I really didn’t know what to expect, but I have very positive memories. Three things that made a big impression; the wonderful city of Budapest, unusual cars – smoking Trabants, Wartburg and Moskvich – and most importantly, lots of beautiful girls!

The crowds were incredible for the first F1 race and the traffic was crazy, but we had a police motorbike escort to get to the airport after the race. If the other cars didn’t move out of the way quickly, the poor local drivers had a baton banged on the side of the car by the police riders to get their attention! The police were quite amazing and very effective! Visiting Hungary in 1986 was an exciting time for all F1 teams because it was a new circuit, but it was particularly important for Zakspeed, which was based in neighboring Germany. It was also important for our sponsor Reemtsma, as Hungary was an important market for their West cigarettes brand. It was my idea to change the West logo to East! After I went to Budapest to drive the Zakspeed for the first demonstration laps I said to Eric Zakowski we should change the sponsor name for this race to East to celebrate the first F1 race in Eastern Europe and he and Reemstma thought it was a great idea! [The Zakspeed actually ran with ‘East’ logos for the first time at the German Grand Prix two weeks earlier to get around a ban on tobacco sponsorship. There was no such ban in Hungary.] The race was a success because I managed to finish at a time when the reliability of F1 cars was very poor. It was unusual for more than half the field to finish. But we had the power turned down so much that I was very slow. [Palmer finished the race in 10, six laps down on the winning Williams of Nelson Piquet.]