Ferrari’s Hungarian GP failure exposes the SF-26’s lack of consistency

Ferrari’s expected advantage disappears

Ferrari arrived at the Hungaroring with a clear theoretical edge. Rivals regard the SF-26 as Formula 1’s most agile chassis, even if its engine and aerodynamic performance are not considered the strongest. That profile should have made Hungary, where carrying speed through slow corners matters more than outright straight-line pace, a natural opportunity.

Instead, neither Lewis Hamilton nor Charles Leclerc reached the podium. Lando Norris beat both Ferraris in qualifying and went on to win, while Hamilton finished fourth on the road before a five-second pit-lane speeding penalty dropped him to fifth. Leclerc finished fourth, leaving Ferrari with a result that fell well short of expectations.

The weekend had begun promisingly. Leclerc topped FP1, then Hamilton led a Ferrari one-two in FP2. Norris reversed that order in FP3 and qualifying, edging Hamilton by just 0.012 seconds. Hamilton’s subsequent three-place grid penalty for impeding Oscar Piastri’s flying lap sent him to fifth. The incident is covered in more detail in Hamilton’s Hungarian GP grid penalty.

Execution errors compounded Ferrari’s weakness

Hamilton’s race unravelled early. Starting on soft tyres, he failed to clear Max Verstappen and then lost further ground after an undercut had briefly moved him ahead of the Red Bull. Ferrari called him into the pits under a late virtual safety car, surrendering track position to Verstappen and Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli. The scrubbed soft tyres fitted at that stop did not give Hamilton enough performance to recover the places.

The stop itself was also compromised: Hamilton locked up and missed his marks, slowing the wheel change, before releasing the pit-lane speed limiter fractionally too early. Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur described the outcome as mistakes compounding one another.

Leclerc’s race was less dramatic but no more effective. Starting second on softs, he fell behind Oscar Piastri, Verstappen and Hamilton on the opening lap. He later said the pace had not been at Hamilton’s level in qualifying and that the car produced too many “ups and downs” across the race.

The central question

Neither Ferrari driver had a new medium-tyre set available, while the SF-26’s reputation for being hard on tyres made the soft starting compound a potential liability in hot conditions. Yet Pirelli’s softs proved durable, weakening that explanation on its own.

Ferrari’s larger concern is predictability. Leclerc noted that the team had won races where it expected to struggle, then struggled in Hungary when it expected to excel. Until Ferrari finds greater consistency between stints and weekends, the SF-26’s theoretical strengths will continue to be undermined by reactive strategy and execution.

Ferrari’s expected advantage disappears