Every mistake that left Ferrari outside the Hungaroring podium. How Ferrari’s Hungarian GP errors turned victory pace into P4 and P5.

Ferrari turned potential Hungarian Grand Prix victory pace into fourth and fifth places after a succession of qualifying errors, questionable strategy calls and penalties involving Lewis Hamilton. The SF-26 had looked capable of fighting for the win during Friday’s long runs, but almost everything that could go wrong from Q3 onwards ultimately did.

The ingredients had appeared ideal. The Hungaroring is suitably twisty, while battery deployment is not as decisive there as it is at other circuits. Ferrari also had a car with an exceptionally strong chassis and had shown enough pace over longer runs to target victory, explaining why the team remained confident about its Hungarian GP race performance before Sunday.

Ferrari’s Hungarian GP errors began in Q3

The problems started during the decisive qualifying session. Lewis Hamilton, who was leading at that point, was sent out first for the second Q3 runs. The decision left the British driver questioning Ferrari’s qualifying strategy after he missed pole position.

Ferrari then failed to warn Lewis Hamilton that Oscar Piastri was approaching. The resulting impeding incident earned the seven-time world champion a three-place grid penalty, with Frédéric Vasseur later acknowledging that the warning had reached Lewis Hamilton too late.

Soft-tyre gamble and pit-stop timing hurt Ferrari

The mistakes continued on race day. Ferrari chose to start both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc on Soft tyres, making the Scuderia the only leading team to select that compound for both cars.

Lewis Hamilton successfully used the undercut to move ahead of Max Verstappen during the opening pit-stop phase. However, the Ferrari driver was then caught napping and allowed Max Verstappen to regain the position with an overtake that made Lewis Hamilton look like a rookie.

The timing of Lewis Hamilton’s first two pit stops was also imperfect. On both occasions, Ferrari sent him back onto the circuit directly behind another rival, forcing him to lose additional time completing an overtake before he could resume his own race.

Late Virtual Safety Car compounds Ferrari nightmare

The final questionable call came during the late Virtual Safety Car period. Ferrari brought Lewis Hamilton into the pits while he was running second, raising the question of whether stopping him at that moment was the correct decision.

The outcome was made even worse by a combination of two further setbacks. Lewis Hamilton had to return a position to Andrea Kimi Antonelli and then received a five-second penalty for exceeding the pit-lane speed limit.

Shake all those ingredients together and the result is fourth and fifth at the chequered flag, after Ferrari managed to mishandle practically everything that could be mishandled. It was an instruction manual for a nightmare execution, written and signed by the Ferrari team.