Lando Norris claimed his first Formula One victory since becoming world champion last time out in Hungary. McLaren had brought a number of significant upgrades to their MCL40 car, which team boss Andrea Stella admitted “was a surprise” that they had worked so well.
A Fiery Off-Track Clash with F1 Leadership
Yet the weekend began with Norris fiercely criticising the F1 leadership for placing the commercial value of the sport ahead of sporting competition. His comments received a swift response from F1’s CEO, who observed that the polling numbers of fans signed up to f1.com suggested they were happier with the racing this year than they were in 2025.
He also put Norris and his fellow drivers on notice that it was F1 management who would decide the direction of the sport, not the competitors. Despite this off-track diversion, Norris claimed pole position while his teammate Oscar Piastri could manage only third place.
Opening Lap Drama and Piastri’s Misfortune
At Turn 2 on the opening lap, the world champion ran wide, allowing his Aussie teammate to take the lead. The tight and twisty nature of the Hungaroring meant that despite Norris looking like the quicker driver, he was forced to stare at the rear wing of the sister McLaren until the pit-stop sequence.
The team called Piastri in on lap 33 to cover the undercut from Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari, but the Aussie returned to the track mired in traffic from midfield cars that had yet to stop. Then a collision with Williams driver Carlos Sainz at Turn 2 damaged Piastri’s McLaren, costing him between 5 and 10 points of downforce, which would ruin his chance of winning.
Meanwhile, Lando pushed on, showing his superior pace and building a lead before stopping on lap 39 and emerging ahead of his unhappy teammate. The damage Piastri suffered may well have contributed to his gearbox failure, forcing him into retirement on lap 56.
Silver Bullet or Driver Brilliance?
In his post-race interviews, Norris claimed for the first time this year he had felt truly at one with the car, claiming the upgrades had been a significant reason for his comfortable victory, some 15 seconds ahead of second-place Max Verstappen.
Much was made by the broadcasters of the McLaren “silver bullet” upgrade, yet Mercedes are now downplaying their engine customer team’s improvement, suggesting it was more a case of the stars aligning for Norris.
A somewhat defensive Simone Resta, Mercedes deputy technical director, sought to downplay their rival’s car improvements on the Nu Silver Arrows Radio Show:
“For sure, it’s a sizeable update and it must have had an impact on their performance, but also, if you look at the gap between their two cars, it’s significant as well.”
Dissecting the Norris vs. Piastri Intra-Team Gap
Piastri was forced to sit out FP1 for McLaren junior Leonardo Fornaroli, and the lost track time saw him almost eight-tenths of a second slower than Norris in FP2. With Norris fastest in the final practice session, Oscar closed the time gap to his teammate to under half a second.
The margin in qualifying shrunk again, but Piastri was to start the race in just P5, while Norris claimed pole position by just 0.012s from Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton.
“We have seen, in general, McLaren as a team that has performed well on many occasions this year,” continued Resta. “With a bit of up and down between the two drivers in terms of who is the fastest one,” he suggested. Yet with Norris some 36 points ahead of his teammate, the data suggests it has been the British driver who has squeezed the best out of the MCL40.
However, the Mercedes boss believes the race weekend in Budapest was epitomised by Lando Norris finding a particularly strong connection with his car.
“We have seen some strong performances from Norris already every time this year,” he added. “And maybe he was in a very good place with the car and the set-up in these conditions and tyre management, and he executed very well. So I think it’s probably a combination of both aspects.”
Heat Turns Up in Brackley as Championship Lead Shrinks
Resta’s comments come as McLaren and Ferrari are piling the pressure onto the championship leaders, and Mercedes’ once-near dominance is now looking questionable. Major issues with reliability have affected the Silver Arrows, which Resta acknowledges has forced the team into an increasingly intense effort to understand their failings.
Mercedes have failed to win a title since the constructors’ championship in the fateful year of 2021. The fact they have returned to top billing in F1 is the reason Resta claims they are now under the microscope:
“I think this is as a result of the level being higher in Formula 1,” he said. “You really need to squeeze out everything in every single aspect, and we are lucky we got a lot of experience in the team. We’ve got good processes, good tools. We just have to really keep our relentless effort in just nailing them one by one with the right prioritisation.”
The heat is clearly being felt in Brackley, as following the Austrian Grand Prix they led Ferrari by 98 points. Across the three subsequent race weekends, this has now fallen to just 72 points. Resta says the response from Mercedes must be, “nothing emotional, just simply rationally analyse all of them, make sure we have the right fix at the right time and speed up this process. We’ll be a better team after we sort out all of this.”
Unresolved Troubles at the Silver Arrows
It’s interesting that Mercedes’ deputy technical director appears to play down McLaren’s improvement, suggesting Norris was a key component in the win in Hungary. In Formula One, without a car capable of winning, even the finest of drivers will struggle, as Max Verstappen is proving this season.
There remain issues with George Russell and his mysteriously “slower” car, which the team has admitted is something they don’t understand. Now with McLaren looking imperious, Toto Wolff may not be sleeping quite as well as he was at the start of the season.
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The Judge, a nom de plume of an experienced F1 journalist and site founder with long-standing sources across the paddock. With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
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