McLaren confirm more upgrades are on the way after Hungarian GP breakthrough

The reigning world champions introduced a significant upgrade package in Hungary that delivered exactly as expected, allowing both drivers to fight for victory. Lando Norris ultimately converted that pace into his first win of the season after also securing his maiden pole position of the year in qualifying.

McLaren is not planning to stop developing the MCL40 after its successful upgrade package in Hungary, with further improvements already scheduled for the races following the summer break. While the team has additional updates in the pipeline, it has yet to decide exactly when development of the current car will come to an end.

“At the moment, we’ve got smaller upgrades arriving at the next sequence of events, and then potentially something more substantial for Baku. After that, it really will depend on whether we find something substantial in aero after the summer break, and whether we think there’s value in doing an end-of-season package or fully switch to next year’s car,” Houldey said.

Houldey also revealed that driver feedback has confirmed the MCL40 remains difficult to extract performance from consistently, despite its competitiveness. As a result, McLaren's focus is not only on increasing aerodynamic load, but also on making the car easier to drive at the limit in both qualifying and race conditions.

The Briton believes his victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix was built on one of the strongest performances of his Formula 1 career, with the McLaren driver feeling he had the pace to beat Oscar Piastri regardless of how the race unfolded. After spending much of the afternoon running close behind his teammate on a circuit where overtaking is notoriously difficult, Norris came away convinced that his race pace would have allowed him to take victory under any strategy scenario.

Speaking to GPblog and others, Norris said staying within less than a second of Piastri for almost 40 laps on a track where following another car is extremely challenging gave him the confidence that he held a clear pace advantage. The Briton also dismissed the idea that the difference came from the machinery, pointing out that both McLaren drivers have identical cars.

Instead, he credited the improvement to the work he has put in since last season, explaining that he now feels far more confident extracting performance from the MCL40. Norris added that countless hours spent working with his engineers to better understand the characteristics of the car and consistently drive it at the limit have been the key factors behind his recent step forward.