Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies assessed a tricky but rewarding 2026 F1 Hungarian GP, with Max Verstappen in P2 and Isack Hadjar in P6.
Through Friday and Saturday, the Dutch and French drivers were extremely unhappy with the feeling of their RB22s, bemoaning grip issues and struggling to find any kind of good balance.
Having initially qualified in 6th and 8th, Max Verstappen moved up two spots on the grid thanks to penalties for Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Antonelli. A good first lap saw him pass Charles Leclerc and fend off Lewis Hamilton, while Hadjar cleared the unfortunate George Russell to be running 7th.
With Ferrari boxing Hamilton and initially undercutting car #3, the four-time World Champion made an unbelievable pass on the seven-time one to reclaim a net P3 after the first round of stops. While Ferrari did execute a successful undercut second time around with a very early stop on lap 30, Red Bull did not respond and extended by 11 laps.
Thanks to a VSC to clear Oscar Piastri‘s broken McLaren, the Italian giants pitted Lewis Hamilton for a third time, meaning he was behind the Dutchman again. He never caught him as the 106-time race winner got stuck behind Mercedes driver and points leader Kimi Antonelli, and they were not helped by lapped traffic either in their pursuit of Verstappen for 2nd.
Meanwhile, Isack Hadjar had a pretty quiet race on the strategy and general race front, taking P6. George Russell almost caught him at the end but fell 2s short.
Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies says pre-race analysis suggested P4 would the maximum for Max Verstappen in 2026 F1 Hungarian GP
Speaking in his print media session post-race, the Team Principal stated that Red Bull felt Lando Norris and the two Ferraris would be out of reach. On the evidence of Friday and Saturday, it was a very similar picture for everyone else.
However, as the Dutchman got track position and kept Oscar Piastri within 5s through the first two stints whilst holding his own against the Ferraris, it turned out only Lando Norris had a lot more pace, although Lewis Hamilton never fully got into clean air for a whole stint.
The Frenchman also praised his team for the strategy calls, pit stops, and the improvement in race starts at recent rounds.
“So in terms of before the race predictions for what it was, we felt Lando and the two Ferraris would be out of touch.
“That’s how we felt. We felt we could race the Mercedes and probably Oscar [Piastri]. As it turned out, we could race both Ferraris and Lando [Norris] was out of reach.
“And in terms of the VSC, there have been a number of quite spicy strategic calls made by the guys today, including the one of the VSC but not only [that]. If you look at the earlier move, not to cover Lewis when he pitted early on.
Thankful to the team
“As always, they always get it right. So very well done to the pit wall and to the wall team back home, tyre group, strategy group. And I think as a whole, race execution has been very, very strong here.
“We have suffered at the beginning of the year with our starts. We are now managing to produce decent starts, strong pit stops, very strong strategy as always. So we’re certainly very happy with the way the team has been operating in these last few races as it’s going to be back to the standard it’s known for.”
A hugely positive result in F1 Hungary race for Red Bull despite an extremely tough car to drive
As previously stated, Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar were very unhappy with their cars post-qualifying and pulled no punches on how tough it was. Even though F1 has entered a whole new era in 2026, the difficulties for Red Bull to have a car with a wide operating window are continuing.
Even though Red Bull Racing scored the most points of all teams at the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP, Laurent Mekies is fully aware that the team must work on giving both drivers a car with a better balance that gives them confidence and allows them to attack corners without worrying about having no front or rear support.
Nonetheless, he took the positives from the fact they got a podium on a weekend where they struggled so much for car balance and grip.
“I think we never managed to give Max and Isack a car they could push with.
“For example if I look back to the driver’s feedback in Spa or in Austria, they would probably have said that the car was pretty much ballpark to how it should feel and to what it allows them to do. That was never the case this weekend, certainly worse on Friday and Saturday compared to today.
“But still, today I have to say that it probably was still not giving a very good feeling to the drivers. Nonetheless, at the end of the day it’s probably tough for everyone out there.
“And I think it’s fair to say that only Lando was clearly faster than Max today, and I think everyone else could have matched or beat. So I guess it’s positive because it means we have margin to improve with the current package, and we will try to see why we are so much on the edge of car balance, corner balance, car performing, car not performing, because it’s been hard work for certainly the drivers but also the team in these last few races to keep the car in its window.”
Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies impressed by McLaren pace at 2026 F1 Hungarian GP
On Sunday, Lando Norris drove off into the distance once he got into the lead as he had been bottled up by Oscar Piastri through the first two stints, allowing Max Verstappen to stay in touch until that point.
McLaren brought upgrades to the Hungaroring. Not for the first time in recent years with them, it was a good step forward for the defending two-time F1 Constructors’ Champions.
Although it remains a question marks how it will work at Zandvoort and beyond, Laurent Mekies was clearly impressed by the speed of the MCL40 at the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP.
“Yeah, I think the package they have brought here certainly has made them a big jump. So it is certainly impressive and let’s see how it performs on different tracks.
“But if I just look at Budapest and the jump they have made it’s certainly quite impressive. I think it’s the first race where we beat both Ferrari and both Mercedes, but I have to say that McLaren did a very good job with the pace they had.”
