McLaren’s Hungary Victory Reignites F1 2026 Contention Hopes

With Mercedes’ early-season dominance now a distant memory, the 2026 Formula 1 season has finally become the development battleground it promised to be. Teams are constantly introducing significant aerodynamic upgrades that shift the pecking order on a weekly basis.

Following major upgrades from Red Bull and especially Ferrari in recent weeks, McLaren debuted a new floor component ahead of the Hungaroring – a major aero piece particularly potent at a high-downforce circuit of that nature. It enabled Lando Norris to claim McLaren’s first victory of the campaign from pole, though the reigning world champion’s win was far from straightforward. Once free air opened up, Norris was clearly unmatched, and by all accounts the team should have scored a 1-2 finish with Oscar Piastri as well.

Does McLaren’s Hungary triumph thus provide enough evidence to suggest the defending champions are truly back?

While Norris delivered an excellent second qualifying session to improve on a shaky first lap – during which he battled a huge slide out of the final corner – he secured pole by a mere 0.012 seconds over Lewis Hamilton. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, among several other drivers, struggled to find time on the final attempt.

Lando Norris, McLaren

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images

Between a grid penalty for impeding Piastri and a series of further errors from Ferrari on Sunday, it is clear the Scuderia underperformed and did not execute to its full potential. With track position being so crucial in Budapest, a Hamilton or Leclerc pole could have painted a very different picture.

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur acknowledged the team’s raw pace, stating that their performance was likely better than at Spa or Silverstone, despite failing to convert. “We were leading in FP1 and FP2 and were capable of fighting for pole with Lewis,” he said. “We lost by 0.01 seconds, and the execution on Sunday was simply very poor.”

Mercedes also endured a far from clean weekend, compounded by a wrong setup direction chosen on Friday that they had to claw their way back from. Nonetheless, championship leader Kimi Antonelli’s W17 showed strong long-run pace, and George Russell’s impressive recovery through the field after a botched start demonstrated the Silver Arrow’s underlying speed. Antonelli lost out under the virtual safety car due to Piastri’s stricken McLaren.

“If you would have told me before the race that we could get a podium with Kimi, I would have taken it immediately,” added team principal Toto Wolff. “But looking back, the prevailing feeling is that we should have done better.”

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, Isack Hadjar, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella was well aware that while his team deserved the rewards of their hard work in implementing the floor upgrade before the summer break, they may have overachieved in Hungary as rivals stumbled around them.

“I think Ferrari still has the best chassis in terms of grip in the corners, particularly in braking,” Stella said on Saturday after qualifying. “Pole position was a little overachievement thanks to execution and maximising the available potential.”

After Sunday’s race, Stella added further context. “At first glance, it seems McLaren had a pace advantage, especially once Lando took the lead. However, that depended heavily on which tyres you were on and how old they were. I don’t want to draw conclusions too quickly, but it appears we had a slight advantage in the race compared to qualifying. In qualifying, it was essentially a 12-margin difference, and the Ferraris didn’t attempt the second run in Q3. Not even Oscar did.”

So while there is no need to overreact to McLaren’s first win of 2026, the papaya squad at least has the tools to sit in the mix with Mercedes and Ferrari. The good news for neutrals is that rather than one team running away with things, the gaps remain small enough for track-specific strengths, weather conditions, and execution to swing the pendulum either way.

However, alongside the reliability issues that have plagued both McLaren and Mercedes, the biggest unknown factor is exactly how much more performance teams can still extract from the cars. There will likely be significant upgrade packages across the board at Zandvoort and Monza after the summer break, upgrades already well in the pipeline while teams simultaneously switch their focus to 2027. Rather than taking Hungary as a definitive snapshot of the order, the 2026 season will continue to be decided by the raging development war back at the factories.

“Honestly, I still believe that if we want to be in a position to fight for victories consistently in the future, we need to keep our focus on delivering more upgrades,” Stella acknowledged.

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