2026 McLaren Mastercard F1 Team

[AR3-GP]

So basically, a load of bs

They might have been overweight in Bahrain, but they mentioned parts in Australia coming to rectify that. I don’t know if they have mentioned it beyond that but it would be pretty hilarious if they did. Not sure what purpose it serves to lie about it.

Stella said Mclaren want to go below the weight limit. It's said that Sauber is as much as 10kg below.

"Certainly, working on reducing the weight of the car is always a development item, because even if you are at the weight limit, you want to be actually under the weight limit, because then you can play with ballast," he explained to media, including RacingNews365, during testing in Bahrain.

https://racingnews365.com/mclaren-hopin ... ttleground

[Emag]

So basically, a load of bs

They might have been overweight in Bahrain, but they mentioned parts in Australia coming to rectify that. I don’t know if they have mentioned it beyond that but it would be pretty hilarious if they did. Not sure what purpose it serves to lie about it.

Stella said Mclaren want to go below the weight limit. It's said that Sauber is as much as 10kg below.

"Certainly, working on reducing the weight of the car is always a development item, because even if you are at the weight limit, you want to be actually under the weight limit, because then you can play with ballast," he explained to media, including RacingNews365, during testing in Bahrain.

https://racingnews365.com/mclaren-hopin ... ttleground

That would be quite impressive for Audi if true, but it's also rather bad news in a way since they're a fair bit behind the top teams while being in an advantageous position with the weight.

As for McLaren, I looked into some quotes and it seems like this weight thing has been mostly been pushed around by the pundits. McLaren only mentioned the Australia parts specifically and also this quote you linked to right now, which I guess makes sense for all teams. In any case, I think it's clear that for McLaren at least, the pace relative to others (Ferrari specifically, since they're pretty much 1:1 with the weight), needs to come from actually improving the car.

[FittingMechanics]

That would be quite impressive for Audi if true, but it's also rather bad news in a way since they're a fair bit behind the top teams while being in an advantageous position with the weight.

As for McLaren, I looked into some quotes and it seems like this weight thing has been mostly been pushed around by the pundits. McLaren only mentioned the Australia parts specifically and also this quote you linked to right now, which I guess makes sense for all teams. In any case, I think it's clear that for McLaren at least, the pace relative to others (Ferrari specifically, since they're pretty much 1:1 with the weight), needs to come from actually improving the car.

Yeah I am not sure why everyone thought McLaren is heavily overweight. They never said they were, they said they are working on weight (as everyone) and that it makes sense to work on weight even if you are at the limit (implying they are not far).

The talk of upgrades was always about normal development.

I'm more surprised about Red Bull. Why wouldn't they say they are very overweight? Can the engine be overweight?

[CjC]

They couldn’t fire up either cars before the race. There was an issue with Landos battery (probably failed). Oscars car was an easier repair to make but obviously didn’t have enough time to fix it before the lights went out.

https://apple.news/AMtw7KVCxQSeZK-PVwoUV4Q

[SilviuAgo]

According to Stella on Saturday the current car is a solid platform but slightly underdeveloped. He highlighted the difference compared to 2023, explaining that this car doesn’t have a concept problem and simply needs further development. He also said the team is on schedule with its development plan and is taking inspiration from other cars while designing new parts. At the moment, the main limitation appears to be on the chassis side, particularly a lack of aerodynamic downforce.
On Sunday, after the double DNS, Stella said that while the team understands what the issue was, they still don’t know the root cause and need a physical inspection. Initial analyses suggest the problem does not appear to be related to the chassis. Both cars seem to have suffered issues involving the same power-unit component, but with different types of failures.





Original source in German: https://www.motorsport-magazin.com/form ... r-piastri/

[trinidefender]

Known weights of cars (from Reddit)

MCL40 - 697.5+82 (driver minimum weight) = 779.5 kg

SF-26 - 698.5+82 = 780.5 kg

RB22 - 716.5+82 = 798.5 kg

A526 -696.5+82 = 778.5 kg


McLaren, Ferrari and Alpine are similair in weight, while RedBull are almost 3 times as much overweight compared to the McLaren, so they have much more to gain from weight reduction.

I am mentioning this as I don't think McLaren reducing weight is the magic bullet some here are making it to be.

Can't find any info on Mercedes' weight.

Where did these numbers come from?

[Badger]

Known weights of cars (from Reddit)

MCL40 - 697.5+82 (driver minimum weight) = 779.5 kg

SF-26 - 698.5+82 = 780.5 kg

RB22 - 716.5+82 = 798.5 kg

A526 -696.5+82 = 778.5 kg


McLaren, Ferrari and Alpine are similair in weight, while RedBull are almost 3 times as much overweight compared to the McLaren, so they have much more to gain from weight reduction.

