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Motorsport

Motorsport.com staff writers

Five quick takeaways from Hungarian GP

Lando Norris McLaren Lewis Hamilton Ferrari F1 Fernando Alonso Max Verstappen Oscar Piastri Adrian Newey Aston Martin

Norris performing at a higher level than championship-winning campaign

Lando Norris raised a few eyebrows ahead of Hungary by claiming “I've driven better in this half of the season than I probably did to this point last year”. In 2025, of course, he was deep in a title fight against McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri but thanks to the change of regulations, the Woking outfit just hasn’t really been in the fight at the front.

So Norris’ performances have largely gone unnoticed, but Hungary proved that the reigning world champion is still at the level he was last year, if not higher. More leaning towards the latter, because he now has the confidence of a world champion and that was on full display during his radio messages in Budapest.

“I’ll pull out a 10-second gap with no tyres,” is what he sharply said to race engineer Will Joseph, when right on the tail of then leader Piastri. The Briton was eventually proven correct as he jumped ahead of his team-mate during the pit window, before gaining at least 10 seconds on the Australian - who eventually retired.

It was nonetheless an impressive victory by Norris, the 12th of his career and first of 2026, which keeps him fifth in the championship behind both Ferrari and Mercedes cars. So in other words, the 26-year-old is maximising that MCL40 which he arguably didn’t do with the MCL39, considering how Max Verstappen was in with a shot of the 2025 title on the final day.

- Ed Hardy

A missed opportunity for Ferrari

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari (Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images)

Being labelled the pre-race favourites ahead of the Hungarian GP due to the nature of the track, Ferrari failed to deliver on that promise. It all went rather well on Friday, and almost did on Saturday. Lewis Hamilton's lap was just 0.012s short of taking pole - and Andrea Stella, whose driver went quicker, said that evening it was more a missed opportunity for Ferrari than an indication of McLaren's pace. What made matters worse for Hamilton was that he then lost second place on the grid after receiving a penalty for impeding another McLaren driver immediately after completing his final lap.

Ferrari could still have hoped to fight for victory with Charles Leclerc, but the Monegasque was rather cautious on the opening lap, allowing not only Oscar Piastri, but also Max Verstappen and his team-mate to pass.

So, despite all the pace Ferrari supposedly had in Hungary, it never managed to actually show or use it, without trying to invent something strategically to offset the consequences of a disappointing Saturday.

- Oleg Karpov

It’s just not happening for Russell

George Russell, Mercedes (Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images)

By our calculations, never has such a large deficit been overturned by a driver after the summer break to become world champion. We are of course referring to George Russell, who holds a 59-point gap to his championship-leading team-mate Kimi Antonelli after yet more bad luck at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Russell started the race in sixth but dropped to the back on lap one due to an anti-stall at the lights, before eventually performing a solid recovery to seventh - four positions behind Antonelli. It’s been the story of the Briton’s season, where he takes one step forward but then suffers two backward ones as he’d cut 43 points out of Antonell’s lead across Barcelona, Austria and Silverstone, only for that charge to be halted at Spa last weekend and now Budapest.

The pre-season favourite just can’t sustain any momentum and with the season at its halfway mark, time is running out for him to do so. With 59 points now between him and his Mercedes stablemate, it just seems like that’s a deficit too large for him to overturn.

- Ed Hardy

Aston Martin is no longer Formula 1's slowest team

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing (Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images)

The days of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll acting as moving chicanes on F1 Sundays are finally over. Adrian Newey's long-awaited – and badly needed – upgrade package paid immediate dividends at the Hungaroring.

Just a week after qualifying two seconds slower than the slowest Cadillac at Spa, Alonso reached Q2 in a grand prix qualifying session for the first time this season, a clear sign that Aston Martin's 16 new parts introduced on Friday were working exactly as intended.

Stroll couldn't quite match the Spaniard's pace on Saturday, but both drivers finally enjoyed a competitive race, suddenly turning Aston Martin into a genuine threat for the midfield teams. Alpine, over to you.

They're still some way off what you'd ultimately expect from the Alonso-Newey-Honda combination, of course, but this first major upgrade has already delivered what the team's chief trackside officer, Mike Krack, had been hoping for: the chance to actually race other cars instead of merely circulating behind them.

- Federico Faturos

The Hungarian GP was what F1 2026 should be every weekend

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Oscar Piastri, McLaren, Lando Norris, McLaren (Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images)

After race weekends at the energy-starved circuits of Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps, the Hungaroring delivered a much more natural picture. In fact, it had all ingredients that should make an F1 race in 2026 interesting.

The opening phase featured plenty of action, after which overtaking remained possible without becoming too easy. It was actually refreshing after all the boost-assisted overtakes and the yo-yo racing we have seen far too often this year. Verstappen's move on Hamilton was a textbook example of how it should be, just like Hamilton's around-the-outside passes on Isack Hadjar and Arvid Lindblad.

Add to that the fact that the top teams were closely matched in the opening stages, while there was strategic variation as well – something Pirelli has been looking for a long time. All of those factors combined made the Hungarian Grand Prix an entertaining race – maybe not in the sense of the TikTok generation, with 84 overtakes in 10 seconds, but with a proper balance instead.

It is a shame that this is not achievable with these power units at circuits such as Silverstone and Spa, but the final race before the summer break at least showed what F1 2026 should be, instead of a race full of overtakes that ultimately mean very little.

- Ronald Vording