Hello and welcome to This Hungarian Grand Prix, the final race before the summer break. Around the tight and dusty Hungaroring, Lando Norris delivered McLaren’s first victory of 2026 and his first as reigning world champion, but not after a race shaped by McLaren tension.
The Bahrain Grand Prix will be held in… Malaysia. Mercedes continued to battle reliability and performance concerns, but Antonelli recovered from a grid penalty to secure another podium and extend his championship lead.
General News
Organisers have announced the Bahrain Grand Prix will be held at Sepang in Malaysia on the weekend of 02 – 04 October. The event, which is subject to final agreements and official sign-off, including the approval of the World Motor Sport Council, will become the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.
This agreement, reached between Formula 1, the FIA, the Governments of Bahrain, and Malaysia, allows a Grand Prix that would otherwise not have happened. The rest of the schedule for 2026 remains unchanged. The race will be called ‘Bahrain Grand Prix held by Malaysia’, with organisers being paid by Bahraini backers.
The race was postponed in March because of the US-Israel war with Iran, creating a triple header with the date added between Baku and Singapore. The change to the calendar still needs to be approved by the World Motor Sport Council, but that step is considered a formality.
Stefano Domenicali said: “We are delighted to confirm that Malaysia will host the Bahrain Grand Prix in 2026. Once again, the sport has demonstrated its ability to adapt, find solutions, and deliver, creating an exciting moment for everyone who follows Formula 1.”
Uncertainty still remains about the final two races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, but the sport’s bosses said that the schedule for the rest of the season currently remains unchanged.
Weekend Recap
FP1 saw Charles Leclerc fastest, setting a 19.075 on the soft tyre, going just under half a second faster than the Red Bull of Max Verstappen. Leclerc set his fastest time just after halfway through the session, then no one was able to challenge him for the top spot. Verstappen managed to split the Ferrari drivers, going six hundredths faster than Lewis Hamilton.
FP2 Hamilton topped the times with a 18.729 to go just under a tenth and a half ahead of Leclerc. Lando Norris was third, the McLaren driver going three and a half tenths off the pace set by the Ferrari. Verstappen put his Red Bull fourth as he went over a quarter of a second faster than the Mercedes of George Russell
FP3 was topped by Norris with a 17.939, putting himself just over a tenth faster than Hamilton. Norris set his fastest time towards the end of the session to top the times as Hamilton edged out the championship leader Kimi Antonelli by just over a hundredth. Leclerc meanwhile was nearly a tenth and a half faster than the second McLaren of Oscar Piastri, after the Ferrari aborted his final attempt at Piquet (Turn One).
Qualifying, Norris beat Hamilton with a 17.207 to secure pole just over a hundredth of a second to take pole. Hamilton went over two tenths faster than Leclerc while championship leader Kimi Antonelli was fourth. He was unhappy he had been sent out first on the final Q3 runs.
Norris has taken his first win as world champion with a dominant fifteen-second victory. The Englishman controlled the race after taking the lead a quarter of the way through, then retained the net lead of the race by undercutting Antonelli when he dived past at Piquet (Turn One) on lap forty.
Verstappen and Antonelli, the Red Bull driver eventually coming out on top, building a three-and-a-half-second gap during the closing stages. Charles Leclerc was fourth after Ferrari teammate Hamilton was demoted a place after a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane
McLaren
Following Friday practice, Oscar Piastri is optimistic about there being “a lot up for grabs” for himself and McLaren with their upgrades “working as expected” on team mate Lando Norris’ car.
Most struggled for grip across Friday’s pair of practice sessions around the resurfaced and dusty Hungaroring track, leading to various lock-ups, wide moments and a crash for Alpine’s Franco Colapinto. The Australian jumped into the cockpit in FP2 and wound up eighth fastest, having sat out FP1 and not running the full upgrade. While Norris was third, three and a half tenths behind the Ferrari’s
Piastri said: “Very, very challenging, for sure. I think the track conditions are pretty challenging out there – it’s very windy. It’s just a very challenging circuit at the moment, and obviously missing a practice session has made it pretty tough.”
Pushed on McLaren’s upgrades, Piastri added, “I didn’t have them today. I think on Lando’s car they’ve been working as expected, which is good. I don’t think they’ve completely changed the car, which obviously we weren’t expecting, but would have been nice.” The team says that the upgrades delivered as expected as they are seeking to close the gap to the front.
