{"id":817631,"date":"2026-07-22T02:09:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T02:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/817631\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T02:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T02:09:09","slug":"f1-is-as-confusing-as-ever-plus-what-to-expect-from-ferrari-in-hungary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/817631\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 is as confusing as ever. Plus: What to expect from Ferrari in Hungary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prime Tire Newsletter | This is The Athletic\u2019s F1 newsletter. Sign up here<\/a> to receive Prime Tire directly in your inbox twice a week during the season and weekly in the offseason.<\/p>\n

Welcome back to Prime Tire, where today I spent several hours traveling along a Belgian highway, contemplating the confusing race at Spa, which was\u00a0impressively won by Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the most beautiful of routes along\u00a0the pan-European E40<\/a>\u00a0(a 5,000-mile road connecting France with northeast Kazakhstan, of all places), once the stunning hills of the Ardennes Forest are in your rearview mirror.<\/p>\n

And that about sums up where F1 is right now, with its baffling new cars.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m Alex, and Madeline Coleman will be along later.<\/p>\n

Spoiled: Are classic tracks worth it in the modern era?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sucks. I can\u2019t really say it any other way than that,\u201d said McLaren driver Oscar Piastri.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019ve got qualifying grids decided by computers behaving or misbehaving \u2026 it\u2019s a pretty crap way of going racing.\u201d<\/p>\n

As we\u00a0covered in PT after the British GP<\/a>, Piastri had been glum on the prospect of driving the previously\u00a0fearsome Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps<\/a>\u00a0with the engine-electrical-energy-starved new F1 cars. And that was before he even arrived for the race which he won impressively in 2025.<\/p>\n

Midway through the Spa weekend, Piastri was decrying a new element of how the engines work, costing him valuable time against his teammate Lando Norris.<\/p>\n

McLaren also suspects this is what is\u00a0hurting Mercedes driver George Russell<\/a>\u00a0against Kimi Antonelli, according to what it can see in its data.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis seems to be pretty much the same across the two Mercedes cars. When you overlay Antonelli and Russell, it looks like Lando and Oscar,\u201d McLaren team principal Andrea Stella told reporters after Spa qualifying.<\/p>\n

This all centers on how the engine control units are essentially studying how a driver has acted on one lap, then adjusting how the electrical energy is deployed for top speed in real time on the next.\u00a0The teams can\u2019t simulate it\u00a0\u2014\u00a0the engines are doing it by themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We\u2019re going to be getting into this in greater detail in the coming weeks on\u00a0The Athletic\u2019s website, as it\u2019s a hideously complex topic that requires proper explanation.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s another neat summary of F1 2026.<\/p>\n

But my biggest gripe with this is that there\u2019s a line in F1 sporting rule B1.8.1 that states: \u201cThe driver must drive the F1 car alone and unaided.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is an engine deciding itself how much power a car should have\u00a0unaided? I don\u2019t think so.\u00a0This is the very flummoxing thing with these cars and engines, and F1 overall in 2026.<\/p>\n

These same machines at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya last month were predicted to deliver a snoozefest due to the high overtaking challenge for drivers with how the aerodynamics worked on previous generations of cars. Instead,\u00a0it was a classic<\/a>.
\nIf a formula can turn Barcelona into an intriguing race with plenty of overtaking at the front, it clearly has merits. But how it also neuters the challenge of legendary tracks such as Spa highlights its considerable downsides.<\/p>\n

When I came to the Belgian GP during the COVID-19 impacted season in 2020, the track was empty.<\/p>\n

I stood alone at the fence overlooking the final corners for all three practice sessions and regularly, as the drivers braked from around 200 mph down to just 45 mph for the\u00a0Bus Stop chicane<\/a>, there were thrills and spills: snatched brakes and cars running wide, lurid slides as a driver tried too much apex speed, the stunning motion of the majestic, downforce-laden Mercedes W11 as it\u00a0swung easily from apex to apex<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Watching from behind the catch fencing in front of the same sequence for qualifying at the 2026 Belgian GP (pictured above), I saw none of that.\u00a0Why? Well \u2026<\/p>\n

The cars had depleted their engine energy way back at the start of Spa\u2019s third sector, and so the drivers simply had to brake at the same point each time and gently turn in for the chicane.
\nEvery lap, supposedly at the moment drivers should be at the ultimate limit of their speed in qualifying and therefore at high risk of errors, looked identical. And dull.<\/p>\n

Yet at Spa, watching at\u00a0Eau Rouge\/Raidillon<\/a>\u00a0for opening practice the day before, the new, slightly more nimble cars of this season looked a treat. They were jinking around on the savagely steep hill\u2019s compressions and bumps at high speed. Because here the engines were deploying electrical power.<\/p>\n

F1 2026 giveth and F1 2026 taketh.<\/p>\n

I really hope the rule changes coming\u00a0for 2027 and 2028<\/a>\u00a0make a difference in reducing the swings between good racing and bad.\u00a0And if not, I guess I\u2019m just going to have to accept that not every race can be a classic, as was the case in previous F1 eras. It really stands out right now that duds are coming at tracks that used to be celebrated and loved.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s confusing, even in a season of extreme bafflement.<\/p>\n

Take nothing away from Antonelli though, he\u2019s doing an excellent job at the front of the field. Antonelli (204 points) leads Ferrari\u2019s Lewis Hamilton (159), teammate George Russell (154) and Ferrari\u2019s Charles Leclerc (126) in the drivers\u2019 standings.\u00a0Now let\u2019s throw it to Madeline to go over Ferrari\u2019s prospects.<\/p>\n

