Frédéric Vasseur believes Ferrari remain firmly focused on the Constructors’ Championship after gaining one point on Mercedes at the 2026 Hungarian Grand Prix. However, the team principal admitted that the Scuderia should have achieved far more from a weekend that initially appeared highly favourable.
Ferrari arrived at the Hungaroring expecting the circuit to suit the SF-26, and Friday practice appeared to confirm that assessment. Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc opened the Budapest weekend with a Ferrari one-two, creating hopes of a significantly stronger result on Sunday. Despite the team’s promising pace, neither driver ultimately reached the podium.
Ferrari waste a promising Hungarian GP opportunity
Ferrari’s weekend began to unravel from Q3 onwards. A series of mistakes involving the pit wall and Lewis Hamilton compromised the seven-time world champion, who eventually finished fifth despite Oscar Piastri’s retirement and George Russell being effectively removed from the top-five battle by a particularly poor start.
Hamilton had already questioned Ferrari’s qualifying strategy after missing pole position by only 0.012 seconds. His subsequent grid penalty meant that he started fifth rather than alongside Lando Norris on the front row.
Charles Leclerc did begin the race from the front row, as shown by the official Hungarian Grand Prix starting grid, but fell to fifth by the end of the opening lap. He recovered only one position in the final classification, benefiting from the five-second penalty handed to Lewis Hamilton for speeding in the pit lane.
Frédéric Vasseur assesses Ferrari’s constructors’ title fight
Despite the disappointment, Ferrari still managed to reduce Mercedes’ advantage by one point in the Constructors’ Championship. Frédéric Vasseur acknowledged that the outcome was not disastrous from a championship perspective, but he struggled to overlook how many more points had been available to the Maranello team.
“Today, for the championship, it isn’t a disaster,” the Ferrari team principal told Sky. “We still scored more points than Mercedes and practically the same number of points as McLaren, but today we could have done much more, and that’s a shame.”
The result was particularly frustrating because Ferrari had entered the race with genuine confidence in its long-run performance. The team believed its tyre management and low-speed traction could be valuable strengths, explaining why Ferrari remained confident about its Hungarian GP race pace even after a complicated qualifying session.
Instead, a weekend that began with Ferrari setting the benchmark ended without a podium. Although the Scuderia made a small gain on Mercedes and kept pace with McLaren in terms of points scored, Frédéric Vasseur was left reflecting on a major opportunity to make considerably greater progress in the Constructors’ Championship.
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