2026 Hungarian Grand Prix - Hungaroring, July 24 - 26

[amr]

I can see it being the case to not need to recover the full 9MJ in Qualification as the braking opportunities are all around the lap and you don't need to top up too much the battery for the next section. SOC will probably fluctuate between 70-30% most of the lap and just in the first corner will go lower.
However, in the Race I'm sure they will underfuel and make full use of the energy recovery limit as it does not carry a wight penalty as the fuel does.

[gearboxtrouble]

Wouldn't the harvesting surplus here render overtake mode meaningless? It isn't a power boost this season but a 0.5MJ energy boost. If you can only deploy 6.6MJ a lap anyway then the extra energy won't make the slightest difference.

[AR3-GP]

on the evidence of FP1, there is 0 superclipping.

[michl420]

Wouldn't the harvesting surplus here render overtake mode meaningless? It isn't a power boost this season but a 0.5MJ energy boost. If you can only deploy 6.6MJ a lap anyway then the extra energy won't make the slightest difference.

This part of it, but there is also the much longer max deployment curve.

[venkyhere]

Went through the lap plots for Q sim run by the 'big 4' :

Mercedes - car was out of balance and after correction, couldn't run due to red flag, so 'unkown'

McLaren - 'showed their hand' the most

Redbull - hiding straightline speed, and not deploying the full quota

Ferrari - hiding the most by not deploying full quota, in spite of that, Sector3 is spectacular, leagues ahead of the others, by atleast -0.25s in this shortest sector.

[zibby43]

Went through the lap plots for Q sim run by the 'big 4' :

Mercedes - car was out of balance and after correction, couldn't run due to red flag, so 'unkown'

McLaren - 'showed their hand' the most

Redbull - hiding straightline speed, and not deploying the full quota

Ferrari - hiding the most by not deploying full quota, in spite of that, Sector3 is spectacular, leagues ahead of the others, by atleast -0.25s in this shortest sector.

Degradation was very high on the resurfaced track, which looked quite bumpy. Combine that with the wind and it was a very messy session.

Ferrari, Mercedes, and RBR (particularly VER on the M) all looked strong with respect to the long run. Ferrari the favorites based on today's running.

Leclerc - 24.186 (S)
Antonelli - 24.220 (S)
Verstappen - 24.364 (S)
Verstappen - 24.447 (M) - 5-lap avg.
Russell - 24.656 (M) - 10-lap avg.
Norris - 24.703 (M)
Hamilton - 24.836 (M)
Hadjar - 24.911 (M)
Piastri - 25.423 (M)

[gearboxtrouble]

3 stop might be viable on Sunday

[search]

looked more like graining than high deg to me, so could actually get better with higher temperatures

[AR3-GP]

3 stop might be viable on Sunday

Any time you pit first, you are in a vulnerable window where everyone ahead of you can pit under a VSC or safetycar for free. Multi-stoppers are not worth the risk imo. It will be difficult to overtake when you rejoin the race.

[zibby43]

looked more like graining than high deg to me, so could actually get better with higher temperatures

Looked for team debriefs to see if any further light could be shed on this and according to GR, the deg. was higher than anticipated. We’ll see but the run data is clearly pointing to something.

[gearboxtrouble]

3 stop might be viable on Sunday

Any time you pit first, you are in a vulnerable window where everyone ahead of you can pit under a VSC or safetycar for free. Multi-stoppers are not worth the risk imo. It will be difficult to overtake when you rejoin the race.

Passing wont be easy but the front runners should have a decent gap to pit into behind them. With deg like this I suspect the undercut would be mega around here.

[AR3-GP]

Wouldn't the harvesting surplus here render overtake mode meaningless? It isn't a power boost this season but a 0.5MJ energy boost. If you can only deploy 6.6MJ a lap anyway then the extra energy won't make the slightest difference.

I looked at the track speeds during race sims and I think overtake mode would start ~at the start-finish line. Cars must start the ramp down at 285km/h unless they are in overtake mode. The cars reached 285km/h at the start finish line during the race sims.

[CjC]

I see the track is breaking up at the final corner just like it did in Monaco.
I thought F1 was the pinnacle of motorsport??

[Waz]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNdO7p1WUAE ... name=small
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNdO7pzXUAA ... me=360x360

This is interesting from a political perspective. Toto has been very vocal for most of the season about how many upgrades Ferrari are bringing. And the narrative around McLaren has been that they are biding their time and working to a plan based on resource restrictions for the champions.

This tells a different story.

We can also make the assumption that Mercedes are holding back on upgrades until they get caught. Confident approach but also sensible, and we have seen it before. I fully expect they will try to brute force as much of the season as they can.

[dren]

Just Toto Totoing.