2026 McLaren Mastercard F1 Team

[AR3-GP]

None of what I saw surprised me, apart from holding off Max at the end.

There's going to be work to do, and as a customer the team is already on the back foot. But, could be worse, we could have signed up with Honda.

Mclaren and Honda made contact about a PU supply for 2026. The-race reported it in 2023. Mclaren probably saw that HRD was just interns and said "No thanks".

From 2023: Initial contact made over possible McLaren-Honda F1 reunion 

[f1isgood]

None of what I saw surprised me, apart from holding off Max at the end.

There's going to be work to do, and as a customer the team is already on the back foot. But, could be worse, we could have signed up with Honda.

Mclaren and Honda made contact about a PU supply for 2026. The-race reported it in 2023. Mclaren probably saw that HRD was just interns and said "No thanks".

From 2023: Initial contact made over possible McLaren-Honda F1 reunion 

They also visited RBPT.

[Jaymz]

Race pace was awful but like I said yesterday with all of the problems we are facing and since this was the first time for us with the new PU, it was to be expected. What a shame for PIA, infornt of his home crowd.... : (

As for the race, it sucked big time, whoever has battery left is so much faster than the other car, is this what we wanted when we asked for DRS to be removed? In China next week, this problem will only go worse.

DRS wasn't removed. It was doubled, given more freedom for design and renamed. And yes with the added boost it is all even more artificial.

This is a series for the iPad kids. All telling people around them that are less interested the nuances in F1, about battery power deployment. Welcome to the future.

[Frank73]

I thought all PU customers had to have identical hardware and software.

I think you get the same tools (software to make the plan) but they don't have to give you the data they use to make their deployment/charging plan.

Everyone develops their own.

Yeah but they had three testing sessions to fine tune deployment strayegy. Mercedes had more time to optimize it on the latest spec power unit, but still the huge difference in performance seen in quali and race is difficult to explain. New spec engine cannot be "that" different.

[SilviuAgo]

And when you think McLaren didn't change Lando's FW during Q3 due to lack of spares.

[proteus]

And when you think McLaren didn't change Lando's FW during Q3 due to lack of spares.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HC4oUFXboAE ... ame=medium

A bit of duct tape and it could be on its way

[lh13]

How many GP distances Mercedes covered in the last 3 days of testing? That's how long it'll take McLaren to get the PU up to speed on Mercedes' level. Even then, Mercedes did all of that on the same track, taking the guess work out of their changes / optimizations, and they'll be constantly improving during all of the race weekends where McLaren is figuring out the new PU.

[SilviuAgo]

And when you think McLaren didn't change Lando's FW during Q3 due to lack of spares.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HC4oUFXboAE ... ame=medium

A bit of duct tape and it could be on its way

Hahaha, so true
The scariest part is that we duct tape the FW, only to last a lap, and mercedes took THIS car, fixed it in 2 hours and it was p2 in q3:

[SilviuAgo]

Red bull and McLaren have pace but it seems they destroy their tyres much faster than Mercedes or Ferrari do.

[avantman]

Red bull and McLaren have pace but it seems they destroy their tyres much faster than Mercedes or Ferrari do.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HC5dhVmWkAA ... =4096x4096

Red Bull and McLaren were on 2 stopper, which naturally allowed them to lap faster than as if they would be on 1-stopper, particularly very suboptimal one(like Mercedes). This data is very misleading, stained and would always make them look better. Ferrari and particularly Mercedes are much further ahead on pace.

[FittingMechanics]

Red bull and McLaren have pace but it seems they destroy their tyres much faster than Mercedes or Ferrari do.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HC5dhVmWkAA ... =4096x4096

Red Bull and McLaren were on 2 stopper, which naturally allowed them to lap faster than as if they would be on 1-stopper, particularly very suboptimal one(like Mercedes). This data is very misleading, stained and would always make them look better. Ferrari and particularly Mercedes are much further ahead on pace.

Agreed. But I would like to point out that two stopper was probably not optimal in this race and the gap is increased because of that (bit of copium for myself)

Optimal strategy is likely to start on mediums and pit only under second VSC.

[vorticism]

Oscar Piastri on the reason behind his crash in the reconnaissance lap:
"Essentially I had 100 kilowatts more power than I've had the whole weekend at the point that I shifted and when I shifted went into a wheel spin and given that I was on the curb already it was a combination of bad factors so obviously just very disappointed."

https://www.racefans.net/2026/03/08/pia ... ore-start/

He was in a wrong mode? Verstappen had something like the same problem in reverse during Q1.

[AR3-GP]

Agreed. But I would like to point out that two stopper was probably not optimal in this race and the gap is increased because of that (bit of copium for myself)

The gap isn't bigger because they stopped twice. It's actually smaller because Lando stopped twice. Lando would have been almost lapped if he didn't make the second stop. His pace on the hards in middle stint was up to 24.0 at the end. Russell was doing 22.7-22.8 on hards that he had since lap 12. Another 26 laps at this pace and it's very close to being lapped.

[FittingMechanics]

Agreed. But I would like to point out that two stopper was probably not optimal in this race and the gap is increased because of that (bit of copium for myself)

The gap isn't bigger because they stopped twice. It's actually smaller because Lando stopped twice. Lando would have been almost lapped if he didn't make the second stop. His pace on the hards in middle stint was up to 24.0 at the end. Russell was doing 22.7-22.8 on hards that he had since lap 12. Another 26 laps at this pace and it's very close to being lapped.



https://i.postimg.cc/d3bxfxPh/image.png

I admit, I forgot how bad those hards were in those laps. If that pace continued to deteriorate then he would have been lapped.

[Mansell89]

What’s the situation with Mercedes PU and what they supply to customers guys?

Can someone explain it simply to me?

Is it correct that all teams now have the latest spec engine? But that in testing only the Merc works team had it, so spent 6 days optimising it and mapping it whilst the customers worked with the original spec.

Is it not the duty of the HPP partners to support McLaren and other customers to extract the best from it?

It just feels a bit like that hollow 2014 reg reset if there are fans being played, which would disappoint me as someone who wants to see genuine competition.

It’s likely to take several race weekends for customers to really get to grips with the PU right?