19 August 2026 19:00 (UTC)
From mid-summer momentum to new circuits, night races, and a title anniversary: Six reasons to be excited for the season half of the season
With the summer break nearly over, we're looking forward to being back on the track after securing our first win of 2026 last time out.
A near-perfect drive from Lando in Budapest saw the reigning World Champion stand on top of the podium at the Hungarian Grand Prix for the first time as the sport’s Number 1, capping off a strong weekend after his and our first Pole of the season the day before.
Now, after a month off to refresh and recharge, the McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team are ready to hit the ground running at the Dutch Grand Prix and beyond in what promises to be an exciting run of races that takes us from the Zandvoort dunes to the Abu Dhabi marina.
Here are six things to watch for as Formula 1 returns from the summer break.
We head into the second half of the campaign with renewed confidence after Lando’s victory in Budapest.
The result followed a valuable package of upgrades that gave us the opportunity to compete at the front of the field, a chance Lando fully capitalised on. The reigning World Champion will look to build further momentum after his exploits in Hungary. His 12th career win means he sits fifth in the Drivers’ Championship with 128 points – just 10 points behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in fourth.
Oscar was unfortunate not to add a third Grand Prix podium of the season to his tally in Budapest, missing out on a strong finish following contact with Carlos Sainz and a subsequent gearbox reliability issue that forced him to retire. A lightning getaway at lights out had put him in contention for the win, and he’ll be hopeful that he can get back to fighting at the front on a more regular basis in the coming weeks.
Both drivers know there is ground to make up, but if we can maintain the encouraging form shown in Hungary, there’s a belief that we can challenge Mercedes and Ferrari more often during the closing rounds of 2026 and keep the fight alive deep into the season.
Qualifying can provide an important platform in the second half of the season, particularly at circuits where track position is difficult to gain, such as in the Netherlands and Singapore.
So far in 2026, it has been a tale of two halves for Lando and Oscar, with both showing their prowess over one lap at different points of the campaign. Oscar qualified higher than his teammate for each of the first three races and led the overall head-to-head 4-2 after the Monaco Grand Prix, but since racing in the principality, Lando has flipped the script. He went on to start each of the next five Grands Prix higher up the grid.
If both drivers can bring their best Qualifying form to the table at the same time, it will increase our chances of challenging for victories and valuable Championship points as we head towards a decisive point of the season.
F1 will make history in September when the Championship races in central Madrid for the first time, with the Spanish Grand Prix taking place at the new 5.416 km Madring between 11 - 13 September.
We have a strong history at the Spanish Grand Prix, having won nine times across four different venues since Jochen Mass took victory at Montjuïc Park in 1975. James Hunt, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, Mika Häkkinen, Kimi Räikkönen and, more recently, Oscar have all also won the race for us.
The track combines public roads with permanent sections, giving it a street-circuit feel while also featuring fast sweeping turns, elevation changes and the spectacular banked Turn 12, known as La Monumental – a corner with the potential to join Eau Rouge, Peraltada and 130R among the most famous in the sport.
For us and the rest of the grid, the unfamiliar circuit presents a fresh challenge, but it will be one that Oscar, who won last year’s Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, and Lando will relish.
For the second time in a three-race stretch through early autumn, Lando and Oscar will be greeted with a track neither of them has raced on during their F1 careers, as the Sepang International Circuit returns to the calendar. Malaysia will host F1 for the first time since 2017, with the circuit hosting this year’s Bahrain Grand Prix between 2 - 4 October.
Sepang brings back plenty of happy memories, including Kimi Räikkönen’s iconic maiden F1 win in 2003 and Fernando Alonso leading Lewis Hamilton in an famous 1-2 finish in 2007.
Known for its unpredictable, humid, tropical weather, from furnace-hot clear days to sudden rainstorms, Sepang is fast, flowing and home to plenty of corners that are tough on tyres. The sport’s return there will provide a completely new experience for Lando and Oscar, but we know how good the pair are at adapting to the unknown.
Following on from Oscar and Lando’s debuts at Madring and Sepang, four of the last seven races of the season, including the final three, will take place at night. It all starts in Singapore from October 9 - 11, before a triple-header in Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi between 19 November and 6 December.
There are few better sights in F1 than a papaya cars under the lights, and they are very often quick too...
Lando has an outstanding record in Singapore, winning there in 2024 and finishing second in 2023, third in 2022, and fourth in 2021. Oscar scored a podium at the Marina Bay Street Circuit in 2024 and was P4 last year, while neither driver has ever finished outside the top seven. Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina Circuit has been a happy hunting ground for us as well. Lando won there in 2024, before a P3 finish in last year’s race sealed the Drivers’ Championship. Qatar has been stronger for Oscar, with two P2 finishes and a P3, while Lando’s best finish there is P3 from 2023.
We still have work to do to improve on our best finish of sixth in Las Vegas, but we are confident we'll be competitive again when F1 heads into its final run of races under the stars.
The final month of the year will see us mark the first anniversary of one of the most significant moments in our recent history: Lando’s Drivers’ World Championship triumph on 7 December 2025.
Lando memorably secured his maiden title with a podium finish at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, ending a 17-year wait for a Drivers’ Championship, with the British hero becoming our first World Champion since Lewis Hamilton in 2008.
And while we are always looking to the future and finding ways to move forward, the anniversary will provide a chance for the team to reflect on a period of great success that also included the last two World Constructors’ Championships.
