Racing
© Jonathan Borba
Leonardo Fornaroli will replace Oscar Piastri in McLaren’s MCL40 for first practice at the Hungarian Grand Prix as the team begins evaluating a significant upgrade package at the Hungaroring.
The rookie outing is tied directly to one of McLaren’s most important development weekends of the season. The team has brought a new floor and other aerodynamic parts to Budapest, with the package set to be assessed across practice, while a developed experimental rear wing originally due to run in Austria will be tested in FP1 only. McLaren said that rear wing is not scheduled to be introduced fully in Hungary or at the following Dutch Grand Prix.
That gives extra weight to Fornaroli’s session. The 21-year-old Italian is McLaren’s reserve and development driver and the reigning Formula 2 champion, and this will be his second official FP1 appearance of 2026 after his debut in Barcelona, where he finished fifth in the session.
Ahead of the weekend, Leonardo Fornaroli, McLaren reserve and development driver, said he had been “very busy in Woking over the past few weeks preparing this session in both the simulator and at the Optimum Nutrition McLaren Performance Hub.” He added that “Every session is a chance to learn more, gain confidence and contribute to the team’s programme for the weekend.”
McLaren heads to Hungary needing more than just clean data. At Spa, the team showed enough pace to suggest a stronger result was available, but left with only fifth place for Piastri and seventh for Lando Norris. In his post-race assessment, team principal Andrea Stella said McLaren left Spa-Francorchamps “with a smaller points haul than our potential.”
That missed opportunity matters in the championship picture. McLaren sits third in the constructors’ standings and is 163 points behind Mercedes after 10 races, which increases the importance of getting immediate value from any new parts.
Randy Singh, McLaren senior racing director, said the team wants to “gather further understanding on how those parts perform throughout Free Practice” during a weekend that demands a high-downforce package, confidence under braking and strong traction. He said McLaren’s aim is to “carry positive momentum into the shutdown” and put itself in the strongest possible position for the second half of the championship.