Who are the most successful team and driver at the Hungaroring?

Over the decades, the Hungarian Grand Prix has established itself as a fixture on the F1 calendar. McLaren and Lewis Hamilton are the most successful team and driver in the history of the Mogyoród F1 race. F1Technical's lead journalist Balazs Szabo looks into the most successful teams and drivers in the history of the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The Hungarian Grand Prix first appeared on the calendar in 1986, the first Formula 1 event to be held behind the then already shaky Iron Curtain.

It has been part of the championship ever since, attracting a lot of fans from countries like Finland and Poland for whom the Hungaroring became the nearest venue at which to cheer on their fellow countrymen – for example Mika Hakkinen, Kimi Raikkonen and Robert Kubica - in person.

At a track where overtaking is no easy task, qualifying takes on great importance, which explains why 16 of the 38 editions to date have been won by the pole-sitter and only four times has it been won by a driver who started from lower than the second row of the grid. Lewis Hamilton is the most successful driver here with eight wins and the seven-time world champion also holds the record for pole positions (9) and podium finishes (11).

Of the teams, McLaren leads the way on 11 victories ahead of Williams and Ferrari, joint second on seven, while Mercedes has the most poles (9), one more than McLaren and Ferrari, the latter topping the table for the most podium finishes with 26 ahead of McLaren (23) and Williams (18).

Five drivers have taken their maiden Formula 1 wins at this track, of which Fernando Alonso (2003) and Esteban Ocon (2021) are on the entry list this weekend. The others are Damon Hill (1993), Jenson Button (2006) and Heikki Kovalainen (2008).