Ferrari’s Hungarian GP errors transformed the race-winning potential of the SF-26 into a deeply disappointing fourth and fifth place for Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton. A difficult start, the pass executed by Max Verstappen and a strategy increasingly dictated by circumstances combined to cost Ferrari one of their clearest opportunities for victory this season.
After securing two victories that, on paper, had appeared beyond their reach, Ferrari let a race slip away that they arguably should have won. It had already happened in Monte Carlo, where the circuit’s technical characteristics appeared ideally suited to the SF-26, and history repeated itself at the Hungaroring — a venue often described as “Monaco without the walls”. The final outcome was a painful contrast to Ferrari’s underlying performance, as confirmed by the full 2026 Hungarian Grand Prix classification.
Speaking the previous day about the pole position secured by Lando Norris on Saturday, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella used the word “execution”. It has become firmly established in Formula 1’s vocabulary to describe everything a team must deliver across a race weekend. It encompasses all the factors required to extract the maximum from a car’s potential: set-up preparation, driver performance, strategy, pit stops and race management.
Execution was precisely where Ferrari fell short in Hungary. The SF-26 had the performance to fight for victory, but the final verdict was considerably more bitter: fourth and fifth, despite Oscar Piastri’s retirement. Several factors contributed to that result, with some of the problems already beginning during Saturday’s qualifying session.
There was still a genuine opportunity to turn Charles Leclerc’s second place on the grid into a major result. However, the distance covered between the lights going out and Turn 4 produced the first decisive setback of Ferrari’s Sunday.
How Ferrari’s Hungarian GP errors began at the start
The two Ferrari drivers found themselves running fourth and fifth, with Lewis Hamilton ahead of Charles Leclerc, who had not been particularly aggressive on the approach to Turn 1. Both SF-26 cars were also behind Max Verstappen.
During that phase of the race, it became clear that Ferrari had stronger pace than Red Bull. Lewis Hamilton, running on soft tyres, applied constant pressure to Max Verstappen but could not find the space required to complete a pass.
Ferrari’s strategists therefore brought Lewis Hamilton in early and successfully completed the undercut on the reigning world champion. It initially appeared to be the right move, but Max Verstappen immediately reversed the situation with an excellent overtake on the number 44 Ferrari.
That was the moment when it became apparent that Ferrari’s Sunday was heading in a very different direction from the one the team had expected. Max Verstappen’s pass had enormous consequences, but it also exposed another limitation: the SF-26 could not match the performance of its direct rivals when running on the hard compound. Ferrari’s high-downforce rear-wing configuration in Hungary also made escaping traffic a particularly difficult task.
Hard-tyre weakness restricts Ferrari’s strategy
One potential damage-limitation strategy would have been to return to the soft compound for the final stint, following the same approach Red Bull adopted with Max Verstappen. Ferrari’s pit wall, however, considered the prospect of completing approximately 40 laps on the soft tyres too risky. Lewis Hamilton had already made his second stop on lap 30, while Charles Leclerc came in on lap 37.
Only the Virtual Safety Car, deployed with 15 laps remaining, allowed both Ferrari drivers to fit another set of soft tyres. The improvement in performance was immediately visible, particularly in Charles Leclerc’s case. Even so, the timing of the neutralisation came too late to recover the positions Ferrari had already lost, underlining how the team’s Hungarian Grand Prix tyre strategy had been compromised by the events of the opening phase.
“Today we paid a heavy price for a poor start,” Charles Leclerc said, “but at the same time we weren’t particularly sharp. The final stint on the softs was quite good, but overall there were too many ups and downs, and I think that’s exactly what we need to work on.
“It’s about finding the right consistency with this car, because it was really very, very difficult — in some stints for Lewis Hamilton and in others for me. And it’s a bit strange how disconnected everything is.”
Lewis Hamilton’s penalty completes a difficult Ferrari race
Lewis Hamilton endured an even more complicated Sunday. Ferrari’s disappointment was compounded by a penalty for exceeding the pit-lane speed limit by just 0.1 km/h. It was an infringement that was not attributable to the driver, but it still cost Lewis Hamilton one position and dropped him behind Charles Leclerc in the final classification.
“When you are clearly the fastest team on Friday, you expect much more than fourth and fifth,” Frédéric Vasseur admitted after Ferrari missed the podium. “Today we made too many mistakes, starting with the start, then the penalty, but also the fact that every time we made a pit stop we rejoined in traffic, losing positions by two or three tenths.
“Everything went wrong. However, I remain convinced that our pace was better than at Spa and Silverstone. We know that when you are not in clean air, everything changes. I cannot say whether we would have won or not, but if we had come out of the first lap in a better position, our race would have been very different.”
A domino effect costs Ferrari a potential Hungarian GP victory
The start was the first piece of a domino effect that ultimately condemned Ferrari. The time lost behind Max Verstappen forced the pit wall to bring the cars in earlier, effectively removing the possibility of building a strategy around the soft tyres during the decisive part of the race.
However, the drivers must also accept their share of responsibility. In a Formula 1 field where the technical level has become extremely closely matched, every detail can alter the final result: a less-than-perfect start, conceding a pass that might have been avoided or a strategy call forced upon the team by the circumstances.
Taken together, the opening-lap positions, traffic, pit-stop timing, tyre choices and penalty formed the sequence of mistakes that left Ferrari outside the Hungaroring podium.
The summer break will provide the time required to analyse every aspect of the weekend. Ferrari may leave Budapest knowing that it has a competitive car, but the Hungarian Grand Prix also represents one of the most significant opportunities the team has allowed to slip away this season. The debrief that follows is therefore likely to be one of Ferrari’s most detailed of the year.
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