There was certainly a lot up for grabs as Norris went on to take pole by just over a hundredth of a second as he beat Lewis Hamilton on the final runs in Q3 despite it being “not the best” lap. Hamilton had held provisional pole before being pipped by Norris by just over a hundredth to take his first pole of the season.
He said, “I’m very, very happy – very happy to be back on top. A tough, tough Quali. Obviously these guys here [the Ferrari drivers] were very quick. It’s been pretty tight the whole weekend.”
“We’ve seemed quick from the first laps that we did. We brought a few upgrades, and it’s hard to know how much it helps in terms of lap time, but it certainly helped today. I’m very, very happy to be back on top, especially at a track where you want to be on pole.”
Pushed on how the pole shootout unfolded, he added: “Honestly, I had confidence the whole of today. My laps in Q3 were not the best, even the one at the end, so I’m pleasantly surprised to be on top.” I think that was a champion’s drive to pip a seven-time champion as McLaren have brought themselves back to the front a lot quicker than I thought after Suzuka. But I think they could struggle to keep Ferrari behind even as Hamilton started out of position.
Though Norris went on to take his first win of the season by fifteen seconds, he was annoyed not being able to undercut Piastri at the second round of stops. For much of that race, he had more pace before his teammate retired and was denied his request to be allowed to overtake his teammate.
He would eventually find his way past in the stops regardless, putting in a series of rapid laps after Piastri pitted, with the Australian crucially hampered by backmarker Carlos Sainz, who was busy racing Fernando Alonso, who collided with the McLaren driver while being lapped. Norris told reporters, “just want to win the race,” said Norris. “There are certain rules we have as a team. We can’t harm each other’s race by being overly aggressive and wanting to win. But I want to win, and I certainly had much, much better pace than him.”
“We had a much better chance of winning the race, let’s say. So, when I was stuck behind Oscar, Max [Verstappen] was three-four seconds behind, and at that point, he’s still a threat. [If I was] ahead, there’s no threat, and we have a lot more of a guarantee that we’ll win as a team anyway.”
I think they were in a difficult position, and while Norris was faster, the team don’t tend to swap positions unless there is a good reason, i.e., a championship on the line or the team has made a mistake in strategy.
Following his collision with Sainz, Piastri accused the Spaniard of lacking awareness following an “unacceptable” collision. Piastri was trying to weave his way through lapped traffic following his second pit stop when he dramatically made contact with Sainz.
The Williams driver was seemingly unaware of Piastri and edged into the side of the McLaren at Turn 3. While Piastri did not pick up damage, the incident cost him vital time to Norris in their fight for the lead. Its since emerged that another system failure was behind it with several drivers ignoring blue flags in the race. But Piastri did not see that as an excuse, telling Sainz to “look in the mirror”.
He said, “I knew there were blue flag [issues], but there were blue flags on all the marshal signals. I was right behind him. I couldn’t believe what happened. Getting crashed into by a lapped car is never one of the things you expect that can go wrong in your race. I don’t really care if he didn’t see me. The fact that he didn’t and no one told him or there was a lack of complete awareness, is unacceptable.”
Sainz, meanwhile, insisted it was “impossible” to avoid Piastri. The Spaniard said “At this stage I had no idea I was about to get lapped. On top of that, I was in a big fight with Fernando, trying to undercut him into the corner, and I would have expected Oscar to have been there.”
Mercedes
CEO and team principal Toto Wolff says the team might enforce team orders if the team risks losing victory due to their wheel-to-wheel action. Speaking between Spa and Budapest, asked in a media briefing whether it was time to “ring-fence” Antonelli as the team’s lead driver and ask Russell to make way for his team-mate when he’s ahead.
Wolff unsurprisingly declined to make Russell a number-two driver at such an early stage in the season, as the season reached the halfway point this weekend, especially with the Briton’s title chances very much alive. But warned they could not allow a Barcelona situation to happen again.
He said, “The kind of mission that we set for today is that we are not going to lose time with each other. We don’t want any yo-yoing and then have a Ferrari or a Red Bull breathing down our neck and losing a victory, as it happened in Barcelona. You know, without the DNF, Kimi would have won the race.”
“Since Barcelona, we would in any case always give preference to the race victory. And if it meant that Kimi or George were ahead, this is what we would do.” Wolff added that at this stage of the season they wouldn’t take victories away from a driver based on championship position.
