The 2026 Formula 1 season continues to generate unpredictable results, and judging form on a race-by-race basis is far from straightforward. In Hungary, Ferrari showed just how quickly things can change from one day to the next.
A solid practice and qualifying saw the Italian team targeting victory — only to end Sunday afternoon with just a P4 and P5 for Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton. In the wake of wins in Barcelona and Silverstone, the Hungaroring and its tight and twisty nature appeared to be an even better bet for the Maranello team. The red cars duly topped the times on Friday; the following day, Hamilton lost pole to Lando Norris by just 0.012 seconds, but McLaren boss Andrea Stella remained adamant on Saturday evening that the SF-26 was the best car over a lap.
Things started to go wrong when Hamilton lost his second-place spot on the grid for impeding Oscar Piastri at the end of Q3, dropping him back to P5. The upside for Ferrari was that it promoted teammate Leclerc to the front row in his place, with a shot at victory if he could beat Norris away. But it all went south for Leclerc on the first lap, as he was passed by Piastri, Max Verstappen, and Hamilton, dropping back to fifth.
Thereafter, it was a struggle for both Ferrari drivers. Hamilton got ahead of Verstappen at the first stops, only to soon be passed by the Dutch driver on the track. Later, he picked up a five-second penalty for the most marginal pit speeding offense. The Ferrari drivers finally crossed the line in fourth and fifth with Hamilton ahead, the potential of the car having somehow drifted away over the course of the afternoon. A late extra stop for soft tires under a virtual safety car didn’t really help, either.
Hamilton’s speeding penalty put Leclerc ahead in the final classification, but the latter wasn’t happy. “It’s a disappointing weekend,” Leclerc said when asked by Road & Track for his verdict. “And I think the thing that is standing out for me is that, out of the last three races, there were two races where we were expecting to struggle, and we finished first and second. And in the race where we expected to do well, we finished fourth and fifth.”
That has given Leclerc food for thought on form. “It’s not that one car is doing well, because he’s doing exceptionally in the car, but both cars seem to have that tendency of being good in the weekends where we expected to struggle, and struggling in the weekend where we thought we would be good. So, this is to be understood. It’s also true that, with a good start today, things could have looked very differently — because on a track like this, there’s not much overtaking.”
Leclerc also admitted that a stronger first lap would have led to a better result, but he didn’t think the pace was there to actually win. “We’ve paid the price a lot today with the start,” he said. “However, we weren’t particularly stellar at any point of the race. I mean, the first stint on hard [tires] wasn’t bad, the last stint on soft was pretty good … but there were too many ups and downs, and I think that’s really where we need to work is try and find that consistency with this car. Because it’s just been very, very tricky on some stints for Lewis, and some other stints with me. And it’s just a little bit strange how uncorrelated everything is.”
If Leclerc was disappointed with P4, Hamilton could barely contain his frustration over how his day had turned out. Being passed by Verstappen, picking up a fourth penalty in three weekends, and then what he saw as an unnecessary extra stop all added up to a wasted opportunity. “I had a good start, a relatively decent start,” he said when asked by Road & Track about his afternoon. “Gained position, and had really good pace in that first stint of the race. Just … you can’t overtake here, unfortunately. Then undercut Max — which is a positive — when we were passing one of the backmarkers, I think it was. I didn’t see Max coming, unfortunately. Max came past me, and that kind of went downhill from there. It was pretty bad, pretty frustrating.”
He made it clear that he wasn’t happy about being called in for an extra late stop, which he felt had cost him P2 or P3. “Not really sure why we stopped at the end,” he said. “I got the call right before the pit lane entry, so I didn’t have time to debate it. I would never have stopped if it meant that I was giving up track position, so I thought that that would not be the case.”
“I think we executed pretty decently [on Saturday],” said Hamilton. “I definitely think I had the pace probably to compete at least for the top two, top three. I think if we hadn’t had the penalty yesterday, we probably would have been in a much better position at the end. But you know, not meant to be.”
Despite a few frustrations, especially in relation to his run of penalties, Hamilton is in a much better place than this time last year. He remains in the title fight, but it will take a quicker car — and no fumbles by team or driver — to keep the Mercedes drivers on their toes.
“It has been an amazing first half,” said Hamilton, “given we’ve been probably like three- or four-tenths down on the straights in pace and power for the first half of the season. I know the guys are pushing hard to bring upgrades for that. We’ve been bringing [aero] upgrades — weekend in, weekend out. We’ve got hopefully more to come in the second half, and we just keep on pushing. I think the second half will be stronger; usually the second half is a stronger period for me. I’ll really take this time to reset and try and come back stronger, fitter, and better mentally prepared.”
