How wasteful Ferrari threw away an F1 race it should have won

A weekend that promised so much for Ferrari ultimately ended in more Formula 1 disappointment and regret, leaving questions of what could have been. 

All the talk going into the Hungarian Grand Prix was that it was Ferrari’s chance to claim another victory in an F1 season largely dominated by Mercedes. 

There was good reason for this. The predictions weren’t simply based on hype or feeling, but logic. It was widely acknowledged that the tight and technical Hungaroring circuit would suit the cornering strengths of Ferrari’s car, which, engine performance aside, is considered by many in the paddock to be the benchmark this year. 

Ferrari made the perfect start to the weekend by ending Friday practice with a dominant one-two, underlining its potential and further cementing its pre-race favourites tag. 

But from there, the weekend would unravel. Ferrari underperformed in qualifying and Lewis Hamilton, who was pipped to pole position by Lando Norris, would be demoted to fifth on the grid for impeding Oscar Piastri. 

Hamilton’s penalty promoted team-mate Charles Leclerc onto the front row. Ferrari went aggressive and started both its cars on soft tyres, but rather than challenging Norris for the lead, Leclerc dropped behind Piastri, Max Verstappen, and Hamilton. 

A smart Ferrari strategy call enabled Hamilton to undercut Verstappen into third place and put him in a position to chase down the McLarens, but it wouldn’t last long. 

Hamilton didn’t see a spectacular, daring lunge from Verstappen coming at Turn 1, and was almost immediately overtaken. All of Ferrari’s hard work was undone by a piece of Verstappen magic. 

Try as he might, Hamilton couldn’t get back past and Ferrari’s slim hopes of a win quickly faded. A penalty for speeding in the pit lane compounded a frustrating afternoon for Hamilton, who would slip behind Leclerc to fifth once the five seconds were added to his race time.

Fourth and fifth represented a huge underachievement from Ferrari on a weekend it could, and arguably should, have been victorious. Adding to the vexation for the Italian outfit was the fact Mercedes had a rare off weekend and underperformed. 

It was a result that demonstrated the importance of fine margins in sport, and underlined why F1 races cannot be won on paper.

Ferrari left to rue ‘too many mistakes’ 

Ferrari acknowledged Hungary was a missed opportunity to get another win on the board in 2026, with team principal Fred Vasseur admitting his side made “too many mistakes”. 

"It's difficult to clearly understand the pace, because I think the clean air is key, but first it's not a good Sunday, because when you are one-two on Friday, you expect much more,” Vasseur conceded. 

"And on the top we made too many mistakes today, starting with the penalty and the fact that Max overtook us, that each time that we were doing a pit stop, we were losing a position for 0.2 or 0.3 seconds.

"And then we spent our lives behind the guys, everything went wrong, but for sure we have to do a much better job on Sunday.”

Vasseur was frank in his assessment that “very poor execution” ultimately cost Ferrari. 

“Today the execution was very poor. If we have a good start and start from the first row, the race is completely different, and it's more the execution today than pure performance,” he added.

Leclerc was left perplexed with Ferrari’s performance as the correlation between expectation and results failed to align. 

“It’s a disappointing weekend, and I think the thing that is standing out for me is that out of the last three races, there were two races where we were expecting to struggle and we finished first and second. In the race where we expected to do well, we finished fourth and fifth,” the Monegasque summed up. 

“So there’s clearly a tendency, and it’s not that one car is doing well because it’s doing exceptionally well in the car. 

“Both cars seem to have that tendency of being good in the weekend where we expected to struggle and struggling in the weekend where we thought we would be good.

“So this has to be understood. I mean, it’s also true that with a good start today, things could have looked very different because on a track like this, there’s not much overtaking.”

Hamilton’s ongoing penalty pain 

Hamilton, the most successful F1 driver at the Hungaroring with nine poles and eight victories, could not hide the disappointment on his face as he failed to add to those incredible statistics at his favourite circuit. 

The seven-time world champion has been in impressive form this season but it has been a messy few races for Hamilton, who suffered more penalty pain by picking up his fourth punishment in just three race weekends. 

Hamilton was handed five-second time penalties for a false start at Silverstone and for a first-lap collision with George Russell at Spa. At Budapest, he was slapped with a grid drop for impeding in qualifying, as well as a pit lane speeding infraction. 

When informed of his speeding penalty during Sunday’s race, Hamilton bemoaned over team radio: “Ay, handing out penalties like crazy.”

Just after crossing the finish line, Hamilton added: “Every opportunity I give those stewards…every single time they give me a penalty.” 

The stewards found Hamilton had broken the 80km/h limit by just 0.1km/h. It was a harsh penalty, but rules are rules and must be black-and-white to avoid teams gaining from an unfair competitive advantage.  

Vasseur indicated after the race that Hamilton may have pressed the limiter too early on his way out of the pits in his eagerness to re-emerge ahead of Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli. The Ferrari boss also revealed Hamilton had a small lock-up when he stopped, which meant he and his mechanics lost time as they made a slight readjustment, costing them crucial time. 

Hamilton accepted responsibility that his own errors had played a part in his rotten run with the stewards. 

"Ultimately, I think the last three races have been pretty bad from my side. Silverstone was my fault with the start,” he said. 

"The last race, even the driver that I collided with [Russell] said that it was just a racing incident. That one they dished out. I think that one was not needed, but that's cost me a lot of points.

"Then the one yesterday [with Piastri] was really just unfortunate. I take responsibility ultimately, being on track, I should have looked in my mirrors. 

"I thought everyone would have been on the end of the fast lap. And the information I got was right at the end, right by the time he was behind me. So that was a communication error.”

Hindsight only rubbed more salt into the wounds for Hamilton, who felt his third pit stop under the virtual safety car was unnecessary. It ended up opening the door to his latest costly penalty. 

Hamilton, who dropped five points to Antonelli and now trails the Italian teenager by 50 points in the championship, admitted: “You can't make these kinds of mistakes if you want to challenge for a title”.

Ferrari deserves a lot of credit for this season, which on the whole has been positive and a vast improvement and a dreadful 2025 campaign. 

But Hungary was evidence that further steps are needed if Ferrari is to become a true title contender. Mercedes won’t drop the ball often and when it does, Ferrari can’t afford to squander such big opportunities.