“Remember me?”
Welcome back to the Dre’s Race Review series, and this time F1 marks the halfway point of the 2026 season (Or so we thought), as they head to the 40th Anniversary of the Hungarian Grand Prix. New grandstand and media center, and yet the same strategy and tire preservation racing that dragged us through to a surprise winner and another intriguing twist in the title race. Remember the World Champion on this grid? Yeah! Let’s talk about it!
But First, the Bahrain GP in Malaysia?!
Breaking news that was announced today, we’re back up to 23 races as for one night only, Sepang is back on the menu!
It turns out that Bahrain in the background had been working hard behind the scenes to organise a new GP in its absence, due to the ongoing “tension” in the middle east. Thanks Donald. And with it, Sepang at the last minute has come through to host what’ll be called the Gulf Air Bahrain GP in Malaysia. It’s giving the Tour de France starting in Spain kind of energy.
But seriously, it’s great to see Sepang again. It’s probably the #1 track on the board that people have wanted back on the calendar and I think it’s the best of the modern-day Tilkedromes that have been the staple of new additions to the sport. Fast, flowing, multiple passing opportunities, and in the context of the 2026 cars, plenty of chances to regen so it should be a good race to not hear about bullshit clipping. And it’s worth noting, October is Malaysia’s second wettest month of the year.
The only drawback to me, is that the run-in is now tough. This now makes the October block a Triple Header, and now we finish the 2026 season with nine races in eleven weeks. Triple Header, rest week, rinse and repeat twice. I get that fans don’t really care because they’re getting fed plenty of racing regardless but for those in the paddock having to book a sudden trip to Malaysia that no-one knew was coming until maybe a week or so ago, and one less break week in there to handle, that’s a shit deal. And personally, given the people I know and love in the paddock, I will always have empathy towards them.
We have 23 races as it stands, but with more instability in the Middle East, Qatar and Abu Dhabi’s status is up in the air. Jon Noble of The Race reported that if they can’t happen, Imola is prepared to step in to host a race in December. Y’know, if it isn’t underwater by then. And hey, it could be a Kimi Antonelli Italian coronation by then. Hmmm…
We Do Still Have A World Champion
It’s funny that McLaren has felt like they’ve been on the sidelines all season. Norris’ World Title win at the end of the year felt overshadowed by Max’s influence and near-comeback, as well as the vitriol between fanbases over Oscar Piastri and alleged unfair treatment. And now this season they’ve had to play second fiddle to Mercedes’ dominance as the factory team again, and an awful start due to poor reliability. But this? This was Lando Norris’ weekend, and one of the best of his career.
He narrowly took pole in dramatic fashion after no-one was able to improve on their second runs but him, stopping Hamilton’s record-breaking attempt at a 10th Hungaroring pole position by just a hundredth of a second.
But Norris had a disastrous start, running wide at the first two corners off the line despite starting on the clean side, and falling behind teammate Oscar Piastri. And with it, we got another infuriating brief return of Papaya Rules. Oh, joy.
Norris was the quicker man, and it was obvious he was the quicker man. But this is Hungary and you need a delta higher than Snoop Dogg to actually pass someone straight up with all the dirty air. So we got half of the race where Norris had to get real close to Piastri but unable to make a move. We got Norris asking to be let by, or to be given the undercut on the road, which we all know in Hungary is worth 2-3 seconds, but again, Papaya Rules, lead car takes priority.
But the running post-second stomp was a disaster for the Australian. He gets caught in traffic and Carlos Sainz’ drives into the side of him, the Spaniard claiming he couldn’t see Piastri come by, a boneheaded bit of ignorance from a driver who really should know better. While this was happening, Lando Norris was building up a tyre delta, six laps worth. He has his second stop and came back out in the lead, and then started putting a second a lap on Piastri’s head.
It just showed that McLaren were prepared to compromise their chances of win by maintaining the status quo so much that Max Verstappen (Who was having an awful time in his car), was within undercut range. This is why I have ongoing concerns about Andrea Stella as a pitwall team principal because the obvious play here is to have Lando be your lead guy to protect your lead.
I’m genuinely tired of McLaren continuing to play “Happy Families” here just to protect their two Number 1 drivers’ feelings. And this season, Lando Norris has been the better driver in race trim. It’s baffling driver and team management and it makes my head spin. And then Piastri’s gearbox dies and his day his done. So this was all pointless! *headdesks my table*
Once Norris got out in front, he was gone. He eventually won by 15 seconds, an absolute clobbering of the field. Behind him, Max Verstappen took track position off the Ferrari’s and held on for second after a 29-lap soft tyre stint at the end of the race. It was a really odd race from a tyre standpoint. 31c air temperature, 51c track temperature and a race warmer than expected turned the talk of 1-2 stoppers into three stoppers across the board. Not only that, but the tyres felt like the 2010 Pirelli’s, where you had a graining phase but once you got through it, the tyre just didn’t wear anymore and you were able to ride it out. We saw Gabriel Bortoleto also manage a similar stint at the start of the race.
Behind Max, Kimi Antonelli made the two-stopper work and finished third, a superb damage limitation job given Mercedes looked about the weakest they’ve looked all season, definitively second best car at best. But Kimi, like he’s always done, has extracted the maximum out of his package. Especially compared to George Russell, who had the anti-stall kick in off the line, dropping to 15th and having to crawl his way back to seventh. That man needs a hug, the sympathetic one the nerd gets in high school from the hot girl when it’s the end of year Disco.
