Mercedes endured a tough outing on Friday at the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP, with both drivers, Kimi Antonelli and George Russell, reporting a severe lack of grip and balance at a resurfaced Hungaroring.
Despite falling short of their main title rivals, Ferrari, in both Free Practice sessions, Mercedes reflected that they are confident the W17 has the pace to challenge for the remainder of the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP weekend with the right set-up.
In FP1, Russell finished in P5, 0.991s slower than Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who topped the session with a lap time of 1:19.075. Taking over Antonelli’s car for his second rookie FP1 run of the season was Frederik Vesti, who finished in P7.
The Italian driver returned to his Mercedes in FP2 of the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP weekend. However, it would be a difficult session for Antonelli as he had to abort several qualifying simulations. The championship leader had reported struggling with rear brake locking for the majority of FP2 and eventually ended the session in an alarming P13. Russell continued to struggle with balance and finished in P5 once again, but improved slightly, 0.933s behind Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton in P1.
Russell on poorly resurfaced Hungaroring track surface
Ahead of the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP, quite a chunk of the Hungaroring circuit had been resurfaced. This followed the remodelling of the pit lane and main straight in 2025.
During both FP1 and FP2, both Mercedes drivers complained about a severe lack of overall grip and balance issues. They were not the only drivers on track who brought up the bumpy track surface and cracking patches of asphalt. According to Russell, the uneven track surface resulted in a decreased level of grip, which had many drivers locking up, especially in Turn 1.
“I mean, it’s a bit of a shame because Budapest is one of the most enjoyable circuits to drive, we resurfaced a third of the track and unfortunately we’ve done a really bad job, it’s really bumpy, you saw loads of people locking up at turn one, the track’s breaking up in the last corner so people are sort of driving around the middle of the corner and not actually hitting the apex, which is just a bit odd really.”
The Briton also noted Mercedes’ performance deficit when compared to Ferrari as he reflected, “But yeah, I guess what we feared was sort of proven today with Ferrari. They looked like the ones out front.”
It is an issue of pace, not deployment, for Mercedes
Despite the difficult outing, Russell shared that he is optimistic about Mercedes’ performance for the remainder of the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP weekend. As the Brackley outfit is not facing a technical issue, the engineers can focus on improving the set-up to make the car faster rather than troubleshooting a particular issue.
However, the 28-year-old also shared that Mercedes seemed to lack pace at the Hungaroring, especially compared to the team’s performance at Spa-Francorchamps and Silverstone. The Hungaroring has a tight and narrow layout with high downforce, which contrasts with the sweeping, low-drag layout of the latter two tracks.
He then shared his insight on how wind speed will affect the downforce and balance of the car.
“Yeah, I mean, I’m glad that obviously the focus now is purely on performance and not on problem solving. The underlying car pace this weekend doesn’t seem to be as competitive as we saw in Silverstone and Spa, but I’m hopeful that, I mean, there’s a lot of room to improve. It feels far from great out there. I’m sure it’s similar for everyone. The wind looks to be shifting, and when you’ve got 25, 30 kmph gusts, you know, a 180 shift or a 90 degree shift has a real impact on the car balance, and the three-wheeling and whatnot, so hopefully tomorrow will be better.
“Yeah, I mean, I’ve not even looked at it to be honest, so it’s good that it’s been sort of put to bed. In any way, even if the issue continued just because of the nature of the track, you probably would have hardly noticed it here anyway, so yeah, I just hope the focus is on going quick as racing should be.”
Antonelli on challenging 2026 F1 Hungarian GP FP2 session
Kimi Antonelli echoed his teammate’s laments of the W17’s instability following FP2. The Italian shared that the lack of balance in the car was evident in their single-lap work.
He also explained why he had to abandon his qualifying simulation, citing the red flag brought out by Colapinto’s crash into the barriers entering Turn 14 and traffic as the main reasons.
Antonelli then took the time to praise Vesti’s performance in FP1.
“That was a tricky first day here in Budapest, and that was likely true for everyone. I sat out FP1 with Fred doing a good job in the car; when I got in the cockpit for FP2, I was struggling with the balance. That was more obvious with our single lap work. I had to abandon my first effort due to the red flag but tried to put a time together once the session resumed. I didn’t finish that lap as I had traffic and then was struggling with the rears locking.”
Regardless, the championship leader reflected that Mercedes performed better during longer runs, especially when the tyres were in a more optimal window. Antonelli is looking forward to studying the data with Mercedes and improving their set-up ahead of Saturday.
“The long run was better, and I think we had the tyres in a better window. We also have lots of data and learnings we can take from today, which we will work through overnight. I am looking forward to getting back on track tomorrow. FP3 will be an important hour so we can hopefully get the car in a better place and try and get ourselves in the fight for pole position. We know it won’t be easy with the gap we saw today, but we will give it our best.“
Lord shares insight on Mercedes’ tough outing at 2026 F1 Hungarian GP
Mercedes’ Deputy Team Principal Bradley Lord reflected on the tough FP1 session at the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP and shared his insights.
As explained by the Briton, Antonelli and Russell’s lack of grip and balance over a lap was due to a combination of the uneven track and the tyres not being in the right window.
However, Lord, similarly to Antonelli, did note that when it came to longer runs, Mercedes did have the performance to challenge Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, Ferrari and McLaren at the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP.
“Yeah, lack of grip, lack of balance on a single lap. Both drivers initially having to wind the front wing out of it, wind the front end out of it to find that nice sort of gentle understeer balance you want here. But quite inconsistent, quite tricky, tricky on the new tarmac as well.So no doubt down to just not quite getting the tyres in the right window for that single lap. But then on the long runs, looked pretty consistent and pretty competitive versus Ferrari, Verstappen and the McLarens. So that suggests the car’s in a half-decent window, but we’ve just got to get things right on the single lap.”
Mercedes is confident they resolved Russell’s deployment issue
A weekend prior at the 2026 F1 Belgian GP, Russell had complained about a lack of straight-line speed during the opening lap before his collision with Hamilton that ultimately resulted in his early retirement.
Ahead of the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP, both Mercedes and Russell had expressed their confidence that the deployment issues were resolved.
While Lord clarified that the team would not be able to confirm the issue is parked before the British driver completes a flying lap, the team is certain the issue would not affect Russell at the Hungaroring.
“Yeah, I think until we’ve done a competitive single lap and been able to compare the two cars because we’ve not been able to do that today, then you won’t have the final, final definitive answer. But yes, we absolutely are confident. We’ve found that we’ve eliminated that and that it’s no longer hindering or hampering George’s ultimate performance potential.”
Lord also shared how he thinks the team will fare against their main title rivals, Ferrari, at the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP. Despite Mercedes’ strong streak of clinching pole position, the Deputy Team Principal is aware it could end at any weekend.
Nonetheless, he shared that the team will be doing their best to maintain their dominant streak and will be looking at the data to improve their set-up ahead of Saturday.
“I think we’ve got a car that’s been competitive at every track. We’ve been fortunate enough to be on pole at each of them so far. I suppose at some point a run like that comes to an end, but we’ll be doing everything we can to make sure it’s not here in Hungary. So yeah, lots of work to do overnight, bit of head scratching, and hopefully find a good chunk of performance going into FP3.”