Russell previously insisted he and Antonelli could be trusted to go wheel to wheel without colliding, following their Montreal fight, but subsequently changed his stance due to their Catalan setback. We saw the risks of them fighting in Montreal, and recent reliability setbacks have put them under pressure from Ferrari.
George Russell will have to wait until the Italian Grand Prix to find out whether Mercedes has truly identified the cause of the anomalies that hampered him between Silverstone and Spa, as the team identifies the source of his power unit issue within its software.
At the last two races, the Englishman has repeatedly complained about a lack of performance on the straights, a feeling that was also confirmed by telemetry comparisons with teammate Kimi Antonelli’s car. But the initial investigation quickly ruled out both a loss of power from the power unit and any deficit in top speed.
Further details emerged on Saturday with deputy technical director Simone Resta said Russell’s recent woes as the team identifying a software issue compounded by the Briton’s older power unit.
He added, “As we all know, it’s a very complex new set of regulations with the power unit. It’s quite early days. We’ve just done ten races so far, and there is a lot to learn. We are still learning a lot together, ourselves and our colleagues at HPP. We found a bug in our software, and we had to react to it.”
“There was already something there at Silverstone, but the issue was more evident at Spa, which is one of the tracks with the highest lap time for power delta. We think we’ve finally understood it and nailed it coming into Budapest.” This suggests to me as the power unit ages, there is an issue which develops, as we see with our computers, which slow down and crash more as they age. Software is now as important as hardware.
During Friday practice, both Mercedes struggled with a lack of grip as many driver complained about bumps and a poor-quality surface, even though parts of the track have been recently re-laid. Russell finished FP2 fifth, nearly a second off the pace with Antonelli a further second off in thirteenth.
Russell said, “It was quite a strange day out there, I think, for everybody. Budapest is an amazing track to drive but they’ve resurfaced half of the track, super bumpy, a lot of it is breaking up around the last couple of corners, which is making it quite strange to drive on. Our single lap [pace] didn’t look great; the long run looked more competitive. But what we essentially feared with Ferrari seemed to be the case.”
As we know, the circuit is largely about slow and medium corners where Ferrari are stronger, but strangely their wins have been at high-speed and downforce circuits, tracks considered less favourable to the Scuderia’s technical package.
The Hungaroring is a tricky track to read, since it is used less often than some other circuits on the F1 calendar so the surface tends to be dusty and ‘green’ at the beginning of the weekend, evolving quickly through practice. Getting the balance right can be difficult here because of reasons above.
Antonelli was given a three-place grid penalty, meaning he started seventh for failing to slow sufficiently for yellow flags brought out when Red Bull’s Max Verstappen spun in Q3. The stewards decided he had “insufficient and unsustained” attempt to lower his speed and was slapped with a three-place grid drop, as well as being issued with a penalty point on his licence.
After reviewing all available evidence and reaching their decision, the stewards’ document explained: “The driver of Car 12 (Antonelli) stated that on seeing the yellow flag and light panel, he lifted off the throttle earlier than his previous push lap. This was verified by the telemetry.
“However, the reduction in speed occurred for a very short period, and in fact the car’s speed when passing the scene of the incident involving Car 3 (Verstappen) was slightly higher than that on the previous push lap.”
“The mini sector time was only 0.03 seconds slower than his best time for that mini sector, and whilst, because he had lifted 16 metres earlier, he was 14 km/h slower entering the yellow flag sector, [he] was 3 km/h faster when passing the incident site due to less application of the brakes entering the corner.”
Antonelli told Sky Sports, “Looking at the lap, I got a gust of tail wind at Turn 9, lost a tenth there and at the last corner, from the previous lap, there was a good tenth-and-a-half because the lap before I didn’t maximise the grip.”
“The yellow flag came while I was entering the corner, so I tried my best to lift. I did lift but gave up quite a bit of minimum speed compared to before. It was a shame. P3 would have been for sure but I don’t think pole position. I would have been very close, probably half a tenth to Lando but still not good enough for pole.”
The championship leader went on to finish the race third after a “tough” race. As we know, Budapest often throws in a curveball, and Mercedes never to me appeared, looking back over the whole weekend, able to fight; he was further back, they also made mistakes by trying a one-stop, and then Antonelli couldn’t match Norris.
