2026 McLaren Mastercard F1 Team

[Slahinki]

It amazing how much these sponsors pay, I watch most races and still couldn't name the vast majority of sponsors on each car, or indeed tell you what their business does.

I ended up buying DeWalt tools instead of Makita just because DeWalt sponsoring McLaren

I got the limited edition drill and driver they did two years or so ago.

[mwillems]

The original.interview is in many places.



https://racer.com/2026/02/09/-early-day ... om-mclaren

[FittingMechanics]

To me this sounds quite positive. Usually they are much more reserved, the data has to be good.

[SiLo]

I don't think any team really knows anything yet. We have had one test, of which one team wasn't even there. The only thing they might understand is how reliable people are.

[mwillems]

Agreed, and I mentioned a few pages back how James and Toto spectacularly misread their own competitiveness in 24.

But they will have indications, and the indications are not yet showing weakness.

Im sure some are already seeing that. So it is positive news. Not to be ignored but not to be relied upon.

[mwillems]

It's interesting that outlets suggest that Red Bull may also take sides against Mercedes. Either they haven't exploited a loophole or haven't done it as well, if it is the case. Or they have a different loophole.

Still, I doubt that anything will happen in the first half of the season, if at all this year, other than to free up other teams to develop more or sooner.

[Ben1980]

It's interesting that outlets suggest that Red Bull may also take sides against Mercedes. Either they haven't exploited a loophole or haven't done it as well, if it is the case. Or they have a different loophole.

Still, I doubt that anything will happen in the first half of the season, if at all this year, other than to free up other teams to develop more or sooner.

If the fia are putting out videos, all but calling out Merc, then things will happen, probably quite quickly.

I think it will be to restrict Merc rather than allow others to go above the limit.

[mwillems]

We will see soon enough, I fully expect there to be a meeting in the middle somehow, but time will tell and nothing in here will decide it.

[mwillems]

What do you think about the speed capabilities of the new cars? I expect the pace will be on par with the 2016 cars.

Fp1 last year in Barcelona was circa 1:13, testing this year was circa 1:16 . This was in colder weather, with no understanding of how much a team pushed in last year or in this test. We understand that some teams didn't push the engine properly to try and hide an advantage,
FP1 in 16 was 1:23 ish, but the track was several seconds slower due to the track changes.

I suspect slightly faster that 2016, but closer to 16 than 25, for sure, but we might be closer to last years times than some people anticipate.

It will be track dependant too, due to downforce loss and then the questions around engines and deployment.

[AndresonWill]

Thanks for rooting for it! Let see..

[FittingMechanics]

McLaren bringing a low amount of softs. Will be interesting to see what laptimes they manage to do.

[Space-heat]

It's interesting that outlets suggest that Red Bull may also take sides against Mercedes. Either they haven't exploited a loophole or haven't done it as well, if it is the case. Or they have a different loophole.

Still, I doubt that anything will happen in the first half of the season, if at all this year, other than to free up other teams to develop more or sooner.

If the fia are putting out videos, all but calling out Merc, then things will happen, probably quite quickly.

I think it will be to restrict Merc rather than allow others to go above the limit.

The FIA have put itself in a terrible spot. They want to avoid an arms race of engine development, but this grey area opens Pandora's box. If they don't find a solution, there will be significant investment from others in 2026, which is counter to Audi's (maybe Honda's) needs.

If the ratio is due to thermal expansion, I could see allowing it for a year and limiting next year with a new hot-dynamic test/sensor.

If the rumour of "pockets" being used is true, that is, in my opinion, beyond the grey area, and the FIA will need a solution for Australia.

The real issue is the advantage it is generating. I don't think the FIA will even know this. It is in Merc's interest that their engine is only slightly ahead, so as long as they are winning, they should limit performance and continually increase as the other catch up.

Could the FIA give the other manufacturers ADUO credits, with the agreement of Merc, outside the 2-4%, to allow them to "catch up"? I just don't see how this reconciles. Either Merc PU teams will be dominant or nerfed. It is hard to see how parity or near parity on the PU will be achieved, which is unfortunate from a competitive F1 POV.

[venkyhere]

The real issue is the advantage it is generating. I don't think the FIA will even know this. It is in Merc's interest that their engine is only slightly ahead, so as long as they are winning, they should limit performance and continually increase as the other catch up.

This is one of the biggest 'headaches' that Toto Wolff is going to find himself in. If the engine was used only by his team, they could possibly 'sandbag' and win by small margins ; however, there are three other teams on it, so the game will be one-upmanship over each other, which will lead to an arms-race where they can't let go of performance, eventually leading to an 'establishment of clear PU advantage via too-clever-not-in-spirit interpretation of rules'.
2026 is going to be interesting not just engineering wise, but politics wise as well.

[gromajor]

there won't be any arms race on the engines, because there's now a cost cap on the development of engines.

[venkyhere]

there won't be any arms race on the engines, because there's now a cost cap on the development of engines.

cost cap on enabling/disabling S/W switches for choosing 5 sets out of 10 different 'global' engine maps over each weekend ?