Mercedes unfazed by McLaren's Hungarian GP victory: 'AI would have predicted it'
Photo: Race Pictures
Updated: 17:20, 01 Aug
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Henry Eccles is a freelance Formula 1 journalist for GPblog, covering breaking news, live race blogs, and features across the F1 calendar. Since joining in 2026, he has produced high-volume reporting on the sport’s biggest stories, alongside feature pieces including analysis and historical content.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff is not worried about McLaren's dominant performance at the Hungarian GP, insisting he won't draw major conclusions from a race where even "artificial intelligence" would have predicted the papaya team as favourites.
For the first time in 2026, neither a Mercedes nor a Ferrari driver was on the top step in Budapest, as Norris secured a supreme, 15-second victory at the Hungaroring, ahead of Max Verstappen and Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli.
Norris' win in Budapest was McLaren's third consecutive victory in the Hungarian capital, with the Woking team having brought significant upgrades, including to the rear wing endplate, and a new floor and board.
Despite some tipping McLaren for a possible late charge at the title such was their pace at the Hungarian GP, Wolff opted to focus on the team's historic dominance at the Hungaroring as a reason not to be too alarmed.
Speaking to media, including GPblog, Wolff said: “When you ask the artificial intelligence who’s the favourite in Budapest, the artificial intelligence is going to say McLaren, because they were the dominant team here in the last few years. I think it was one and two and something like this last year.
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“So, definitely, it is one of the good tracks for them, and not very good for us. So, we need to be careful not to swing from everyone is suddenly competitive to a team is suddenly not competitive.
Wolff: Mercedes need to be strategic over upgrade timeline
Photo: Race Pictures
Wolff did not discredit McLaren's improved performance after the upgrades, but pointed out that Mercedes' W17 has not undergone significant upgrades "for some time," with the Canada GP in May the last major overhaul for the Silver Arrows.
"I think they've definitely done a step, they are in the fight, we haven't brought an upgrade for some time, and you can see that this is going to be a development fight also going forward," Wolff added.
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Focusing more closely on Mercedes' own upgrade timeline, Wolff explained why the German team have been more gradual in comparison with Ferrari, for example, who have looked to introduce updates in a more aggressive fashion.
Wolff said: "We need to be really just strategic about when to bring the upgrades. Rather than just throwing it in at every grand prix like in the past, we cannot do this, so you will have to eventually put an upgrade in and probably you leapfrog a little bit the others and then it kind of flattens out and the other ones coming stronger.
"So, yeah, we're bringing upgrades, we're closely monitoring how much we can bring and at the moment cost cap wise we're in a good spot, we've tried to have it a little bit more second half of the season, waited – and let's see if that's enough.”
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| Pos. | Driver | Team | Points |
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