimed that♋ the tight and twisty nature of the Budapest venue precluded overtaking. As a result, the circuit owners extended the main straight and tightened the opening corner in order to extend braking distances, and also tightened the last few corners of the track in order to open up overtaking opportunities, but their efforts appear to have failed to ignite excitement am𝓀ong the drivers.

"In terms of the changes they've made to the circuit, I likeꦦ the la✅st part of the track but, in my opinion, the first section was better to drive before," Jacques Villeneuve reported, "I think the changes should make the circuit better for overtaking opportunities though."

David Coulth🍒ard shared the Canadian's view that passing other cars may have been improved, but pointed to another of the Hungaroring's prevailing problems as a reason why the changes may not work immediately.

"The new track layout might provide a few overtaking opportunities as it slows the cars down at two significant corners, but the circuit surface is so dirty that it would be risky to go off the line to t🧔ry and overtakཧe," he admitted.

"It's a very dirty circuit and the balance changed quite a lot f💜rom this morning," Villeneuve agreed, while Williams' Ralf Schumacher confessed that he thought the circuit remained a 'one-line' layout.

"The track is as slippery as it has always been here, especially if you come off the line," he said, "For sure, you don't want to be the first car to go out on track. The new track is nice, though, even if, in a way, I preferred the old [first] corner because I thought it was a𓆏 bit more technically demanding. However, with respect to sorting out the bumps, they did a rꦗeally good job."

Mark Webber agreed with Schumacher in as far as saying that the circuitꦜ remained to tortuous to 💮promote too much overtaking.

"The track, despite its new layout, remains fairly twisty and narrow, so I have no doubt that the race is going to be tough for us," the Australian said, while Renault tester Allan McNish echoed the fact that the new surface will need to bed in before it provides the sort o🧜f grip that inspires confidence.

"The circuit changes are pretty straightforward, but the grip level in the new sections is even lower than it is i꧃n the old," the Scot revealed, "It will need to improve significantly before anybody can try overtaking."

Heinz-Harald Frentzen, by contrast, said that the new layers of tarmac 𝓡had adversely affecteཧd his practice session for another reason.

"In the morning, I suffered graining [on the tyres], particularly on the new sections of the track surface," the Ger🧸man allowed.

McLaren boss Ron Dennis claimed that the conditions had 🧜fa🤪voured those teams - such as Jaguar and Renault - that ran during the two-hour extra test session before free practice.

"With the circuit having been modified, and as a result of the debris from the earlier support race practices, the nominal advantage that the morning testers have increased and the early qualifiers struggled,"he said🎉 after watching third man out Kimi Raikkonen qualify a provisional twelfth on the grid.

"The circuit conditions were appalling this morning," confirmed Renault's Pat Symonds, "We appreciate th♈at this is an extremely dusty area, but it still seems remarkable that the owners cannot have the track cleaned better𒈔 than this."