(Motorsport-Total.com) – After Mercedes’ dominance in the early part of the year is now a thing of the past, the 2026 Formula 1 season has finally developed into the development duel it promised to be from the start.
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The ups and downs of the teams, who bring significant aerodynamic updates week after week, constantly shift the pecking order. After a series of improvements at Red Bull and especially Ferrari in recent weeks, McLaren was up at the last race before the summer break in Hungary to add another level to its package from Miami and Montreal.
The MCL40 received a new floor, a particularly important part for a high-downforce track like the Hungaroring. This allowed Lando Norris to convert McLaren’s first Grand Prix win of the season from pole position, and according to all reports, the team should have also secured a one-two finish with Oscar Piastri, regardless of the order.
So has McLaren’s triumph in Hungary provided enough evidence to say that the defending champion is back? While Norris showed a strong improvement in his second qualifying lap compared to a shaky first lap, in which he struggled with a massive slide at the last corner exit, the Briton took pole by only 0.012 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton.
The Ferrari driver was one of several drivers who lost time on the final lap. Between a grid penalty for impeding Piastri in qualifying and further mistakes by Ferrari on Sunday, it is clear that the Scuderia underperformed in Hungary and did not exploit its potential.
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Given the enormous importance of track position in Budapest, a pole from Hamilton or Leclerc could have painted a very different picture. “The pure pace of the team was probably better this weekend than in Spa or Silverstone,” says Frederic Vasseur.
The Ferrari team principal emphasizes: “We were at the front in FP1, we were at the front in FP2, we could fight Lewis for pole. We lost pole by 0.01 seconds, and I think [in the race] the execution was very poor.”
Mercedes also did not have a clean weekend. It started with choosing the wrong setup direction on Friday, from which the team had to fight back laboriously. However, the W17 showed good pace in the hands of championship leader Kimi Antonelli in the long run on Friday.
“The whole weekend was not great. Missing FP1 was certainly not ideal for Kimi, we didn’t get the setup 100 percent right and it was always a catch-up game,” reports Toto Wolff.
Mercedes was therefore not particularly confident for the race, but Antonelli’s pace and George Russell’s impressive recovery after a botched start showed that the Silver Arrow also had plenty of speed. Antonelli also lost time due to the virtual safety car related to Piastri’s stranded McLaren.
Stella warns: We must not overrate the win
“If someone had told me before the race that we could get on the podium with Kimi, I would have signed immediately,” emphasizes Wolff. “But now, in hindsight, the prevailing feeling is that we should have been better.”
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McLaren team principal Andrea Stella was well aware that his team deserved the fruits of hard work to bring the floor upgrade in time before the summer break, but in Hungary may also have benefited from the rivals’ dip in form.
“I think Ferrari still has the best chassis when it comes to grip in the corners. That is especially noticeable under braking,” Stella said on Saturday after qualifying. “Pole position is a small overachievement, thanks to execution and maximizing the available potential.”
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After the race on Sunday, Stella added more details. “At first glance, it looks like McLaren had a pace advantage,” said the team principal. “I think it became even clearer especially when Lando took the lead. But at the same time, it depends a lot here on which tires you are running and how old the tires are.
“So I don’t want to draw conclusions too quickly, but it looks like we had a slightly bigger advantage in the race, if at all, than in qualifying. Because in qualifying it was, if anything, twelve milliseconds, and the Ferraris didn’t manage the second attempt in Q3. To be fair, that also applies to Oscar.”
More updates after the summer break
So there is no reason to overrate McLaren’s first win of 2026, but the papaya team at least has the means to keep up with Mercedes and Ferrari.
The good news for neutral fans is that no team is pulling away significantly, but the gaps are small enough that factors like track-specific strengths, weather conditions, and execution on track can tip the balance both ways.
Besides the reliability issues plaguing McLaren and Mercedes, the biggest uncertainty remains how much more performance the teams can actually bring to the track.
After the summer break, there will likely be big upgrade packages at all teams in Zandvoort and Monza. These are updates that have been in the pipeline for a long time now, while the teams are already focusing on 2027.
So instead of seeing Hungary as a snapshot of the pecking order, the 2026 season will continue to be decided by the raging development war in the factories. “Honestly, I still believe that if we want to be regularly able to fight for wins in the future, we have to keep the focus on bringing more updates,” says Stella.
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