Inside the Paddock with Madeline Coleman: Will Ferrari be fast in Hungary too?<\/p>\n

The simple answer would be \u2026\u00a0\ud83e\udd37.\u00a0Like so many times this season, what is said before a race weekend may not be accurate come Sunday.<\/p>\n

The Belgian GP is a great example.<\/p>\n

Leclerc finished last Sunday\u2019s race in second, his fourth podium finish of the season, and he reminded everyone during the post-race news conference that\u00a0Ferrari was \u201cexpected to be very far back, maybe to the extent of four or five tenths\u201d compared to Mercedes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This prediction held true in qualifying, where Leclerc qualified fifth (and 0.532 seconds slower than pole-sitter Antonelli) and Hamilton qualified sixth.<\/p>\n

The race was a different story,\u00a0as Leclerc battled Antonelli late and ultimately finished just 1.952 seconds behind the Mercedes after 44 laps. This followed Leclerc\u2019s victory in the British GP, and both Silverstone and Spa were anticipated to be tracks that wouldn\u2019t suit the Ferrari car particularly well.<\/p>\n

But not only has the team taken a step forward, so has Leclerc,\u00a0who struggled to find a rhythm while Hamilton appeared stronger just a few races ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m confident in saying that I made a step forward. Whether I\u2019m at the level where I want to perform, (the answer is) not yet,\u201d Leclerc said. \u201cThere are still things in the car that I need to drive around. I cannot drive completely naturally, and that is slowing me down in some parts of the race.\u201d<\/p>\n

As far as what to expect of Ferrari in Hungary later this week, Leclerc is remaining cautious. The technical Hungaroring track won\u2019t be as energy starved as Silverstone or Spa, and the drivers can simply just drive, as they did in Monaco.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very difficult to predict the level of performance of every team,\u201d Leclerc said. \u201cI recall the overall feeling before Monaco very well. We arrived and were underperforming compared to what everybody thought we would \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Back to you, Alex.<\/p>\n

\u2018Another Step\u2019: Red Bull team boss praises Hadjar<\/p>\n

Red Bull team boss Laurent Mekies was clearly in a hurry to leave the Spa paddock on Sunday night.<\/p>\n

When his post-race news conference took place, almost two hours after the race concluded, Mekies had changed into his unbranded team-issued traveling kit. And before the final question was asked, Mekies rose back up and attempted to say his goodbyes, before media personnel said he wasn\u2019t quite done.<\/p>\n

Mekies\u2019 time at the team\u2019s facilities during these back-to-back race weeks will be short. Mekies will have just a few days debriefing the Belgian events in Red Bull\u2019s Milton Keynes factory north of London before flying over to Budapest for the Hungarian GP.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a tough second half to his first calendar year as Red Bull team boss \u2014 after his predecessor\u00a0Christian Horner\u2019s axing last July<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 2026, Red Bull launched its\u00a0first engine<\/a>\u00a0on Mekies\u2019 watch, but, as we covered\u00a0a few weeks back in PT,<\/a>\u00a0the pressure on the Frenchman to deliver a big performance step with its 2026 car package is now huge.\u00a0This will ultimately determine if\u00a0Max Verstappen sticks around<\/a>\u00a0through the end of his current contract, through 2028.<\/p>\n

But one thing Mekies hasn\u2019t had to deal with in 2026 is the drama over Red Bull\u2019s second seat,\u00a0which\u00a0plagued the end of the Horner era<\/a>. Isack Hadjar has stepped up to both\u00a0dutifully assist Verstappen<\/a>\u00a0when required and back the Dutchman up with good race results of his own.<\/p>\n

This is exactly what happened at Spa.<\/p>\n

After Hadjar helped Verstappen gain critical time to start on the front row alongside Antonelli, with perfectly executed\u00a0tow tactics<\/a>\u00a0in qualifying, he started 21st as a result of a penalty for\u00a0taking more engine components<\/a>\u00a0than drivers are allocated in a whole season.
\nBut Hadjar bounced back to finish an impressive sixth last Sunday.
\nHe gained with pitstops under both the race\u2019s real and virtual safety car periods, and did great work keeping his tires alive and holding off the charging Norris at the finish.<\/p>\n

Mekies called it Hadjar\u2019s \u201cbest race with us, no question,\u201d\u00a0after his fellow Frenchman joined Red Bull from its junior team, Racing Bulls, for the start of the 2026 campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, it\u2019s not only a spike (of raised performance),\u201d Mekies said of Hadjar. \u201cHe\u2019s been just a little bit better every single race for speed. He\u2019s bringing some speed every time he\u2019s driving.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday is another step.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outside the Points<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfc6 Luke Smith\u00a0broke down Antonelli\u2019s mighty win at Spa<\/a>, with insight from Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc0e Madeline explained why Ferrari was handed a fine for its botched pit stop during the Belgian GP, where Hamilton accidentally\u00a0hit a mechanic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\ud83e\udd13 ICYMI, you can read about all the major moments from the Belgian GP, as well as everything Luke and I spotted behind the scenes,\u00a0in our race-day liveblog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udceb Love Prime Tire? Check out The Athletic\u2019s other newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prime Tire Newsletter | This is The Athletic\u2019s F1 newsletter. Sign up here to receive Prime Tire directly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":817632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-817631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=817631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/817632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}