I am mentioning this as I don't think McLaren reducing weight is the magic bullet some here are making it to be.

Can't find any info on Mercedes' weight.

The driver ballast would be included in the weight of the car at the weighbridge, so you just need to add the weight of the driver (75 kg). It basically puts the car at the weight limit (772 kg).

[emp]

Isn't that the dry weight? They dont have the fluids in them IIRC at the grand prix weekend pre-check.

[Balalu]

Known weights of cars (from Reddit)

MCL40 - 697.5+82 (driver minimum weight) = 779.5 kg

SF-26 - 698.5+82 = 780.5 kg

RB22 - 716.5+82 = 798.5 kg

A526 -696.5+82 = 778.5 kg


McLaren, Ferrari and Alpine are similair in weight, while RedBull are almost 3 times as much overweight compared to the McLaren, so they have much more to gain from weight reduction.

I am mentioning this as I don't think McLaren reducing weight is the magic bullet some here are making it to be.

Can't find any info on Mercedes' weight.

Where did these numbers come from?

From people observing the weighbridge.

[CjC]

Still lacking on the PU front.

As Piastri explained, McLaren "leaves every qualifying session feeling like we've done a good job of maximising the power unit and then we get back and find there's a chunk of time that we didn't realise".

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/why- ... g-already/

[organic]

I'm almost certain that McLaren will make huge strides forward in the first half of the season. Expecting them to be fighting with Ferrari and Merc regularly by halfway point.

[SilviuAgo]

I'm almost certain that McLaren will make huge strides forward in the first half of the season. Expecting them to be fighting with Ferrari and Merc regularly by halfway point.

To be fair though, I feel like the MCL40 is one of the most base looking car on the grid, like a car you get in a beginning of the game. I feel like the team decided to make the most basic efficient car possible.

And some good news, McLaren believes they’ve extracted more power from their PU, and that they can get even more. Some of the deficits of performance to Mercedes is also due to car design (i.e., shorter car leading to less downforce). Upgrades expected by Miami to help.

[Emag]

With regards to the wheelbase, if the previous flat floor era is to be taken as a reference, pretty much nobody managed to beat the Mercedes long wheel base concept until it was crippled with the floor cut in 2021. So it's interesting that McLaren went for this.

The shorter car does help with other things though, for example, you should (theoretically) have an easier time on slow-speed corners. From that little data we have available in Bahrain, McLaren was rather good in T1-T2 actually, so this might be a legitimate advantage of the chassis. However, McLaren was worse in medium-high speed corners there. Particularly T8 and T11. Remains to be seen if they can claw back the downforce deficit while maintaining the strength in lower speed corners.

As for the PU, I think all teams have room for growth there. Perhaps even Mercedes. It's just that Mercedes at the moment is closer to the optimum than others, while also having a very strong engine for obvious reasons to begin with. Japan should be an interesting race. If they finally manage to finish a race with both drivers, it should give us some good indications of strength/weaknesses of each car before heading into a long break. Pretty much all of them are bound to bring major upgrades in Miami, so I am expecting the cars to have different performance indicators from there. It then would depend on who has the biggest rate of development and who manages to bring the most pace with their upgrades to see if the pecking order changes or not.

[dia6olo]

With regards to the wheelbase, if the previous flat floor era is to be taken as a reference, pretty much nobody managed to beat the Mercedes long wheel base concept until it was crippled with the floor cut in 2021. So it's interesting that McLaren went for this.

The shorter car does help with other things though, for example, you should (theoretically) have an easier time on slow-speed corners. From that little data we have available in Bahrain, McLaren was rather good in T1-T2 actually, so this might be a legitimate advantage of the chassis. However, McLaren was worse in medium-high speed corners there. Particularly T8 and T11. Remains to be seen if they can claw back the downforce deficit while maintaining the strength in lower speed corners.

As for the PU, I think all teams have room for growth there. Perhaps even Mercedes. It's just that Mercedes at the moment is closer to the optimum than others, while also having a very strong engine for obvious reasons to begin with. Japan should be an interesting race. If they finally manage to finish a race with both drivers, it should give us some good indications of strength/weaknesses of each car before heading into a long break. Pretty much all of them are bound to bring major upgrades in Miami, so I am expecting the cars to have different performance indicators from there. It then would depend on who has the biggest rate of development and who manages to bring the most pace with their upgrades to see if the pecking order changes or not.

I’m not sure that under these regs a cars cornering abilities counts for much.
I would say that overall the Ferrari looks like the car most capable in the corners.
The problem as I see it though is that if you use that cornering ability more than your competitors, you pay for it twofold, less charge and more tyre tress.

It’s an era were it pays to be fast in the straights not the corners, or rather not the corners at the expense of the straights & tyres...

[De Wet]

Is there a possibility of testing in April due to the cancellations ?