{"id":829208,"date":"2026-07-28T14:24:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T14:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/829208\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T14:24:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T14:24:15","slug":"zak-brown-bittersweet-mclaren-message-as-hungary-absence-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/829208\/","title":{"rendered":"Zak Brown ‘bittersweet’ McLaren message as Hungary absence explained"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zak Brown declared it a \u201cbittersweet\u201d day for McLaren<\/a> as Lando Norris<\/a> won the Hungarian Grand Prix, and Oscar Piastri suffered.<\/p>\n

In a race where McLaren\u2019s strategy came under the spotlight, Norris clinched his first victory as a world champion in impressive fashion. Piastri, meanwhile, was forced to park his McLaren<\/a> due to a gearbox issue. Zak Brown was not at the Grand Prix in Budapest due to other racing commitments at Silverstone.<\/p>\n

Zak Brown hails upgraded McLaren \u2018step\u2019 at Hungarian GP<\/p>\n

Want more PlanetF1.com coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for news you can trust.<\/p>\n

While there was a great deal of attention on the 16-part Aston Martin upgrade in Hungary, McLaren also came armed with a package for its MCL40.<\/p>\n

It was an impactful debut as Norris clinched pole position by 0.012s from Ferrari\u2019s Lewis Hamilton. Norris went on to secure a statement victory, ahead of Red Bull\u2019s Max Verstappen and Mercedes\u2019 Kimi Antonelli.<\/p>\n

There was pain on the other side of the garage, as Piastri went from victory contender to DNF.<\/p>\n

His collision with Carlos Sainz while trying to lap the Williams proved costly, as McLaren pitted Norris who returned to the track as net race leader.<\/p>\n

It formed part of a series of events put under the microscope by Uros Radovanovic<\/a>, PlanetF1.com\u2019s resident data expert.<\/p>\n

Norris went on to secure his and McLaren\u2019s first victory of the season. The differing fortunes of both drivers were recognised by CEO Zak Brown.<\/p>\n

Brown was not in attendance at the Hungarian Grand Prix, due to his BRDC Classic racing commitments at Silverstone.<\/p>\n

Brown took a GT2B class win alongside his son Max.<\/p>\n

Brown offered his Hungarian Grand Prix reaction via a LinkedIn post.<\/p>\n

\u201cWINNERS in Hungary!\u201d Brown wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cBittersweet day for the team. Mega result for Lando taking our first win of the season and his first as LN1.<\/p>\n

\u201cTough end to the weekend for Oscar after a great drive, being forced to retire from P3 due to gearbox issues and from what could\u2019ve at least been a double podium for the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis weekend has shown we\u2019ve made a step in the right direction right before the summer break.<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks to the team for all their hard work and dedication so far this season, we\u2019ll keep on pushing.\u201d<\/p>\n

More on McLaren from PlanetF1.com<\/p>\n

Adrian Newey holds McLaren MCL40 inspection at Hungarian Grand Prix<\/a><\/p>\n

Sainz offers \u2018pretty good excuse\u2019 for Oscar Piastri Hungary collision<\/a><\/p>\n

McLaren, the reigning Constructors\u2019 champion, heads into the F1 2026 summer shutdown third in the standings<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The gap to Ferrari one position up the road is 87 points. Leading team Mercedes is another 72 clear.<\/p>\n

Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp<\/a> to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.<\/p>\n

You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel<\/a> for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!<\/p>\n

Read next \u2013 Hungarian GP conclusions: Norris afterglow, Piastri the nearly man, Newey insult<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zak Brown declared it a \u201cbittersweet\u201d day for McLaren as Lando Norris won the Hungarian Grand Prix, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":829209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,818,32451,913,44,17165,85,9657],"class_list":["post-829208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-home-page","tag-hungarian-grand-prix","tag-mclaren","tag-news","tag-popular","tag-sports","tag-zak-brown"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=829208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/829209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=829208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=829208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=829208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}