The 2026 F1 Hungarian GP was a tough weekend for Mercedes, with Team Principal Toto Wolff admitting that the team “should have done better”.
Championship leader Kimi Antonelli, who started the race in P7, had a strong drive and clinched the final podium spot in P3. Meanwhile, George Russell had to recover from a dreadful start outside his control and finished in P7. The Briton had faced yet another technical issue.
Challenging weekend for Mercedes since Friday
Mercedes was one of five teams that decided to do rookie running in FP1 at the Hungaroring. Reserve driver Fred Vesti took the wheel behind Antonelli’s W17 in FP1, leaving the Italian driver one session down.
This, combined with the severe lack of grip and balance at the resurfaced Hungaroring as well as the tricky wind conditions, resulted in a very difficult outing for the Brackley outfit on Friday. Neither Antonelli nor Russell was able to figure out a set-up they were comfortable with.
Qualifying on Saturday was not much better. The championship leader, who initially qualified in P4, was handed a three-place grid penalty following the end of the session as he had failed to slow sufficiently under the yellow flags towards the end of Q3 after Verstappen’s spin. Russell had qualified in P7 before penalites but faced a water leak at the end of Q3 that was resolved with a change of components.
Wolff believes Mercedes had the potential for a double podium finish at the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP
According to Wolff, Mercedes had to play the “catch-up game” for the majority of the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP weekend. He also shared that ahead of the race, he would have settled for a podium finish because of the fundamental pace struggles they looked to have had.
However, following the event, the Austrian believes Mercedes had the potential to place both cars on the podium if they had executed to a higher degree.
“So I think the whole weekend, it wasn’t great. Missing FP1 [with Kimi] certainly was not perfect. We got the set-ups not 100% right, and it was always a catch-up game that we had all weekend, and then going back to yesterday in the quali, George’s engine problem.
“So if you would have told me before the race that we can have a podium with Kimi, I would have said I’ll take it immediately. But now, looking back, the prevailing feeling is that we should have done better. It is from the team side.
“We were unlucky with the VSC again; that could have been a P2. And coming back to your questions, if we would have had a fault-free weekend. I think we would have fought for the victory or had at least two cars on the podium.”
Wolff praises Antonelli and Russell’s performance at the Hungaroring
Wolff also emphasised that Mercedes’ performance deficit at the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP was not due to the lack of performance from either driver. The 54-year-old then took the time to praise his drivers’ performance at the Hungaroring.
He highlighted Antonelli’s late-race defence against Lewis Hamilton and how the Italian driver was able to hold on to P3.
Wolff also commended Russell’s impressive recovery drive following the first-lap nightmare. He moved up from P21 to P7.
“You can’t fail the drivers today. Kimi’s defence on the hard against Lewis [Hamilton] on the soft was brilliant, brilliant driving. And the same with George. I think he cleared 14 cars at the beginning through the traffic when we knew it was going to be very difficult. So, the drivers today were really doing a good job.”
Antonelli extends championship lead following 2026 F1 Hungarian GP
Wolff then shared that Antonelli’s podium finish at the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP was even more impressive considering Ferrari and Hamilton were the favourites ahead of the weekend. Ultimately, the Italian finished two spots ahead.
Regardless, the Austrian admits that Mercedes could have extracted more performance out of their W17, even if they walked away from the Hungaroring with a total of 21 points.
Antonelli extended his championship lead over Hamilton following the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP and now sits with a total of 219 points to his name. He is 50 points clear of the seven-time World Champion.
“Absolutely. Lewis was the one to win this race. Saturday morning, all of Friday. And we come out of this with a few points gained. That’s great.
“But I’ve been always a miserable guy. The glass is half empty. We could have had P2 today. We should have had P2. And maybe in balance, he [Hamilton] got the penalty, so overall, maybe on Kimi’s side, we need to go home and say that’s okay in terms of the points.”
