2026 McLaren Mastercard F1 Team

[Farnborough]

+0.5 vs Mercedes in the second race, and +0.2 vs Ferrari, is not a really bad starting point of the new regs era. We could have been in RBR position to be >+1.0 and behind Alpine.
I know Mercedes and Ferrari will not stand still, but I consider that McLaren had a better rate of development working on track that those two.

While I agree with you on that past two years record, also feel that McL attention to detail in cooling/brakes/suspension, and how they've brought more extreme attention to detail in those areas, has been reflected in other teams hardware that's obvious from the build images we've seen so far this season.

In other words, the realisation and commitment in other teams has developed well enough in response to bring their competitors up a few notches in their own approach, making it more difficult to show a differential development path here.

[jacme22]

On that last lap Lando dropped 5 tenths on the last sector alone. Huge for just 2 braking zones and a long straight. McLaren also only gets up to 327, whereas Merc goes up to 335. So, yeah, the drag issue is confirmed again.

I don’t see anything critical here, they are +/- at the level of leaders.

Not sure if the speed traps tell the full story this year, but it's also true that Piastri has only been 1.1 tenth off Mercedes. Almost 3 tenths faster than Lando.

Lando and Piastri both complaning the car is hard to drive, and that the rear is giving them issues.

[Emag]

On that last lap Lando dropped 5 tenths on the last sector alone. Huge for just 2 braking zones and a long straight. McLaren also only gets up to 327, whereas Merc goes up to 335. So, yeah, the drag issue is confirmed again.

I don’t see anything critical here, they are +/- at the level of leaders.

Not sure if the speed traps tell the full story this year, but it's also true that Piastri has only been 1.1 tenth off Mercedes. Almost 3 tenths faster than Lando.

Lando and Piastri both complaning the car is hard to drive, and that the rear is giving them issues.

The rear is definitely looser than Ferrari and Merc. You can see it get floaty on the entry of some corners.

Lando like last year had some issues on the last part of the lap. Lost almost 2 tenths to Oscar just in the final 2 corners. The hairpin and the fast T16. Weird.

[Ben1980]

This is where the car is, behind tge top 2 and infront of the others.

All now on the development.

[Ben1980]

We need to lose the weight and bring those upgrades and we can fight at the front.
How many races will we need to wait?

Not as many as it may have been!

[Zaamy]

Andrea has said upgrades are coming from Japan, I was expecting the first ones to be at Miami

[Emag]

I don’t see anything critical here, they are +/- at the level of leaders.

Not sure if the speed traps tell the full story this year, but it's also true that Piastri has only been 1.1 tenth off Mercedes. Almost 3 tenths faster than Lando.

Lando and Piastri both complaning the car is hard to drive, and that the rear is giving them issues.

The rear is definitely looser than Ferrari and Merc. You can see it get floaty on the entry of some corners.

Lando like last year had some issues on the last part of the lap. Lost almost 2 tenths to Oscar just in the final 2 corners. The hairpin and the fast T16. Weird.

Lando just confirmed that he cant seem to nail that last corner. Honestly it doesn't make a difference for them. Ferraris likely blitz past on the start anyway and they dont have the pace to keep them behind either.

If they can find half a second of relative pace to the others then that would put them into contention. Half a second likely wont put them in a position where they can easily win, but it can put them into a position where they can challenge. PU optimization is probably ongoing but they're doing much better in China than in Australia, although that side is rather straightforward here compared to Melbourne. Car is not good enough to challenge the top 2 at the moment. The rear is loose. A good driver can get laptime out of this car on quali, but it's not maintainable on the race. If you start sliding you heat up the tires, which makes you slower and causes thermal deg as well. Depending on how the car is working the fronts you start blistering on top of that and you fall off like a brick.

I think Lando explained it quite well during the Bahrain test. They can get pace out of this car, but it costs them a lot of deg if they try to keep up with the top guys. For McLaren the picture looks a bit better than Australia. Half a second is still a lot, and they would have to do a really good job to outdevelop the others, but it's not undoable. They already did it once in 2024.

For the time being though, beating RedBull is the best they can do on pure pace.

[Mcl_G10]

Andrea has said upgrades are coming from Japan, I was expecting the first ones to be at Miami

Thats great news. I fully expect them to bring enough to bridge the gap certainly to ferrari and then some to Mercedes. The question is how much will those 2 teams improve?

[michl420]

Mercedes and Mclaren do the last 500 m of the main straight ICE only. ANT goes from 332 kmh to 303 kmh, PIA from 330 kmh to 304 kmh. Drag looks very equal. Main loose of the laptime come from going slower on full trottle at the very beginning of this straight.

[FittingMechanics]

Andrea has said upgrades are coming from Japan, I was expecting the first ones to be at Miami

Japan is not a sprint weekend so they will have time to evaluate the upgrade. Then we have 4 week gap to Canada (sprint) and then a 3 week gap.

Important to test upgrades in Japan and Canada before the rest of the season.

About the quali, I thought they had a chance to mix with Ferrari, their last laps were not an improvement. But with race pace being weaker than Ferrari it is probably not a big deal to qualify behind them.

We'll see about the start, Russell will want to overtake Antonelli, Ferraris will push forward, could lead to incidents, Lando and Oscar need to play it smart.

[Macklaren]

Andrea has said upgrades are coming from Japan, I was expecting the first ones to be at Miami

OMG THANKFULLY

[SilviuAgo]

andrea: “at the moment, the third row is a mclaren row. we are working hard to improve this position, obviously. it will be difficult until we deliver some upgrades, which will start happening from japan. for now, we'll have to try and make sure that we do a little bit better than the sprint, if possible”

PS: And to smile a little bit till tomorrow race:

[mwillems]

Andrea has said upgrades are coming from Japan, I was expecting the first ones to be at Miami

Japan is not a sprint weekend so they will have time to evaluate the upgrade. Then we have 4 week gap to Canada (sprint) and then a 3 week gap.

Important to test upgrades in Japan and Canada before the rest of the season.

About the quali, I thought they had a chance to mix with Ferrari, their last laps were not an improvement. But with race pace being weaker than Ferrari it is probably not a big deal to qualify behind them.

We'll see about the start, Russell will want to overtake Antonelli, Ferraris will push forward, could lead to incidents, Lando and Oscar need to play it smart.

The gap will close a bit more from engine learnings, so we are in a decent position given the other teams had more time to develop.

Team have likely done a decent job.

[Emag]

Andrea has said upgrades are coming from Japan, I was expecting the first ones to be at Miami

Somehow I doubt they would have been able to bring "meaningful" upgrades so early. Don't get me wrong, any upgrade is a good upgrade as long as it delivers what is expected, I am just saying you probably shouldn't expect them to suddenly be on pole in Japan. If they came on the third race already then these must have been planned quite a while back. So they likely don't address whatever they found out from late Bahrain and especially Australia.

I think Oscar has mentioned Miami as the track he hopes McLaren can close the gap, so that's probably the one where they're bringing the "big" stuff.

[geogate]

if you are 15 kg heavier than the cars that are ahead of you, then you can catch up without needing to out develop them.
(if there are upgrades in japan, then i would put money on it that it is more weight saving updates rather than aero/mechanical)