2026 Hungarian GP Betting Preview

After an exciting visit to Belgium, the F1 roadshow rolls into Budapest. Check out his 2026 Hungarian GP betting preview and ante-post selections below.

2026 Hungarian GP

The Belgian GP saw a modest profit of +2.68 points, taking the season to date tally to -8.58 points. We now head to Hungary for the 2026 Hungarian GP, the final race before the summer break.

Antonelli stretched his lead over Lewis Hamilton to 45 points in the Drivers’ Championship, but Ferrari closed the gap in the Constructors’ Championship to 73 points.

For this weekend’s race we will see two major upgraded cars. At the top end of the table, McLaren bring their second big upgrade of the season, and at the bottom of the pile, Aston Martin bring what is basically a new car, but still with an unchanged Honda power unit. At Racing Bulls, Liam Lawson will get the upgrade that was only available for Linblad last weekend.

2026 Hungarian GP: The Track

Something of a modern classic, in my opinion. It is often likened to a go-kart track, or Monaco without the barriers. It is a short lap of just 4.381 km. That is the third shortest on the calendar after Monaco and The Red Bull Ring, and it is a very different proposition to last week’s, long, fast, hilly Spa Francorchamps.

The Hungaroring was purpose built for Formula 1 and was first used in 1986. It sits in a natural amphitheatre, giving fans up in the main grandstand a view of all of the track. It attracts fans from all over Europe, with a lot of Finns making the trip.

The track features a long start-finish straight which ends with a hairpin corner leading to a short, downhill straight into a long, slow left hander and into a quick right hander. Overtaking is generally limited to braking into the hairpin at the end of the straight or through the second and third corners. After that, the track is made up of short straights and nine corners and a chicane, offering up very little chance to overtake.

Straight Mode Zones

The FIA have allocated four straight mode zones, but only the ones on the long straight will be of any use. Outside of the long straight, it is a very busy lap for the drivers with one corner following another in quick succession.

It is not a power track and these new power units will be far better suited to this track than Spa or Silverstone. Slow corner performance is important, which should suit Ferrari, but as ever, Antonelli remains the favourite.

Some might say it is a bit Mickey Mouse, but it has produced some great races and some strange results, and big wins for me! It is the home of first-time winners, including Damon Hill, Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button, Heikki Kovalainen and most recently, Esteban Ocon.

The Weather

This is race number 11 on the calendar and we still have not seen a wet session, never mind a wet race. The forecast for this weekend is for hot, sunny conditions for all three days, peaking with 32c on race day. There is a small chance, now less than 10%, of a shower on Sunday afternoon. Expect the TV pundits to over rate the chances of rain, as per usual.

2026 Hungarian GP: The Teams

Mercedes 

After Antonelli enduring two pointless races in Spain and Britain, it was Russell’s turn to get zero points in Spa. He was punted off the track on lap one and that was his race run.

Things had not been going well in any case. Russell was suffering with a power deployment problem. The team are still at a loss to find the cause, but on a power critical track like Spa, Russell was going to struggle in any case. It should be less of a problem here, if indeed the problem still exists.

Antonelli was back to winning ways and seems to have the beating of his teammate now, but he still has to watch out for the improving Ferraris.

Ferrari 

Second and fourth in Spa last weekend. I picked the wrong driver for the podium finish, but the car had good pace and kept Antonelli honest. Ferrari have been 1st or 2nd in five of the last six races, but only managed one double podium. Double podiums are hard to come by, as we now have four different teams all in with a shout. Even Mercedes have manged it just once in the last eight races.

Ferrari have not won here since 2017 and Leclerc has never finished higher than 4th place. Hamilton has won here on eight occasions. Twice for McLaren and six times for Mercedes. Could he do it in a third team? He certainly knows his way around the track.

It does look like a track that should suit the Ferrari, but the same was thought about Monaco and they managed a disappointing 2nd place for Hamilton and a DNF for Leclerc having qualified 3rd and 4th. The 2026 season is not one for going to expected form, but they have to be seriously fancied.

Rumours are that Ferrari will have a rear wing upgrade as they continue a program of development, until the cash runs out.

McLaren 

Finally get a big upgrade on the car, or at least half of it. The second part comes in the Netherlands after the summer break. The funky rear wing never got used in Belgium but the team say that it will be put on one of the cars in FP1 for back-to-back comparisons. Will it finally get used in battle? Who knows.

McLaren have dominated here for the last two years with 1-2 finishes and one win each for the two drivers. Their season has been up and down, a couple of podiums for both drivers, but they have been out developed by the likes of Ferrari and Red Bull. They hope that this new upgrade will make them race win contenders again.

Norris drove a great weekend in Belgium last weekend but had to take a 10-place grid penalty, no doubt with this race in mind. They wanted the car and power unit to be sorted on a track they think they could win on. Norris does seem to hold the upper hand at McLaren and he was heading for a podium finish last weekend until the VSC mixed things up and it must be said it wasn’t McLaren’s finest hour strategy wise.

Another team eying the podium, and for good reason. McLaren are the winning most team at the Hungaroring.

Red Bull 

Hadjar was the star driver for me in Hungary. He had to start from 21st place and finished 6th. He too was looking good for an even better finish until the VSC blunted his strategy by allowing everyone to get a cheap stop and ruin his tyre strategy advantage at the time. He is coming of age in F1 now, and who knows, with a bit of luck, maybe he can join the first-time winner in Hungary club.

Obviously, Verstappen would have to be compromised in some way, but Hadjar is getting close enough to take advantage if he does. The team owe him one for helping out Max last week, but you may not see Max rushing to pay him back. Max is a two-time winner here, with two more second places.

