After Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton finished in fourth and fifth, respectively, at the 2026 Hungarian GP, Team Principal Fred Vasseur opened up about why Ferrari underperformed on a track that was supposed to suit the SF-26, their pit stop strategy, and the positives he took away from the race weekend heading into the F1 summer break.
Despite showing strong promise in the free practice sessions and the Hungaroring’s tight, twisty layout suiting the SF-26 on paper, Ferrari missed out on pole position to McLaren’s Lando Norris by a narrow margin. Hamilton set the second-fastest time but received a three-place grid penalty for impeding Oscar Piastri in Q3. Meanwhile, Leclerc lined up in second on Sunday after qualifying in third.
Both Leclerc and Hamilton started the race on the soft tyre—compared with those around them on the medium compound—in a bid to gain places on the opening lap. However, the Monégasque, who had bolted on a set of used softs, finished the opening lap fifth, directly behind his teammate.
While Leclerc never challenged the frontrunners, Hamilton initially battled Max Verstappen for the podium. The seven-time world champion had jumped him after his first pit stop, but the Red Bull driver passed him on Lap 16 with a daring move into Turn 1.
Hamilton had initially emerged from his final stop ahead of Kimi Antonelli, only to cede the position on Lap 58 after replays showed he had reached the relevant VSC white line at the end of the start/finish straight just behind the Mercedes.
A five-second penalty for speeding in the pits ended any hopes Hamilton had of finishing on the podium, with Leclerc also edging ahead for P4 once the sanction was applied.
Too many mistakes
Speaking in a print media session after the 70-lap F1 race, Fred Vasseur shed more light on Ferrari’s relative lack of pace and how the 2026 Hungarian GP weekend got away from them.
The Frenchman revealed that Ferrari found it difficult to gauge the SF-26’s true pace since they were stewing in dirty air for the majority of the laps. He also acknowledged that they underperformed on Sunday after demonstrating solid pace in Friday practice.
Noting the many mistakes the team and the drivers committed throughout the race weekend, Vasseur added that they have to refine their execution going forward.
“It’s difficult to really understand the pace because I think that clean air is key. Firstly, it’s not a good Sunday, because when you are P1-P2 on Friday, you expect much more than P4-P5.
“And on the top, we made too many mistakes today starting with the start, with the penalty, with the fact that Max [Verstappen] overtook us on track, at each time that we are doing a pit stop, we are losing our position for 0.2 or 0.3 seconds. Everything went wrong, but for sure we have to do a much better job in some way.”
Vasseur believes Ferrari’s pure pace at the 2026 Hungarian GP was better than the last two rounds
With regard to Ferrari exceeding expectations at Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps but underperforming on a track deemed more favourable to the SF-26, Fred Vasseur argued that their pure pace was comparatively better during the 2026 Hungarian GP weekend.
Highlighting how Hamilton had nearly claimed pole position on Saturday, the 58-year-old also surmised that Sunday’s event could have unfolded differently had Leclerc managed to keep hold of second place on the opening lap. He reiterated that it’s their execution that had let them down rather than the pace.
“It’s a bit too early, but I think the pace was better, the pure pace. But not the reason… the pure pace of the team was quite better this weekend than Spa or Silverstone.
“We were in front in FP1; we were in FP2. We were able to fight for the pole with Lewis [Hamilton]—we lost pole by a hundredth of a second.
“And [in the race] the execution was very poor. If we had a good start, starting from the first row, the race would be completely different, and it’s more the execution today than the pace.”
Vasseur defends Ferrari’s decision to pit Hamilton under the VSC
In reference to Verstappen’s final stint on a set of used soft tyres lasting for 29 laps and whether the decision to box Hamilton for a third time under the VSC and give up track position was the right one, Fred Vasseur emphasised how the 41-year-old had the oldest hard tyres in the top five at the time. He also mentioned that the Dutchman’s stint had convinced the Ferrari pit wall of the durability of the softest compound with 20 laps to go.
Furthermore, Vasseur explained how their poor start at the 2026 Hungarian GP had forced them to react before their immediate rivals and pit pretty early to try an undercut. Ultimately, he proclaimed that he would make the exact same decision in hindsight to charge forward with the softest compound at the end.
“No, but we realised, I think, 20 laps before the end that the soft was not that bad. We used the stint of Max, and we decided to go for the soft because we had the oldest [tyres] on the field.
“As we had a poor start, then we tried to do the undercut, that you put the tyres very early, and you have to take decisions before the others.
“I said, if I have to do the same, I would do the same today, to try to push with the soft.”
Positives that Vasseur took away from the 2026 Hungarian GP weekend
In terms of Ferrari having a quite positive first half of the 2026 F1 season and whether it’s frustrating to head into the summer break straight after a messy Hungarian GP, Fred Vasseur agreed that a 1-2 finish on Sunday would’ve been the perfect outcome for the team ahead of a month-long vacation.
Nonetheless, the Ferrari Team Principal had positives to take away from the weekend and remarked that scoring more points overall than Mercedes in Budapest and keeping their Constructors’ Championship hopes alive is a positive sign despite having a lot of ground to cover.
“Yeah, I would have preferred to be 1-2, if that’s the question, for sure.
“I think it’s better for everybody to go on vacation with a good result. But on the other hand, for the championship, we are scoring more than Mercedes today. We have the feeling that we are far from the best with what we can do, and in this situation, we are not losing points.
“That’s the positive that I will keep for my vacation.”