He then came back into podium contention when other teams risked a stop under Virtual Safety Car conditions, allowing him to improve to P3 and cling on ahead of Lewis Hamilton, whose challenge was neutralised by a time penalty for speeding in the pit lane.
Antonelli explained, “It was a tough race. it was really hard to overtake, so we had to do something with strategy. Initially we tried to go for the one-stop, but then [the team] told me that the tyre was too much on the limit, so we stopped.”
“Then we had a Virtual Safety Car and the two Ferraris boxed. I knew it would have been very hard because I was on hards, they were on softs. Luckily, we managed to keep them behind.”
Mercedes has had a tough two months throwing what appeared to be an easy championship away and we even saw more PU issues at the start when Russell stalled on the grid before recovering to finish seventh.
Red Bull
Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies has suggested they are getting calls from “good drivers” about potential future seats at the team but believes they will make the further pace improvements required to ensure Max Verstappen stays.
The Dutchman has a contract with Red Bull until the end of 2028, but there are performance clauses that would allow him to leave at the end of this year. He is thought to have until October to inform the team should he wish to activate a break in the deal.
It was reported in June that his management had talked with McLaren, though CEO Zak Brown has subsequently made clear that “I’ve got my two drivers” in Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Mercedes and Ferrari’s drivers are also under contract, seemingly limiting Verstappen’s short-term options beyond Red Bull, should he first choose to stay in F1, into 2027.
Asked by Sky Sports whether his team, in turn, had also received enquiries from drivers elsewhere on the grid, Mekies replied, “It’s working in both directions. It’s completely natural, and I think that’s what you guys were reporting before. It’s completely natural Max gets called from everyone because he’s the best driver in the world and, equally, if you are a top team, you are going to get calls from many of these good drivers around as well. That’s natural.”
Isack Hadjar has admitted that Red Bull have plenty of catching up to do to challenge Ferrari, saying his Friday “got worse” as it went on. Despite all drivers struggling nevertheless got off to a strong start by setting the fourth fastest time in FP1, albeit nine tenths off Charles Leclerc’s benchmark. While in FP2 he slipped to sixth but the gap increased by three tenths.
He said “Very tricky FP2. I thought FP1 was tough enough – it got worse in FP2 [with the] wind. It’s hard to get a proper read with the changes we made. As soon as I’m in the car, it’s working okay. It’s just that the Ferraris are always stronger. We’ve got to find quite a bit of lap time tonight. Our long run seemed pretty good, but that one-lap pace is lacking.”
But Hadjar admitted, like many they had expected Ferrari to be strong at this circuit, warning that they were waiting for Mercedes to “wake up.”
Another weekend, another disgruntled Verstappen, after qualifying sixth the Dutchman claimed his Red Bull ‘was degrading’ across a qualifying lap in Hungary more than his tyres, explaining his late-session spin in qualifying.
Verstappen has been vocal in his dislike of the current regulations. While the gearbox rarely goes a session without being complained about, the Dutchman has also highlighted wider problems with the car. The spin during the final runs in Q3 left him sixth two tenths behind Oscar Piastri.
After qualifying Verstappen again took aim at his car. he said, “The weekend in general has been difficult, but when, instead of the tyres degrading, your car is degrading, then you have a big problem.”
“The car just kept getting worse and worse, lap after lap. So the more laps I did, it was just more and more difficult to put a lap together. But tomorrow as well, we have to fix that because the car is undriveable like this. As you can see, in the final corner, I mean, just turn in, the car is like non-existent in the rear. So, it’s really crazy.”
Asked if he has suffered anything like it this season, Verstappen added: “We’ve seen a few [things], but let’s see where it’s coming from now. Because I always feel like it’s always like a different problem, and that’s why it’s also harder to actually control.”
Red Bull reverted to a regular rear wing last weekend after Verstappen branded the ‘Macarena wing’ “super-dangerous” following crashes in Austria and Silverstone. but the Dutchman would not be drawn into a snap judgement as to whether it played a factor in his off.
After a downbeat highly critical weekend, Verstappen went onto finish the race second, fifteen seconds behind race winner Lando Norris. The Dutchman gained two positions on the grid after Lewis Hamilton and Antonelli were penalised for separate rule breaches, and then jumped to third on the opening lap, ahead of Charles Leclerc.
