Round 11 | Hungary

A step in the right directionA step in the right direction

Qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix concluded on a positive note for the team, with Fernando recording our first Q2 participation of the season. A step forward on a weekend where we've brought updates to the AMR26, though the hard work to keep climbing continues.

Read on for all the reaction from the team trackside in Budapest following Saturday's running.

High track temperature and a lap comprising a relentless sequence of corners placed importance on tyre management for Saturday's Qualifying session.
It was a first chance for Lance and Fernando to drive the updated AMR26 in Qualifying trim, and both noted better levels of downforce and grip on the car compared to previous weekends, making the car more predictable and consistent.
Fernando progressed to Q2 – a first appearance in the second part of Qualifying for our team this season – while Lance also felt he could have made it through but for a tailwind catching him out on a flying lap as he entered Turn 12.
Sunday's race will see Lance line up in P20 on the grid, while Fernando takes the start in P16.
The team will continue to pore over the data gathered so far this weekend, as we continue to learn about the new components on the car.
Hungary is a key first step in our development strategy. We can expect further progress in the second half of the season including a PU update for the Dutch Grand Prix and further weight saving measures. It will take time to unlock the full potential of the AMR26 package, but progress is being made.
Work also continues at the AMR Technology Campus this weekend, with the simulator running continuously to support the trackside team with car setup. The team will also be analysing correlation data to validate the updates and improve performance understanding.
Swipe through the gallery below for full details on what's changed on the AMR26, before scrolling further for the thoughts of Lance, Fernando, and Managing Technical Partner and Team Principal Adrian Newey.

Rather than introducing smaller updates race by race, the team took the decision earlier this year to focus on bringing a significant chassis upgrade package to the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The front wing, endplate and nose are a package to improve the performance of the front end of the car in combination with the other car updates.

The new front brake duct external elements work alongside the new front wing to manage flow around the front wheels.

All floor changes were developed as a package to increase the load on the floor and therefore improve car performance.

The bodywork package has evolved to improve the feed to the rear of the car and complement the changes to the floor geometry.

The louvres provide the usual range of options to allow the setup of the cooling system for optimum performance depending on conditions.

The rear suspension and rear brake duct modifications were developed with each other and the changes to the rear of the floor.

The three components of the rear wing increase Corner Mode load while reducing Straight Mode drag, and are aligned with the other changes to the rear of the car.

THE LATEST FROM THE TRACK

Welcome to Budapest

The opening half of the 2026 season has been a tough one for the team, but we head into the final race before the summer break determined to put on a good show, and take some momentum into the second half of the year as we bring updates to the AMR26.

The Hungarian Grand Prix is celebrating the 40th anniversary of its F1 debut this year and, of the current calendar, only Monza has a longer consecutive streak that the sinuous Hungaroring. It's a race that can feature astonishingly high track temperatures, sudden, unpredictable summer thunderstorms, and drama from first lap to last. It's the track where Fernando took his first F1 victory, and the race with perhaps the most cosmopolitan crowd, with fans from across the unrepresented parts of Europe adopting this as their home Grand Prix.

It's also a circuit where reputations are forged in the junior categories, and Mari Boya is racing for us in Formula 2 this weekend. He scored his first point since Montréal last weekend in Belgium, and has high hopes on a circuit where he finished on the podium in 2025's Formula 3 Feature Race.

RACE STARTS IN:

days

hrs

mins

secs

Session Times

FP1

FP2

FP3

Quali

Race

Toggle below to highlight parts of the track.

Sectors
Turns
Straight Mode
Overtake Mode

It's a great, technical circuit. If you mess one corner up, that makes the next series of corners quite difficult.

Jessica Hawkins – Driver Ambassador & Head of F1 ACADEMY

Number of corners
14
Number of laps
70
Race distance
306.630km

NEED TO KNOW: HUNGARIAN GP

THE CIRCUIT

THE GRAND PRIX

THE STRATEGY

THE FACTS

THE TRAVEL GUIDE

LAST TIME OUT IN BUDAPEST

THE CIRCUIT

The Hungaroring, traditionally, has been a circuit drivers have enjoyed more on a Saturday than a Sunday. The flowing combinations of corners have provided a great challenge against the clock – but make for a track that frustrates in a race for its lack of overtaking opportunities.

