2026 McLaren Mastercard F1 Team

[SilviuAgo]

Papaya rules are overplayed. They just boil down to race but don't crash each other out. All the other stuff is usually just stupidness that they cause themselves trying to undo very bad strategy decisions (like Monza this year or Hungary last year). They're solvable with a better pit wall team.

If by "set in their ways" you mean their refusal to have a number one driver then I doubt that's ever going to change. It's historically been that way at McLaren since as long as I remember.

My guesstimate is that we will see the worst of 'papaya rules' (forged from a desire to control the uncontrollables, establishing a cause-effect relationship between 'random chance' and their driver's emotional state, where there needn't be any - this comes from a prejudistic conviction that their drivers aren't adults, and are schoolboys who need emotional babysitting) in 2026, when the 'racecraft' advantage of Piastri and the 'faster yet saving tyres' advantage of Norris will bring them closer than ever before, since there is an all new 'learning' that drivers need to undergo when racing on tracks already super familiar to them.

Regarding the rules, strategy, papaya what's so ever they call them, DC made a good point:

[SilviuAgo]

Doesn’t look like the team lost many sponsors for 26. Only one I can see that’s gone is Castore, however I did see Puma were linked to replace them

On Optimum Nutrition main page you will see a video with Lando wearing Puma. So yes, starting 1st of January 2026 Castore OUT, Puma IN.

https://www.optimumnutrition.com/pages/ ... ndo-norris

https://d3q27bh1u24u2o.cloudfront.net/n ... LXX5YK.png

Good spot!

Tks mate!

From my comparison. for the moment there are some missing, like SunGod, K-Swiss, New Era, FAI Aviation Group, Estrella Galicia 0,0, Halo ITSM.
But maybe for some of them there is only the renewal time of the year for a new season, cause for example I expect New Era to stay, they will need caps:)))

[Ground Effect]

Papaya rules are overplayed. They just boil down to race but don't crash each other out. All the other stuff is usually just stupidness that they cause themselves trying to undo very bad strategy decisions (like Monza this year or Hungary last year). They're solvable with a better pit wall team.

If by "set in their ways" you mean their refusal to have a number one driver then I doubt that's ever going to change. It's historically been that way at McLaren since as long as I remember.

My guesstimate is that we will see the worst of 'papaya rules' (forged from a desire to control the uncontrollables, establishing a cause-effect relationship between 'random chance' and their driver's emotional state, where there needn't be any - this comes from a prejudistic conviction that their drivers aren't adults, and are schoolboys who need emotional babysitting) in 2026, when the 'racecraft' advantage of Piastri and the 'faster yet saving tyres' advantage of Norris will bring them closer than ever before, since there is an all new 'learning' that drivers need to undergo when racing on tracks already super familiar to them.

Regarding the rules, strategy, papaya what's so ever they call them, DC made a good point:

I don't think there's a need for a song and dance for it. It's obviously not the engineers decision, he's just conveying a message. If I was an F1 driver, I'd want one voice and one voice only in my ear. Coincidentally, I just finished re-watching the Austrian GP about an hour ago. At a point Oscar went deep and had to lock up as he was trying to find a way past Lando in the first stint. Several laps later Stallard came on the radio and told him "message from pit wall" and cautioned him to be mindful of his maneuvers. I think that's fair enough. Oscar or Lando isn't going to think their respective engineers are ganging up with the rest of the team against them when an order has to be enforced. It's always the engineer, I don't know why he thinks that should change.

[mwillems]

It's an odd point, I don't get why DC is saying this. Just because and engineer is conveying a message or convincing a driver of the teams decisions, it doesn't mean that an engineer hasn't argued for his own driver prior to a message being given - the engineers are certainly not just acting independently. A fully professional engineer is not going to show signs of dissent in the team on the drivers chat, because the media and the other teams would be all over it, with implications around driver mentality going forward. And the team decides what is right for the team as a whole and isn't in a situation where 2 sides of the garage are in a war. Which for the ongoing health of the team is probably the right approach.

Perhaps DC just knows something about the way the team works that we don't. But my take is that the team are absolutely focussed on keeping a united front and disagreements in house, only telling the press and fans things when they thing they need to show an action - or something similar.

Everyone has their own take, but I like the way Stella and Co go about business.

[Emag]

I don't think I have heard any negative comments towards the engineers. If there have been, they are rare.

People who have dislike towards McLaren usually point to three things :

1 - Zak being cringe and annoying.
2 - Stella playing the underdog card too often.
3 - Drivers being "botlers" and unworthy of rocketships

[basti313]

1 - Zak being cringe and annoying.

??? How do you come to this? That would not be attributes that come to my mind.
I think his biggest problem, and this may be a very big issue once they get back to competition, hopefully a leveled field next year is his black and white thinking. Everyone is bad except his own guys and he has very little respect for anyone outside his team. With easy targets like bad boys Horner and Verstappen or Hulk after the US crash, this is no issue. But the shitstorm will be his once he tangos with someone like Ham, Toto or Fred. In this regard I hope he does not change his attitude. Might be some fun coming up.

2 - Stella playing the underdog card too often.