Racing Bulls 

Now tied on 61 points with Alpine and with momentum on their side. They only had enough parts to upgrade one car last weekend, and that went to Linblad. He qualified 8th and finished 9th. Lawson gets the same upgrade this weekend and is very much looking forward to it.

They missed out on a double points finish last weekend as Bortoleto in the Audi has top 10 pace and finished 8th for the second race in a row. Lawson was 8th here last year which bodes well for him.

Alpine 

Have not made Q3 since Monaco and their one lap pace has really dropped off in the development wars. It then becomes an uphill struggle to try and make it back into the points on Sunday.

If Audi, or even just Bortoleto, are going to be in the points mix again, then Alpine are going to get squeezed even more. Upgrades are needed. Gasly has not scored a point here for the last four years and Colapinto was 18th on his track debut.

Haas 

Still in 7th place in the Constructors’ Championship, but they have been pointless in the last four races. They haven’t even been close. The car had upgrades in Spa but while the team said they worked, it was ultimately a disappointing weekend.

Williams 

Not getting their upgrade until Baku, after the summer break. They are stuck in the lower midfield, but on a lower speed track, as was the case in Monaco, they could be more competitive. They qualified 10th and 11th in Monaco, their best qualifying performance of the season by far, and Albon finished 8th. He was helped by having Norris, Verstappen and Leclerc all failing to finish. Expect a better performance from Williams, but points are still unlikely.

Audi 

With back-to-back 8th places for Bortoleto, Audi have moved to just one point behind Williams. They will be going all out to overtake them, before Williams come with their upgrade.

Bortoleto is establishing himself as the top driver at Audi, and perhaps the Hulk’s time in F1 is coming to an end? The German has one point from his last nine races here. Bortoleto finished 6th here last year.

Audi are said to have a really good chassis and are held back by the brand new Audi power unit. They didn’t do much in Monaco, but Bortoleto is worth keeping an eye on again this weekend.

Aston Martin 

For once, everyone is talking about Aston Martin and not because they are unbelievably bad. This weekend is the light at the end of the tunnel. Yes, the Adrian Newey designed B spec car finally hits the track. A ‘massive upgrade’, or a totally new car if you like, but still ‘powered’ by the desperate Honda engine. That upgrade comes later.

Newey has been quite bullish and believes that the new car will put them close to the points. That would be a massive improvement and sets the bar very high. Just not being last would be a start, beating the Cadillacs and maybe a couple of the back markers. Making it into Q2 and so on. It will be interesting, but impossible to say where they will end up.

Cadillac 

Improving but still off Q2 pace. If Aston Martin’s upgrade does work, they could be back to the very back.

2026 Hungarian GP Summary

This race has the potential to be a bit different. It isn’t a complete outlier of a track, but it is a short, low speed layout that should bunch the field somewhat, and it is already getting quite competitive at the front. Mercedes are the team to beat, but they have been beaten in Spain and Silverstone by Ferrari.

With Ferrari’s slower speed corning prowess, this is a track that should suit, but that means very little in 2026. When Leclerc was asked if he believed he could carry this momentum into next weekend’s race at the Hungaroring, Leclerc said it’s too difficult to be sure how good his team will be heading into any given weekend. “We could be, but we could also not be, and we’ll never know until we go there,” he said. “I think it’s very difficult to predict the level of performance of every team”.

Unpredictability

And there is the rub for ante post predictions under new regulations. What should happen, based on previous performances, often doesn’t. Ferrari have gone much better than expected on track where they expected to struggle. They are probably the most unpredictable of the top teams but also have been the only one to actually beat Mercedes to race wins.

Which Ferrari driver will lead their charge, if indeed they are contenders?

This is arguably Hamilton’s strongest track. Yes, he has won at Silverstone nine times, and ‘only’ eight in Hungary, but he has had nine poles at the Hungaroring, his best for poles and he has led for more kilometres here than anywhere else.

Hamilton Tracks

Other very strong tracks for Hamilton are Silverstone, Barcelona and Montreal. We have already visited those three tracks in 2026.

In Montreal Hamilton finished 2nd and beat his teammate in qualifying and the race. In Barcelona he won, set the fastest lap and beat his teammate in race and qualifying. At Silverstone he was beaten by Leclerc in both qualifying and the race, but qualified and finished third.

On tracks where Hamilton has a particularly good record he has performed very well at in 2026. He was compromised last weekend by trashing his car in FP3. That meant a big rush to rebuild the car in time for qualifying. He later said the car wasn’t quite right after the rebuild. He then sustained car damage on lap1 in the race and was stuck with that for the race. There was a 5 second penalty thrown in, but after all that he still managed fourth place.

I am reluctant to get involved in ante post bets right now, due to the fluidity of the form, but I will take an each way chance on Hamilton to shine on a track on which he has gone so well before. Hamilton is generally a 5.00 shot, but that is win only. The best odds with a firm paying e/w the top three is Pokerstars. Skybet, Boylesports and Betfair go 4.50.

2026 Hungarian GP Tip: 1 point e/w Lewis Hamilton to win @ 4.80 with Pokerstars

And just to be even more contrary I will have a second ante post bet, but a very small, speculative one.

Isack Hadjar is in very good form with six consecutive top 6 finishes. Last week he did it from the last row on the grid. He also crossed the line 3rd in Monaco (and was paid out by the bookies).

The car has improved since then, as have others, but his tail is up, the car has been reliable, he has a very fresh power unit in the car after last week’s change and he looks like he can get a podium before the end of the season. It may well come on one of the quirkier tracks, of which is one.

Funny things have happened here and maybe they will once more. Red Bull are set to run with their funky rear wing this weekend having taken it off for Spa.

2026 Hungarian GP Tip: 0.5 point Isack Hadjar to finish on the podium @ 26.00 generally available

-JamesPunt