Similar deal with Ferrari, who were a non-factor beyond one-lap pace. Charles Leclerc started second and was in strategic no-man’s land trying and failing to make the two-stopper work, and Lewis Hamilton giving away another freebie position by speeding in the pitlane. His fourth penalty in the last three races. Come on, man. Ferrari’s not really threats for the title (At least I don’t think so), but they’ve got to execute better than this.
Honestly, I salute the entire podium, all three of them drove their nuts off to get there, all exceptional drives and well earned. Great to see Norris on his day is still untouchable, Verstappen despite hating it with every fibre of his being the alchemist he is with the fourth best driver on the grid, and Antonelli having the best possible “bad day” at the office. Sport’s still in very good shape up the front.
Before The Lightning Round…
A quick story. I’m a huge fan of the Secret Base YouTube Channel. It’s formerly SBNation, and is fronted by Jon Bois, arguably the greatest sports documentarian alive today, telling cool and ridiculous stories about sports, history and culture, often via stats that can seem complex, but understandable. From the warped history of the MLB’s Seattle Seahawks in baseball, to why there’s virtually no-one in sports called “Bob” anymore. He’s a genius and it saddens me that no-one in the F1 space even comes close.
At 1am on Sunday morning, I saw a piece of content that was the nearest we’ve ever gotten to something of that nature. Now, I’m a little hesitant to share it because it’s a Substack, and they have a horrible reputation for being a platform for awful people (Neo-Nazi’s), so make a moral choice if you must, but it’s an absolutely incredible piece based on Sun Tzu’s Art of War, and how it relates to F1 strategy via a quirky and fascinating vessel – F1 TV’s Ruth Buscombe, former pitwall strategist for Ferrari, Haas and Sauber. And with it, she made an amazingly ballsy argument – Have Max Verstappen give up his P4, and start from pitlane.
Speaking of Jon Bois, one of his many videos was on something he called “The Surrender Index”, trying to measure and quantify how cowardly it was for an NFL Head Coach to punt the ball in a game. He used a mathematical formula based on 4th down yardage, distance to the goal, time left in the game and what the current score was, and it was excellent. During said piece, he refers to David Romer, a world-renowned economist who applied his decision-making process and related it to NFL Strategy. If you know your football, he said in said piece that even a 4th and 3, ON YOUR OWN 10-YARD LINE, gave you better than average odds to go for it. Which to the average fan, would be considered Kamikaze.
I’m not going to give away everything here, but Ruth’s argument comes from her experience on pitwall, the history of Hungary as a track using examples like Ross Brawn adding a stop to Schumacher’s race in 1998 to win via qualifying laps, Lewis Hamilton in 2021 and what she thought was a safe call that cost him the win and a flashpoint in that title fight, the nature of losing out on the dirty side of the grid and that Hungary as a track, and Max;s dodgy “macarena” wing to form her argument. And while I don’t think it’s a winning one, like with the NFL, going for it on a 4th and 3 from your own 10 is a bit too radical for my tastes, I certainly felt the argument was way more compelling after the fact.
Ruth’s a Cambridge-educated, first-class degree holder in Aerospace Engineering, I’m just a twat with a blog. Making maths on that level a digestible read is a herculean task, and while I still think this will be a tough to get through for some, this is an exceptional bit of writing, worth the effort, and some of the best quality content that F1’s ever seen. So much so it was worth this whole section and a future video. So go read it, we need way more of this shit in our sport. Ruth, I salute you.
The Actual Lightning Round
Three straight weekends with points for Audi, and Hulkenberg’s best finish in Hungary in 16 years. It’s very impressive what the factory team are doing, regularly beating teams in the same bracket as them who are on blatantly better power units like Williams and Alpine, and mixing it up with Racing Bulls, the best midfield team on the grid. If they can keep the car reliable, they’re definitely fast enough to get chunky points going forward.
I’m still not sure what’s stupider, Carlos Sainz getting that penalty (You couldn’t see the blue flag boards, not see the McLaren coming in the mirrors, AND was told on the radio beforehand?), or the fact the stewards used his excuse of not being able to see him as mitigation to knock his penalty down to five seconds. Absolute howler that I think even VAR in football would have handled better.
Ollie Bearman missed ELEVEN blue flags enroute to a 5-second penalty. I know there were GPS issues with them, but use your eyes brother!
Must say, beautiful work from Hungary to get their new media center and grandstands going. They looked great and it showed with a record 310,000 weekend attendance too.
Seven consecutive Top 6 finishes for Hadjar, and superb assistance with helping Max early on too. Will say it again too, this man is doing the work of the lord. Exactly what Red Bull needs.
Props to Aston Martin, they weren’t kidding – The new update really was worth two seconds a lap, with as near to a B-Spec car as you get. Congratulations, you’re now basically what you were last year, lower-midfield! (Genuine props to Lance Stroll, well driven on his… 200th start?! God.)
How many brake and suspension failures have Cadillac had since their new update? Think we’re close to half a dozen.
Missing: Haas. If found, return to Banbury again.
The Verdict: 6/10 (Decent) – Not a classic, but a fun strategy race seeing the transition from 1-2 to 2-3 stops. Didn’t even mention a pass of the year contender from Max Verstappen with an absolute SEND on Hamilton in the early running too. Hungary produces interesting racing, and this was no exception. See you after the Summer Break, for the Dutch Grand Prix.
