(Motorsport-Total.com) – For the first time this year, no Mercedes stood at the top of the leaderboard even once at the Hungarian Grand Prix: In Friday’s free practice, Ferrari was the dominant force, then McLaren driver Lando Norris took command, including pole position on Saturday and race victory on Sunday.
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For Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff, however, this is not yet a warning signal. That McLaren is strong precisely in Budapest does not surprise him. “If you ask artificial intelligence who the favorite is in Budapest, artificial intelligence will say McLaren,” joked the Austrian after the race.
McLaren has already been one of the strongest teams at the Hungaroring in recent years, and Norris also celebrated victory last year. “So definitely one of the good tracks for them, not very good for us,” said Wolff. Therefore, it would be wrong to conclude a new balance of power in Formula 1 directly from the result in Hungary.
“We have to be careful not to switch from ‘suddenly everyone is competitive’ to ‘one team is suddenly not competitive’,” warns Wolff, who nevertheless sees great progress at McLaren: “I think they have definitely taken a step, they are in the fight.”
Mercedes focuses on the second half of the season
McLaren once again brought new parts to the MCL40 for the Hungarian Grand Prix, thus consistently continuing its development. Ferrari has also already implemented extensive upgrades this season, while Mercedes is pursuing a somewhat more conservative strategy.
Wolff therefore expects that the balance of power could change several times over the course of the season. “We haven’t brought an upgrade for some time, and you can see that this will also be a development duel going forward,” believes the Mercedes team principal.
The reason for the more cautious approach at Mercedes is partly the current cost cap. Because instead of bringing new parts at every race, the team has to carefully weigh when an upgrade promises the greatest effect.
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“We really have to be strategic about when we bring the upgrades,” explains Wolff. “Instead of just throwing something new in at every Grand Prix like in the past, we can’t do that.” Mercedes has therefore deliberately concentrated part of its development on the second half of the season.
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“So at some point you will have to bring an upgrade and probably skip the others a little bit, and then it will level off again in a way and the others will come stronger. We bring upgrades, we watch closely how much we can bring.”
“At the moment, we are in a good position regarding the cost cap. We have tried to plan a bit more for the second half of the season, have waited – and let’s see if that is enough.” The conditions for a close development race are thus created.
Especially in the new regulations era 2026, even smaller upgrades can still bring significant performance gains. McLaren team principal Andrea Stella recently spoke of possible improvements in the range of two to three tenths of a second, so everything remains possible.
Despite the “defeat” in Hungary, Mercedes enters the summer break as the championship leader: Kimi Antonelli still leads the drivers’ championship and was even able to extend his lead in Budapest because he crossed the finish line ahead of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.
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