Verstappen expertly defended from the Ferraris across the opening stint, despite complaining of various issues with his car, and after falling behind Hamilton at the first round of stops, he immediately fought back with a late move under braking at Turn One. I think that was a decent drive and suggests the Red Bull may be better in race trim, and watching that race you could see him part of the mix as well as getting a bit of luck.
Asked if a podium, and second place, was beyond what he and Red Bull were expecting after Qualifying, Verstappen said: “Yeah, for sure. I didn’t expect to be on the podium today, but we worked hard for it.”
“I think the start was decent to get through at Turn 1 and 2, then after the first stop to get back ahead of Lewis under braking into Turn 1. Then it was just trying to survive on the [tyre] compounds, trying to make the right calls with strategy as well. I’m very happy to be second here, considering [everything].”
Verstappen also shared some more thoughts around his decisive overtake on Hamilton early in the race, when both drivers were bedding in sets of hard tyres. ,” he explained, “I saw the opportunity as my only one and I just went for it. “We’re good on the brakes, so that helped! It was all under control.”
Ferrari
Lewis Hamilton went into the weekend saying Ferrari must “come and fight for the win” at this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix while McLaren team principal Andrea Stella expected the Scuderia to be “extremely competitive”. Since the return to Europe, Mercedes have won four races and Ferrari the other two.
Ferrari being closer than expected at Spa should bode well for the Hungaroring, as it has lots of corners and that should play into Ferrari’s hands. Stella told Sky Sports, “I think in Hungary, the Netherlands we will see the Ferrari being back to probably being the fastest car we see in the corners there. Extremely competitive F1.”
Hamilton has a record eight wins at the Hungaroring but five-second time penalties at the last two races mean he has not challenged for victory since his triumph in Barcelona last month.
He said, “I’m hoping we can be [competitive]. I need to come correct this week and make sure I deliver the way I know I can deliver in Budapest. We have to come and fight for that win.”
Ferrari were the favourites this weekend as cornering and slow-speed corners are more important compared to the last two rounds, meaning the lack of energy deployment which were key in Silverstone. Coupled with his record here, he is seen as one of the biggest threats to Mercedes this weekend.
They also brought a upgraded version of its Macarena rear wing design to this weekend, with extra aerodynamic elements in the defined legality box where its rear wing actuator usually sits. This basically replaces the rear wing actuators with a cluster of tiny aerodynamic winglets.
Hamilton to suggest that Ferrari had missed a trick by not introducing the extra winglets intended to increase downforce. Saying “I think when we arrived on Thursday we saw other people, those guys with trick additions to their wing, we didn’t have that, which was a little bit of a surprise.”
Though Hamilton qualified second, he also was given a three-place grid penalty for impeding Oscar Piastri during Q3. The Ferrari driver had just missed out on pole just a hundredth but was under investigation for the incident where he was slow on the racing line as the McLaren started his lap, resulting in Piastri only going fifth.
The stewards judged Hamilton to have been guilty of impeding Piastri, and subsequently issued the Ferrari driver with a three-place grid drop. They ruled ultimately “Having examined the available evidence, the Stewards determined that (Hamilton) unnecessarily impeded (Piastri) during qualifying.”
“In accordance with the FIA F1 Regulations and the established penalty guidelines for this type of infringement in Qualifying, the Stewards impose a three-place grid penalty on (Hamilton).”
Hamilton said in the post-qualifying press conference, “I was told literally when he [Piastri] was at the apex behind me, I had no idea he was coming. I thought everyone came out behind me, I was the first out, so I thought everyone had finished their lap. I think Charles was the car that was behind me when I left the pit lane, as far as I was aware. So, crazy, because it had been clean [prior to that] and obviously it wasn’t intentional.”
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur admitted the Italian outfit failed to give Hamilton the information he needed quickly enough. Vasseur told Sky Sports, “I will let the stewards decide, but we told him far too late and if there’s a mistake it’s our mistake.” Hamilton started fourth here in 2009, going on to win by eleven seconds.
Well, that hope on Thursday was just hope, after a catalogue of mistakes, penalties and setbacks with Hamilton finishing fifth, twenty-four and a half seconds behind winner Norris. Hamilton was fighting for the podium before overtaking Kimi Antonelli under the VSC and had to give the place back.
That was followed by a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane, and with his teammate Charles Leclerc closing the gap on the final laps, Hamilton dropped to P5 at the chequered flag. Watching that race and the fight with Leclerc, I was slightly surprised given they were both comfortably clear of Isack Hadjar why Leclerc wasn’t told to drop back.
