A hidden McLaren quirk that may have cost it F1 Hungary pole

At a circuit packed with medium speed corners, where downforce is king, it would have been silly to bet against one of the McLaren cars grabbing a comfortable pole. Silly… yet correct. 

Until Q2, though, the prospect of a McLaren defeat looked remote. Lando Norris headed Oscar Piastri by half a tenth, with a surprisingly quick Aston Martin of Lance Stroll third. The two McLarens were the only cars to dip below the 1m15 mark, while eventual polesitter Charles Leclerc was almost six tenths off after a lacklustre 1m15.6s lap put him sixth.

Both track and air temperatures dropped throughout the session, but a much bigger factor was a sudden 90-degree change of wind direction as the Q3 shootout got underway, while the average wind speeds increased, and gusts picked up in intensity.

That change is easy to trace on the telemetry as well, with drivers suddenly anywhere between 5 to 8 km/h slower on the main straight, as a crosswind turned into a headwind for cars to punch into.

As a result of the changing conditions, the track became slower on average, with Leclerc the only driver out of the 10 Q3 drivers to go faster, largely explained by a sizeable mistake in Q2.

Intriguingly, the change in conditions affected the otherwise dominant McLarens much more than the competition, with both Norris and Piastri around half a second slower in Q3 than they managed just minutes earlier.

“Without disclosing too much of IP, let me say that when we look at the wind direction in some corners, then we can recognise that in some of the corners where we lose the most compared to ourself in Q2, we see a certain wind pattern” – Andrea Stella

 

Analysing the data

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari vs Oscar Piastri,, McLaren, comparison Qualifying laps Q2 and Q3

Photo by: Motorsport Network

According to team principal Andrea Stella, around one tenth was down to his drivers taking fewer risks than Leclerc, while four tenths could be replicated in the simulation data as being genuine lost car performance. That would also explain why it affected both drivers quite evenly.

When asked by Autosport to shed light on a confusing Q3 shootout, Stella replied: “We definitely had a significant change of conditions. From Q2 to Q3 everyone went slower. We went slower by about half a second in average. Actually, we simulated the change of conditions in our simulations and it gives a little bit less than that, but about four tenths of a second.

“I think for Lando and Oscar, after they had seen in the first run that conditions had changed, that the grip wasn’t what they expected, that every corner was going to be a bit unpredictable, I think in the second set they needed to be a bit cautious.

“When you race for the championship, you want to make sure that you are there. I think this is a slightly different approach for Charles. I think he just went for it, and it paid off. And this is a credit and merit to a very good execution by Ferrari and Charles.”

Leclerc did do exceedingly well to snatch pole away from the McLarens, but that still doesn’t explain why McLaren lost so much lap time against its own lofty benchmark. And while Stella was cagey to reveal too many secrets, he hinted at a certain wind sensitivity becoming McLaren’s Achilles heel at the Hungaroring.

Did wind direction matter this much?

Lando Norris, McLaren

Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images

“Without disclosing too much of IP [intellectual property], let me say that when we look at the wind direction in some corners, then we can recognise that in some of the corners where we lose the most compared to ourself in Q2, we see a certain wind pattern,” he explained.

“So, when we look at our aerodynamic maps, then we can correlate with the fact that it is not unexpected that in corners in which we have this variation of the wind pattern, then we pay the biggest price. I cannot disclose what these conditions are.”

However, overlaying the GPS data with the wind direction, there seems to be enough information to figure out what is going on. The wind change made cars tricky to drive everywhere as drivers adapted to the different downforce levels and car balance, but there are two key corners where Piastri and Norris were losing more time against their own benchmarks than others; Turns 13 and 14.

Here’s what we’ve pieced together:

• The combined 0.250s both Norris and Piastri lost through the Hungaroring’s final corner sequence appears to point to an exaggerated sensitivity of the MCL39 in crosswinds.
• Turn-in for the 180-degree Turn 13 left-hander started in a headwind, and as the downforce gradually fell away both drivers were having to end up making corrections through mid-corners crosswinds. As the circuit turns back onto itself, the opposite is true for Turn 14, which started more squirrely in a tailwind before turning into a headwind which helped cars rotate onto the straight.
• Both drivers also lost around half a tenth in the higher speed Turn 11, which became a crosswind corner as well. And lower Turn 14 exit speeds then help explain why the McLarens lost more time on the straight compared to their direct rivals, to the tune of 0.150s between the start-finish line and the braking zone for Turn 1.

Whether a crosswind sensitivity is the full story or just a part of the explanation for McLaren’s puzzling performance loss, it didn’t come to a surprise for the team given these 2025 cars bear few secrets any more past the season’s halfway point.

“It is an interesting confirmation that there is nothing random,” Stella added. “Formula 1 cars are aerodynamic machines that base their lap time pretty much on the aerodynamic forces. They depend in the first order on the wind direction and the wind intensity, and this is what we have validated today.”

But Stella is still confident his cars can take the fight to Leclerc on Sunday, regardless of whether or not the 40 percent chance of rain materialises.

“I’m kind of optimistic that we will be able to express the pace of the car at full potential,” he concluded. “I’ve been saying to some of you already that Ferrari was in the game, Ferrari seemed to be competitive, but at the same time we are confident that we will have the pace to fight for the victory.”