Oscar Piastri had a Friday to forget at the Hungaroring. No FP1 running, no upgrade package, a dusty low-grip track and winds that were catching drivers out all afternoon. He ended up eighth, nine-tenths off team-mate Lando Norris. And yet, somehow, he left the paddock sounding optimistic. Credit where it is due.
The Double Disadvantage
The headline number looks bad. Eighth, well off the pace. But the context matters. Oscar Piastri sat out FP1 entirely to allow reserve driver Leonardo Fornaroli his mandatory rookie run, a regulation that is fine in theory but genuinely brutal when it costs a race driver their only low-fuel baseline lap in tricky conditions.
Then, when Piastri finally got into the cockpit for FP2, McLaren made a deliberate choice to run him on the old-specification floor. The logic was sound: run one car with new parts, one without, and you get clean comparative data. Sensible engineering. Not so great if you are the one doing laps in yesterday’s kit.
“I didn’t have them today. On Lando’s car they’ve been working as expected, which is good. I don’t think they’ve completely changed the car, which obviously we weren’t expecting, but would have been nice.” – Oscar Piastri
The Upgrade Picture
Norris ran the new floor and revised aerodynamic package across both sessions, climbing from eleventh in FP1 to third in FP2, which is a reasonable indicator that the parts do something useful. McLaren senior director Randy Singh confirmed the parts delivered as expected, while acknowledging the team is under no illusions about the size of the gap to the front.
As McLaren debuted their new floor in Hungary alongside Fornaroli’s FP1 run, the team now has a clear picture heading into Saturday. Piastri gets the full package from FP3 onwards, which at least removes one variable from his weekend.
Ferrari Looks Quick. Colour Us Unsurprised.
Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc led both sessions for Ferrari, and Piastri was candid enough to acknowledge it. As covered in our FP2 report, Ferrari’s pace was genuinely impressive on a circuit that suits their high-downforce philosophy.
Piastri’s read on Mercedes is probably the most honest thing said on Friday: very hard to read. Which is a diplomatic way of saying nobody really knows where George Russell and Kimi Antonelli will turn up when qualifying actually matters.
Reasons for Cautious Optimism
Friday pace at the Hungaroring, on a resurfaced track with variable grip and gusty winds, tells you relatively little about Saturday afternoon. Teams run different fuel loads, different engine modes, and different tyre strategies. Piastri knows this, and his reference to executing a clean lap as the route to the top of the timesheets is the kind of grounded assessment that tends to age well.
With the new floor fitted and a full day of running behind him, expect a very different Piastri on Saturday. Whether McLaren can genuinely trouble Ferrari at the sharp end remains the real question, and qualifying will answer it properly.