He said, “Obviously frustrated, disappointed to come away with so little, given the car was good. The team did a great job, but ultimately these last few races have been costly with mistakes from myself.”
Elaborating on how he views the first half of the season, he added: “It’s been OK. It’s not been perfect from my side, so I’ve really got to work hard to try to figure out how I can do better in the second half.”
Leclerc was similarly downbeat as Ferrari failed to capitalise on their early promise at the Hungaroring, with the Monegasque missing out on a third consecutive podium despite starting on the front row.
Williams
Carlos Sainz has called on Williams to be inspired by Aston Martin’s turnaround in qualifying, as it highlights what’s possible for his struggling team. Sainz and his Williams teammate Alex Albon were both knocked out, marking the fifth consecutive Q1 session where at least one car has been knocked out.
Sainz has urged Williams to take note ahead of planned updates for Baku in September, which team boss James Vowles previously claimed would be “almost an entirely new car”.
Sainz told Motorsport.com “As a team, we need to see it in a positive manner, and I want everyone to be positive about it rather than scared. If anything, for me it just proves that when you understand what your limitations are and you see another Formula 1 team with similar facilities to you, having such a big turnaround and adding so many points of downforce to the car within six months, the courage is there for us to prove to them and ourselves that we can do the same.”
“And if we’re not doing the same, why? Why don’t we have that capacity? So for me what is important moving forward is to show that we can also have the capacity to do a turnaround like another midfield team just did in front of us.” I wonder if this is the continuing impact of the production delays earlier in the year, and this might be trying to motivate the team going into the break and ahead of the “almost an entirely new car,” in Baku.
Sainz thinks “we still need to see” how much of an impact the upgrades in Azerbaijan will have, which Williams hopes will tackle its FW48’s weight problem and general car performance.
Racing Bulls
Following last weekend’s race, Racing Bulls team-mates Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad were spotted returning home on an easyJet flight. Normally, drivers travel by luxury jet, but the two opted for a more budget-friendly option aboard a passenger flight with Europe’s second-largest budget airline.
Lawson shared a selfie alongside his rookie team-mate on his Instagram Story, with the simple caption, “Shoutout easyJet”, and the moment quickly gained traction on social media.
“Oh man, what are the odds of meeting two F1 drivers on a commercial flight?” one fan commented on Reddit, while another added: “I’m all for more of this. Good on both these boys.”
Lindblad said there’s no reason to fly differently just because he’s now racing in F1. Asked about the flight, he said “It was good. I’ve not got much money, so I’m still going on the normal commercial flights. But there’s nothing wrong with that. I’ve done that [for] everything up until now. There’s no reason why that … If I can save a bit of money, I might as well save some money, even if I have more now. So, I’m very happy going on EasyJet.”
“The team likes to put us near each other. I mean, one’s not going to be in row one, the other in row 27; that’s a bit rude. We were meant to be 3D and 3F. And the woman was very upset when I said I was in the aisle. And I was just like, ‘If you want to stay there, I can go in E.’ So yeah, me and Liam were sitting next to each other.”
Lawson was asked if the woman on the aisle had recognised him when he took his seat. Adding, “If she did, she didn’t like me.”
EasyJet was made famous by the 1990s and-2000s ITV reality fly-on-the-wall series Airline, its charismatic owner Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, as well as staff and stars Jane Boulton, Katrina Leeder, Leo Jones and Leanne Cheung.
Aston Martin
Fernando Alonso says that his future will not depend upon Aston Martin’s performance over the remainder of 2026, but whether he can enjoy driving the current hybrid cars. Aston Martin’s struggles this season, coupled with the Spaniards contract ending at the end of the year.
The team goes into this weekend hoping a major upgrade convinces him to say, having made a disastrous start to the new regulation cycle with an overweight and unreliable package. Next weekend marks his forty-fifth birthday, with a key factor in his future being whether the cars are more enjoyable to drive.
Asked how crucial Aston’s B-spec car would be for his future in F1, Alonso replied: “Nothing, because my decision is not about the performance of this year. This year we started on the wrong foot and I cannot base my decision for next year on a performance that is not realistic.”
“I think this is not the true potential of the team. I think it’s much higher than what we see. I think my decision for next year is more about the rules. Driving these cars in places like Spa today or Silverstone in the last race is not what I’m dreaming of for my future. So, we’ll see.”
