2026 Hungarian Grand Prix: 5 Big Talking Points Heading into the Weekend

Linus O'Howell
2 days ago
5 min read

George Russell is Fed Up

If you haven’t had the chance to yet, go and listen to George Russell’s radio after he was taken out of the Belgian Grand Prix by Lewis Hamilton; it was quite telling about where his mindset currently is! A year where George entered as the favourite to win the World Drivers’ Championship after an incredible 2025 season, things started off on a perfect note with victory in Australia! However, technical gremlins and bad luck would cost him in both China and Japan, whilst an engine failure took him out from the lead of the Canadian Grand Prix! A fault with the Safety Car line plus Mercedes’ incompetence cost Russell another 15 points in Monaco, whilst he was then able to gain 43 points back on his teammate due to Andrea Kimi Antonelli receiving his own bad luck! However, I think the narrative changed in Belgium, with Russell continuously complaining about a lack of speed on the straight, an issue he’d already brought up in Silverstone! Now, whilst you could make an argument that the way George drove cost him in Qualifying (which I personally don’t agree with anyway), you cannot say that about the opening sector of the opening lap of the Grand Prix! There was 100% something wrong with George Russell’s car in Belgium, but the fact that Toto Wolff doesn’t want to properly admit that feels very telling! For perhaps the first time in his entire career, George seems fed up with Mercedes!

The “B-Spec” Aston Martin

Everybody knows how atrocious Aston Martin have been in 2026; they’ve had the slowest car for almost the entire season, with them falling further and further away from Cadillac with every passing weekend, and the only reason they’re not last in the Constructors’ Championship is that Sergio Perez made a silly error in Monaco! However, for ages now, Adrian Newey has been talking about the major upgrades that are being brought from Hungary onwards, basically naming this the “B-Spec” Aston Martin! According to Newey, these upgrades will find them at least 2 seconds of performance, which in theory sounds quite good! The problem is that Aston were over 2 seconds off the Cadillac’s pace in Belgian Qualifying, and whilst Spa is the longest lap on the calendar, two seconds at other tracks still wouldn’t get them into Q2! What I’m basically saying is that Aston Martin are so far off the pace, it’s probably going to take them years to recover! Also, I’ll be honest, I wouldn’t trust anything Newey says after this year!

Racing Bulls Have a Big Issue

Just 7 days ago, I gave a section of my Belgian GP Preview to Racing Bulls, praising them for the strong season they’ve had! What I left out of that was how tensions have been brewing between Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad, particularly after Austria, and it’s fair to say that they’ve only grown following Spa! For some reason, Racing Bulls thought it would be a good idea to give Arvid the upgraded car based on one Qualifying session, despite the fact that Liam has been one of the drivers of the season! Then, in the Race, the two VCARBs found themselves side-by-side on multiple occasions, and little room was ever given! In fact, Lawson was sent onto the grass by Lindblad at Turn 5, a moment that probably cost Racing Bulls a 5th-consecutive double-points finish! Whilst the social media team does a pretty good job at hiding it, it’s clear that something’s going down at Racing Bulls, with a proper collision between Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad feeling more like a matter of when, not if!

Isack Hadjar’s Impressive Run of Form

With the summer break coming straight after this weekend, we’re not far away from my Midseason Driver Rankings article! Usually, the second Red Bull driver is pretty far down on the list, but I’m confident that that might change this year thanks to Isack Hadjar! Not only has Isack made Q3 at every single Race Weekend in 2026, but he’s also actually on a run of 6-consecutive Top 6 finishes! What I find even more impressive about that stat is the fact that that run started following Miami, a Race that he crashed out of early (and had me fearing the worst)! 56 points in 6 weekends is pretty good going, especially given the fact that the Red Bull has never been the fastest car this season, and all in all, I think Hadjar’s doing a good job in comparison to Max Verstappen, a guy that nobody tends to get near to! Whilst me writing all of this could be the thing that curses Isack Hadjar, his 2025 was so incredibly impressive that I wouldn’t rule him out of continuing his current run for a while yet!

The Surprise Factor of Qualifying at the Hungaroring

Whilst there aren’t a ton of overtaking opportunities around the Hungaroring, it has proven itself to be one of the best Qualifying sessions of the season! Now, a big reason for that is because of how hard it is to overtake; in a similar way to Monaco, but also because we’ve seen quite a few surprises in recent years! In 2022, the dominant Red Bull could only qualify 10th and 11th, with Q3 going horribly wrong for Max Verstappen! This allowed George Russell to take Pole out of nowhere in a year where Mercedes were very much off the pace! 12 months later, Lewis Hamilton took his first Pole Position since 2021, stunning Verstappen as Alfa Romeo qualified in an insane P5 and P7 (with Zhou Guanyu’s terrible start now becoming synonymous with the F1 Movie)! The always-consistent Carlos Sainz only managed to qualify P11, whilst Russell was shockingly knocked out in Q1! In 2024, a McLaren Pole 1-2 wasn’t exactly a massive surprise, but it was still a session that saw both George Russell (again) and Sergio Perez both get eliminated in the first part of Qualifying! Then, in 2025, Charles Leclerc took Ferrari’s first Pole Position of the season out of absolutely nowhere as the two McLarens lost complete grip on their final laps! This was also a session where Aston Martin locked out the third row of the grid, with both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll just over a tenth from shocking the world with their own Pole lap! Oh, and I almost forgot to mention the fact that Gabriel Bortoleto out-qualified Max Verstappen in a Kick Sauber; now that was wild! So, what does 2026 have in store for us? Let’s hope this isn’t a curse!