Or, at least, that was the case. The character of the Hungaroring has undergone a renaissance in recent years. Its reputation for processional races, and the near impossibility of overtaking have been put to bed: no-longer 'Monaco without the walls' but rather something more medium speed and, crucially, a track where engineering a tyre delta provokes a decent chance of overtaking.

With the ground-effect era over, and the cars having less downforce this year, there’s a possibility the race may return to its more static roots – but the recent entertainment upgrade hasn’t been specifically a product of ground-effect, with the track also being resurfaced to improve mechanical grip levels.

Tyres are always a factor in Hungary. While the loads are not particularly severe, the corners keep coming and don't allow many opportunities for the tyres to cool. In Qualifying, this makes a degree of practicality necessary at the start of the lap, to ensure the compounds haven't overheated in the long, crucial corners in the final sector. Over the longer stints, degradation can be high, and traction can suffer – particularly on a weekend with high temperatures. We're expecting 30°C in Budapest this week, so that's certainly going to be a factor.

Key this weekend will be the ability to follow through the long final corner, leading onto the main straight. Turn One remains the most likely overtaking point, though anyone who doesn't quite get the move completed here, can often take advantage of a defender going too deep into the corner, getting off line and being vulnerable into Turn Two. With Overtake Mode replacing DRS, however, those overtaking moves may look a little different.

THE GRAND PRIX

Hungary's heritage as a Grand Prix-hosting country stretches back to the inter-war years, and, in Ferenc Szisz, it has a strong claim to being the birthplace of the very first Grand Prix winner – but that doesn't stop the modern Hungarian Grand Prix being a race where the bulk of the crowd are tourists. It's always been a very good race to visit, given its proximity to the classical magnificence of Budapest and mid-summer spot on the calendar.

The track itself is set in a natural amphitheatre, with the majority of the grandstands, and the fan village strung out in a line wrapping around the final corner, main straight and first corner. Where to sit depends very much on what you want to see. Most of the overtaking happens at the first corner, so the grandstands here get the best views of race-day action. The main grandstand opposite the pits offers a view of the teams at work and has the bonuses of a roof and closest proximity to the fan village – but it doesn't really overlook the grid which is set at the start of the straight, to provide the absolutely longest run possible to Turn One.

There are bleachers with a great view of the grid a little further down the straight, with those nearest the main grandstand also being opposite the podium – but the size of the seating areas increases into the final corner, making for the most raucous part of the circuit on race day. The final few grid slots actually curve around the corner, necessitating a second set of start lights, so there's plenty to see here in the build-up to the race. The natural contours of the circuit mean there's lots of general admission space behind these bleachers on the hillside, which creates a wall of noise that's easy to hear in the pitlane.

THE STRATEGY

We have the same compound allocation in Hungary as we had for 2025, with the C3, C4 and C5 on offer. Last year's race saw very few laps on the Soft tyre, with the result a straight up fight between one-stop Medium-Hard, and a two-stop Medium-Hard-Hard. The one-stop won – by 0.698 seconds – and had been the choice of six of the points-scoring cars, including Fernando (P5) and Lance (P7).

Should we expect the same again? Difficult to say: the Hungaroring is the circuit that perhaps responded best to the ground-effect era, and thus is most likely to see a change now that era is over. However, the choice between one-and-two stops was producing great races before the downforce numbers were cranked-up – so there is little reason to expect anything radically different this weekend.

THE FACTS

1 | This is the 41st FIA Formula One World Championship Hungarian Grand Prix in an unbroken run stretching back to 1986. All of the races have been at the Hungaroring and, on the current calendar, only Monza is enjoying a longer streak of consecutive races.

2 | Historically, the Hungarian Grand Prix was the only round of the World Championship held in Europe's communist Eastern Bloc, behind the Iron Curtain. The F1 race was a revival rather than a new event. The first Hungarian Grand Prix was held in 1936 and won by Tazio Nuvolari for Alfa Romeo.

3 | Despite occupying a mid-season berth, the Hungarian Grand Prix has a reputation for debut victories. The list of drivers to have taken a first win here includes Damon Hill (1993), Jenson Button (2006), Heikki Kovalainen (2008), Esteban Ocon (2021), Oscar Piastri (2024) and, of course, Fernando Alonso (2003).

4 | Following a first-lap red flag, the restarted 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix featured the incredible sight of just a single car – that of leader Lewis Hamilton – on the grid when the lights went out. Everybody else was pitting to swap from Intermediate to slick tyres.