Alonso admitted that he had hoped Aston Martin would hit the ground running in 2026, but we know the ingredients the team has put together has not come together like they wanted them to enabling to be near the front. He accepted that they haven’t met their high expectations for this season.
Aston Martin has denied that its highly anticipated upgrade for this weekend is “make or break” for its season, while it’s also seen as a key factor in Fernando Alonso’s future, though the two-time champion denied that earlier this week.
The team are hoping to bring the B-spec car to the final race before the F1 summer break in Budapest in the hope of elevating itself from the back of the grid after a difficult first half of the season. They’ve described the update package as a “significant aerodynamic upgrade”. Both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll will have the same spec as the team looks to bounce back after falling well below expectations this season.
Despite that, Aston Martin has moved to downplay expectations in Hungary, with trackside chief Mike Krack stressing it is simply “one step” in the right direction. Speaking to the media, Krack said, “It will not be a make-or-break. I think we are all realistic. We had a plan and we worked to that plan, and success and setbacks are part of sport.”
Following Friday’s practice, Alonso said the performance of his Aston Martin was “much better” as the team debuted a huge upgrade. However, it was a mixed day for the team as the left-rear suspension on Lance Stroll’s car failed during FP1 and ruled him out of the second session, but Alonso was left reasonably satisfied after managing a relatively normal day of running.
Alonso said on Friday evening, “It was much better. The car felt more glued to the ground and easier to drive, to an extent, when you are in control of the grip in the corners. A more predictable and easier car, but still a long way to go for us. Obviously, this is only the first step.”
“We need to find more performance both on the chassis not but also on the engine. Zandvoort will be a good test for us with the new engine. It looks better, for sure, and it’s more or less what we expected.”
“This is the most encouraging thing, that what we thought the new package would do the car actually translated into reality on track. That kind of correlation is what we need also for next year’s project, so I think there is a positive atmosphere in the team now.” I think it was an encouraging step forward, though they were still near the bottom of the times, and Alonso lost his fastest time for breaching track limits.
Haas
Following his exit in Q1, Ollie Bearman has said Haas “shouldn’t be fighting with” Aston Martin. The team struggled this weekend with the inconsistency of the car, and Bearman was out-qualified by Esteban Ocon by two and a quarter tenths as Fernando Alonso got Aston Martin through to Q2 for the first time this season.
Bearman said, “We only have three (sets of new tyres), so we didn’t really have much other choice. But it gives us another race set for tomorrow, so that should hopefully put us in a good window. But yeah, it’s been a tough weekend so far. The Astons did three sets, and that definitely helps them, but we shouldn’t be fighting with them.”
Aston, I think, benefited from two things: the aero upgrade and the circuit not being power sensitive, as we know the power unit upgrade isn’t coming until the next race in Zandvoort. Bearman also was on the back foot, having missed FP1; reserve driver Ryo Hirakawa took over his car in the opening practice session to satisfy the regulations’ rookie requirements.
He added, “It shows that we’re really fighting and struggling at the moment. But, at the same time, it’s probably the track that’s used the most with the shortest straights. So I don’t think it will remain like that, let’s say, forever. But still, it’s a reminder for us that we need to up our game.”
Results Summary
Pole Position |
Lando Norris
McLaren – Mercedes 01:17.207 |
|||||
Podium |
||||||
Po |
Name |
Nat |
Team |
Time |
Points |
|
| 1 | Lando Norris | GBR | McLaren – Mercedes | 01:39:56.180 | 25 | |
| 2 | Max Verstappen | NED | Red Bull – Ford RBPT | +00:15.080 | 18 | |
| 3 | Andrea ‘Kimi’ Antonelli | ITA | Mercedes | +00:16.728 | 15 | |
| Fastest
Lap |
Charles Leclerc | MON | Ferrari | 01:22.000 | ||
Championship Standings
Drivers’ Championship |
Constructors Championship |
|||
Po |
Name |
Points |
Constructor |
Points |
| 1 | Andrea ‘Kimi’ Antonelli | 219 | Mercedes | 379 |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | 169 | Ferrari | 307 |
| 3 | George Russell | 160 | McLaren – Mercedes | 220 |
| 4 | Charles Leclerc | 138 | Red Bull – Ford RBPT | 177 |
| 5 | Lando Norris | 129 | Racing Bulls – Ford RBPT | 66 |
