Toto Wolff urges F1 restraint after McLaren breakthrough victory

Toto Wolff has urged caution over claiming that F1 teams have made big leaps in performance after McLaren's breakthrough Hungarian GP. 

McLaren's first big upgrade since the Miami GP was deployed at the Hungaroring, allowing Lando Norris to storm to a first pole of the year, which he then converted into a first grand prix as reigning world champion.

Throughout the first half of 2026, it has not been uncommon for teams to make huge strides forward after bringing upgrades, such is the immaturity of the current chassis regulations, with teams largely out of sync as to when they deploy their new parts. 

This can create waves of teams rising and falling as the upgrades are introduced, but Wolff, whose Mercedes team has not delivered a big package since Canada at the end of May, believes that caution should be exercised over the swing. 

"When you ask the artificial intelligence who [were] the favourites for Budapest, the artificial intelligence is going to say McLaren," Wolff told media, including RacingNews365. 

"Because they were the dominant team [at the Hungaroring] in the last few years, I think it was a one-two last year. 

"So definitely, it is one of the good tracks for them, not very good for us, so we need to be careful not to swing, you know, from 'everyone is suddenly competitive to a team is suddenly not competitive.'

"They've definitely done a step. They are staying 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 going forward."