5 | Aston Martin Aramco Team Ambassador Pedro de la Rosa had his only F1 podium here: second in 2006 for McLaren.

6 | The Drivers' Championship has twice been settled at the Hungaroring. Nigel Mansell became Champion-elect in 1992, when this was race 11 of 16; Michael Schumacher did the same in 2001, when it was race 13 of 17. Williams took the Constructors’ Championship here in 1996; Ferrari did the same in 2001, 2002 and 2004.

THE TRAVEL GUIDE

There's always an end-of-term feel about the Hungarian Grand Prix – and this is a great part of the world in which to relax and unwind.

Budapest has a rich and vibrant history, from a Roman outpost that housed Marcus Aurelius, all the way through to its Communist decades in the late 20th Century. It's been a trading crossroads and centre of European culture for thousands of years; this explains its popularity as the go-to city for movie and TV production: somewhere in the city there's a district that fits whatever historical landscape you need as a backdrop, from Romanesque architecture, through Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, all the way up to Brutalism and Bauhaus. The historic centre of the city, along the banks of the Danube is a World Heritage Site, though the many movie location tours go a long way beyond the Parliament building, opera house, Museum of Fine Arts and St. Stephen's Basilica.

One of the reasons the Romans made a provincial capital here was access to thermal springs, and the city has a long history as a spa town. Today, this is best represented by the Széchenyi Thermal Baths, located in City Park, just behind the equally famous Heroes' Square. The mix of indoor and outdoor pools are the largest medicinal baths in Europe and allow bathers to relax surrounded by neo-baroque splendour. It's a very popular location with F1 crews, keen to unknot tired muscles.

The other way to unknot tired muscles is, of course, though the city's fabulous nightlife. At the turn of the century, Budapest was eye-opening for tourists from Western Europe and the United States, but now, a generation after the fall of the Berlin Wall, it's more-or-less entirely homogenised into the European mainstream. It does, however, retain its eccentricities, one of which is the famous ruin bars dotted around the city in, formerly, abandoned buildings, particularly in the Jewish Quarter. Szimplakert is probably the most famous, Kiosk a little more upmarket.

The heart of the city is, of course, the Danube. The riverbanks offer lively nightlife, including a series of rooftop bars and restaurants – try Leo, for a view of the famous Chain Bridge – but getting out on the water is a popular pastime too, with plenty of options for dinner cruises in the evenings. For those with a few more days free than your typical F1 mechanic, the three-night river cruise to Bratislava and Vienna is a great way to ease into three weeks without F1.

LAST TIME OUT IN BUDAPEST

Our Hungaroring debut was memorable, but not necessarily for the right reasons. On a wet start, Lance was caught out heading into Turn One – one of five cars eliminated instantly in a string of collisions. Sebastian Vettel, however, benefitted from the drama, threaded his way through the debris to emerge in P3. That became P2 after the restart, a position he held to the flag for our first podium finish… only to be disqualified after the race for being unable to provide a sufficiently large fuel sample. The rules specify one litre of fuel must be removed from the car for analysis, post-race; Seb's tank was down to 300ml.

Since then, Hungary has been a good friend to the team. Both cars have finished every race, and never lower than 11th. Seb had a great race in 2022, rising from 18th on the grid to grab the final point with some impressive overtaking. In 2023, we had our first double-points finish at the Hungaroring. Fernando squeaked into Q3 by the margin of 0.002s, and went on to finish ninth, while Lance finished 10th after doing it the hard way, from 14th on the grid. In 2024, the order was reversed with Lance grabbing the final point, finishing just ahead of Fernando.

Last year, we had our best Hungarian Grand Prix, and best result of the 2025 season, with Fernando coming home P5 and Lance P7. Both drivers ran the less popular – but also, victorious – Medium-Hard one-stop strategy, and were able to stay ahead of quicker two-stopping cars.

Jenson's Journal

"Get in there!" Hungary 2006... 20 years later

In a special edition of Jenson's Journal, Jenson Button shares the pen with fellow Aston Martin Aramco ambassador Pedro de la Rosa, as the pair reflect on a remarkable afternoon that delivered Jenson's first win and Pedro's first podium.

READ THE THIRD ENTRY

UNDERCUT

Adrian Newey will see you now

In the latest exclusive UNDERCUT interview, Adrian opens the door to an honest conversation about hard truths, difficult decisions and the challenge of turning the team's fortunes around.