Will McLaren’s Budapest breakthrough turn the tide?

On Friday at the Hungarian Grand Prix, everything appeared to be following the form book. Ferrari was expected to be quick around the Hungaroring, and Mercedes facing closer competition than usual. There was an update for McLaren, too, but not enough to overhaul Ferrari on raw pace.

Except, it was enough.

In qualifying, Lando Norris was quick enough to take advantage of Ferrari’s failure to improve at the end of Q3 and sneak pole position. Then in the race, he was quicker still.

“What pleases me the most? Just the fact we were so quick, the fact the car was very strong today,” Norris said after taking his first victory of the year. “I was just very happy with a lot of things. I mean, the car was still horrible to drive at times, but quick, and I’d rather have a horrible but quick car than anything else. So, just the pace. The pace I had the whole race, even behind Oscar [Piastri] at the beginning.

“Of course, it wasn’t my finest Turn 2, but after that, seeing what my pace was like and I was just better in every sense, in terms of degradation and pace. I was convinced I could still win the race, even after that – whether I would box or force him to box and I would go long, get fresh tires and come back through. So, I was convinced I could win the race today, and we did.

“Of course, it [Piastri's eventual DNF with a gearbox issue] was unfortunate for him and unlucky, because I think we could have had a one-two. But otherwise, just my pace. My pace to stay so close to him for so long. We were just on another level today, and I felt in a very good flow of things. When the car’s good and when I’m in a good flow, there’s no stopping [me].”

It’s hard to disagree with Norris’ assessment of his pace, as much as you have to feel for Piastri. Track position is key in Hungary, and Piastri had it from the second corner, and looked comfortable but no quicker than his teammate in the opening stint. Once he switched to hard tires, however, Piastri had no answer, and Norris was able to follow extremely closely even before luck conspired against the Australian.

Norris was getting extremely close to making an overcut work even before Piastri’s incident with Carlos Sainz, although there were no guarantees the defending champion would emerge ahead. Once he had that advantage, he disappeared into the distance.

The race leader had the buffer to make a free pit stop for an extra set of tires under the virtual safety car late on, and pulled away to win by over 15 seconds. With such a performance to give McLaren its first win of the year, it’s hard to not look at what it could mean for the second half of the season.

Although he lost the lead on the opening lap, Norris never lost confidence he would get it back. Clive Rose/Getty Images

“I want to believe so [the performance will carry forward]. Considering how good it felt today, I certainly want to believe that we can continue it," Norris said. "There are going to be moments when we struggle more, moments that might be even better, but we know this track is a good one for us. It’s probably one of my best-suited tracks of the year.

“This is maybe as good as it can look for now, but I certainly believe we can still win races. I knew it was coming and the team have put so much work in to make it a car that can finally win again. It’s nice to be able to do it for them.”

After securing his first win as a world champion, Norris tried to focus on just enjoying the moment. There’s now a three-week break that involves a mandatory factory shutdown, and he gets to bask in the result for slightly longer than usual.

“It helps, that’s for sure. It helps you get through it," he said. "The team are still working hard to bring even more to the car. We have tough competition. The Ferraris are quick. Kimi [Antonelli] is the one who is always there every single session. He’s doing a good job. If we want to come back, we need a lot more of these and we need to keep putting pressure on our competition.

“Today, or this weekend, was a perfect weekend for us, but it’s going to be tough. We’ll keep pushing and working hard. I owe the team a lot. They’ve done an amazing job to even get back to winning races at this point, so I’m proud. We need to enjoy a good break. We’re all going to enjoy a nice break and some time off, and hopefully we come back even stronger.”

As it transpires, McLaren might just come back even stronger. The timing is not only good given the longevity of this victory through the August break, but because it comes after a race when the team introduced the first part of an upgrade package. And that upgrade package is the result of a shift in development direction that sources say was committed to around the start of the European season.

Seeing results – both in terms of the final race outcome but also car pace – that back up the decision to follow that path is particularly encouraging for McLaren, with the rest of the upgrade package due to arrive at the first race after the break in Zandvoort.

The optimism is now even greater that the rest of the update will perform as expected, and that the development direction can be followed with even greater confidence. The Miami upgrade did feel familiar as McLaren jumped to the front of the field alongside Mercedes, only to not be able to stay there for more than one race. And this year’s development battle has seen major swings in the pecking order with each passing upgrade.

But the defending constructors’ and drivers’ champions might just have received the proof that they’re back on the right track, and ready to take the fight to Mercedes more often once racing resumes after the summer shutdown.