Well, just annoying, right? We had the last 15 years Redbull telling how hard the next weekend will be, Mercedes fearing strongly the competition when turning down the engines to not look too good...
Maybe Stella overdid it a little bit, sometimes I feared he thinks they will not make Q3 this year.
But dislike? No. A bit funny, yes, but I would never dislike him for this. What I dislike is the micromanagement with the drivers like calling back Oscar at Austria and not being honest about it. But in the end, Andrea is one of the highest rated persons on the grid.

3 - Drivers being "botlers" and unworthy of rocketships

No, come on. No one dislikes Nr. 2 drivers.
Do not overreact on this. They are far away from how people dislike Nr1 drivers like Ver and Ham. Or think about how people hated Vettel.
McLaren as a total is far away from this level of dislike.

[Zaamy]

On Optimum Nutrition main page you will see a video with Lando wearing Puma. So yes, starting 1st of January 2026 Castore OUT, Puma IN.

https://www.optimumnutrition.com/pages/ ... ndo-norris

https://d3q27bh1u24u2o.cloudfront.net/n ... LXX5YK.png

Good spot!

Tks mate!

From my comparison. for the moment there are some missing, like SunGod, K-Swiss, New Era, FAI Aviation Group, Estrella Galicia 0,0, Halo ITSM.
But maybe for some of them there is only the renewal time of the year for a new season, cause for example I expect New Era to stay, they will need caps:)))

Puma make hats, and trainers - so don't think New Era and K-Swiss will be back

[Emag]

*cut for better visibility

I simply mentioned what I have come across various social media platforms. Those are predominantly the "reasons" people have for "hating". Since you seem to be unaware of them, I will spare you of the blabbering. Stay off social media

[SilviuAgo]

Good spot!

Tks mate!

From my comparison. for the moment there are some missing, like SunGod, K-Swiss, New Era, FAI Aviation Group, Estrella Galicia 0,0, Halo ITSM.
But maybe for some of them there is only the renewal time of the year for a new season, cause for example I expect New Era to stay, they will need caps:)))

Puma make hats, and trainers - so don't think New Era and K-Swiss will be back

I think we need to wait and see. On reddit was a discussion on this topic:
https://www.reddit.com/r/McLarenFormula ... a_new_era/
And Jeem mentioned some valid point:
"New era have been with McLaren since 2015 and I’m pretty sure they extended at the end of 2023. And Mercedes had both Puma hats and then around 2017 I think can’t remember the exact year the driver hats were made by Branded London. I have like 8 Lewis hats and 3 Bottas hats and they’re Branded London so we’ll probably have both. Also the drivers are still going to wear Alpinestars race gear. The puma deal seems to only off track stuff. Link is below that says this."

[mwillems]

*cut for better visibility

I simply mentioned what I have come across various social media platforms. Those are predominantly the "reasons" people have for "hating". Since you seem to be unaware of them, I will spare you of the blabbering. Stay off social media

Oh they werent mentioned in here on repeat..?

[mwillems]

I don't think I have heard any negative comments towards the engineers. If there have been, they are rare.

People who have dislike towards McLaren usually point to three things :

1 - Zak being cringe and annoying.
2 - Stella playing the underdog card too often.
3 - Drivers being "botlers" and unworthy of rocketships

It was Coulthard who passed comment of the drivers chief engineers. And it was an unusual comment.

There has been criticsm over the season though, largely around the way they present strategy options or try to make decisions with the drivers on the radio, being wishy washy etc

But id like to think our new strategy lead will have his ways of working embedded soon enough.

[Badger]

I don't think I have heard any negative comments towards the engineers. If there have been, they are rare.

People who have dislike towards McLaren usually point to three things :

1 - Zak being cringe and annoying.
2 - Stella playing the underdog card too often.
3 - Drivers being "botlers" and unworthy of rocketships

This list needs major revision.

1. Zak is not cringe. The problem with Zak is he has the self-righteousness of Wolff and the political gamesmanship of Horner, packed into 250 lbs of pure Americana. It's an insufferable combination.

2. No one hates Stella. Papaya rules though, accusations of bias etc.

3. No complaints here, except you can't spell "bottler".

[swifteddie1]

This list needs major revision.

1. Zak is not cringe. The problem with Zak is he has the self-righteousness of Wolff and the political gamesmanship of Horner, packed into 250 lbs of pure Americana. It's an insufferable combination.

I have not laughed this hard in a quite a while.

[Ben1980]

*cut for better visibility

I simply mentioned what I have come across various social media platforms. Those are predominantly the "reasons" people have for "hating". Since you seem to be unaware of them, I will spare you of the blabbering. Stay off social media

Social media also has people hating Lando for something he didnt actually say about Lewis. Its a weird world.

[venkyhere]

Try watching the races on mute, with only the detailed timing+tyres data as supplement to the tv broadcast. It's so much better - we dont get to hear cringe commentary or cringe wisecracks from TPs or PR-coached driver interviews. They anyway show key radio calls as text, so those are not missed. That's how I've been watching lately, and it's 'liberating', believe me.
There wouldn't be much scope for 'blind hatred' of teams/drivers/TPs to develop.