Mark Hughes

Managing Director, Mrk1 Consulting and Grand Prix Editor at Motor Sport

F1 for Motor Sport magazine, https://t.co/QaASJWBZJ4, https://t.co/g5CWHSJCR3 and SkyF1.

Articles

Mark Hughes: Overhyped flexi-wing clampdown repeated a 2001 F1 story

3 days ago | motorsportmagazine.com | Mark Hughes

Even in the weeks leading up to the Spanish Grand Prix Red Bull had already begun rowing back a little on its early-season predictions that the new Technical Directive taking effect from Barcelona restricting the flexibility of the front wings would see a competitive reset. One where McLaren was no longer the dominant force.
Gaming the system, but result is the same

5 days ago | motorsportmagazine.com | Mark Hughes

After last year’s Monaco Grand Prix was red-flagged on the opening lap following a three-car accident between Sergio Perez and the two Haas cars up the hill out of Ste Devote, everyone got their regulation tyre change without making a pit stop. Which around a circuit on which overtaking is so near-impossible, it made the race something of a non-event, the top-10 result being identical to the top 10 grid positions.
Racing to the guidelines

5 days ago | motorsportmagazine.com | Mark Hughes

In the opening seconds of the Miami Grand Prix it looked like Lando Norris was going to wrest the lead from Max Verstappen into Turn 2, as the McLaren driver got the power down out of Turn 1 while the Red Bull was squirming on the kerbs, having run out wide. Turn 2 is a quick left-hander and although Norris was on the outside as they charged towards it side by side, he had more momentum and a less compromised approach angle.
Mark Hughes on why no one should write off Max Verstappen

5 days ago | motorsportmagazine.com | Mark Hughes

This sequence gave us three very distinct circuit characteristics to further piece together the competitive jigsaw of how the 2025 cars compare. Miami confirmed with more certainty two things suggested in earlier races: that if the circuit layout doesn’t punish the Red Bull’s narrow balance window too much, Max Verstappen can spoil McLaren’s party – in qualifying. Secondly, the higher the rear tyre demand, the bigger McLaren’s race advantage becomes.
Did McLaren design error lead it to F1 success?

5 days ago | motorsportmagazine.com | Mark Hughes

Sometimes in F1 when a technical problem is encountered, the learning taken from it can be competitive gold dust. McLaren’s current rear brake duct design has been the focus of intense scrutiny from rival teams as the car’s ability to keep its rear tyres cool when everyone else’s are overheating has been a crucial part of its sometimes-dominant performances.
Mark Hughes: Needless F1 team order enraged already-beaten Verstappen

5 days ago | motorsportmagazine.com | Mark Hughes

There was a belief in some camps that the regulation reset of Technical Directive 018 concerning front wing flexibility would form a competitive reset when it came into force for this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix. It did nothing of the sort and Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris converted their front row lock-out to McLaren’s third 1-2 of the season. But it had looked in the balance for a while as Max Verstappen and Red Bull took the challenge to them with an aggressive three-stop strategy.
MPH: Why science alone couldn't crack ground effect F1 cars

1 week ago | motorsportmagazine.com | Mark Hughes

In this final year of the current ground effect regulations – and probably for much of last year too – the technical game which has ruled in F1 for decades has changed. It used to be you’d find more downforce in the wind tunnel, make the parts, put them on the car and you’d go faster. Today that correlation is a little more nebulous – and that has changed the route to success.
Mark Hughes: 'Leclerc is Senna-like at Monaco but his Ferrari's a dud'

1 week ago | motorsportmagazine.com | Mark Hughes

Charles Leclerc hasn’t yet got the Monaco record of those masters of the place Graham Hill, Ayrton Senna or Michael Schumacher but he is every bit as mesmerising around this place – his native streets – as the best of them. Last weekend he qualified and finished only second in a Ferrari that was way more competitive than usual but still not a McLaren match. This only became clear as McLaren turned up its power unit in qualifying.
How Norris ended Leclerc's best 2025 F1 win shot amid Monaco GP 'fun and games'

1 week ago | motorsportmagazine.com | Mark Hughes

Essentially, Lando Norris won the Monaco Grand Prix back on Saturday with his superbly composed pole position. Even talking to him before the cars had started running, there seemed an extra calm and assuredness about him, as if he’d somehow diffused the mounting pressure from his sometimes-wayward performances in the first few races as his team-mate racked up four consecutive wins and moved ahead of him in the championship.
MPH: How Monaco GP might go from procession to pandemonium

2 weeks ago | motorsportmagazine.com | Mark Hughes

The potential for chaos at Monaco this weekend is immense. Quite aside from the standard perils of the place – the close-up walls and mercurial weather among them – another variable has been thrown into the mix by the new stipulation that everyone must make at least two stops, using at least three sets of tyres. “My head’s is still untwisting itself,” said Oscar Piastri after coming out of the pre-weekend McLaren strategy briefing.