2026 McLaren Mastercard F1 Team

[SilviuAgo]

This is hilarious, first they --- McLaren by waiting until the last possible moment for the updated engine and software in Australia and now they want advice from Mclaren on how to exploit the software.

https://amp.nextgen-auto.com/en/formula ... 08089.html

According to la gazzetta dello sport, mercedes is reportedly looking to mclaren for advice on the new engine after mclaren’s strong performance in miami. mercedes engineers are curious about how mclaren is handling the new engine software, which seems to be a key factor in their pace.

Earlier in the season, mclaren expressed frustration over the limited engine information coming from mercedes HPP and now it seems mercedes is turning to mclaren for insights.

[Darth-Piekus]

If Mclaren want to respect themselves as a name they should never give information about how they did it. Make them find it themselves.

[De Wet]

Yet another example on the argument for us to produce our own engines.

[WardenOfTheNorth]

This is hilarious, first they --- McLaren by waiting until the last possible moment for the updated engine and software in Australia and now they want advice from Mclaren on how to exploit the software.

https://amp.nextgen-auto.com/en/formula ... 08089.html

According to la gazzetta dello sport, mercedes is reportedly looking to mclaren for advice on the new engine after mclaren’s strong performance in miami. mercedes engineers are curious about how mclaren is handling the new engine software, which seems to be a key factor in their pace.

Earlier in the season, mclaren expressed frustration over the limited engine information coming from mercedes HPP and now it seems mercedes is turning to mclaren for insights.

Mercedes partnered with Microsoft, they're probably still installing the latest Windows security updates.

Meanwhile McLaren, partnered with Google, are making improvements in leaps and bounds!! Lol

[FittingMechanics]

As I've mentioned before, I hope McLaren and other Mercedes teams (except factory) are doing massive data sharing to beat them at their game.

[AR3-GP]

I would take that article with a grain of salt, personally. Certain factions of media want to sew a drama between Mclaren and Mercedes for entertainment purposes.

[SilviuAgo]

This is hilarious, first they --- McLaren by waiting until the last possible moment for the updated engine and software in Australia and now they want advice from Mclaren on how to exploit the software.

https://amp.nextgen-auto.com/en/formula ... 08089.html

According to la gazzetta dello sport, mercedes is reportedly looking to mclaren for advice on the new engine after mclaren’s strong performance in miami. mercedes engineers are curious about how mclaren is handling the new engine software, which seems to be a key factor in their pace.

Earlier in the season, mclaren expressed frustration over the limited engine information coming from mercedes HPP and now it seems mercedes is turning to mclaren for insights.

Mercedes partnered with Microsoft, they're probably still installing the latest Windows security updates.

Meanwhile McLaren, partnered with Google, are making improvements in leaps and bounds!! Lol

I am sure Mercedes didn't expected McLaren to catch up so quickly, but they forget last years Zak brought a lot of smart guys at Woking. Maybe the plan was to keep McLaren "blind" for first half of the season and to have maybe a fight between Mercedes and Ferrari and in the second part McLaren to catch up and to take points mostly from Ferrari, allowing Mercedes an easy 26 campaign.
And off topic Mercedes has now also "Kimi problem". Or at least Russell has it. Was clear favorite to this year title and now Kimi brought him some real headaches, so McLaren capability to understand Mercedes engine and energy deployment is not the only problem Mercedes has these days.

Meanwhile at McLaren, Lando is trying to steal Lewis's MP4-23

[Cassius]

This is hilarious, first they --- McLaren by waiting until the last possible moment for the updated engine and software in Australia and now they want advice from Mclaren on how to exploit the software.

https://amp.nextgen-auto.com/en/formula ... 08089.html

According to la gazzetta dello sport, mercedes is reportedly looking to mclaren for advice on the new engine after mclaren’s strong performance in miami. mercedes engineers are curious about how mclaren is handling the new engine software, which seems to be a key factor in their pace.

Earlier in the season, mclaren expressed frustration over the limited engine information coming from mercedes HPP and now it seems mercedes is turning to mclaren for insights.

Mercedes partnered with Microsoft, they're probably still installing the latest Windows security updates.

Meanwhile McLaren, partnered with Google, are making improvements in leaps and bounds!! Lol

I am sure Mercedes didn't expected McLaren to catch up so quickly, but they forget last years Zak brought a lot of smart guys at Woking. Maybe the plan was to keep McLaren "blind" for first half of the season and to have maybe a fight between Mercedes and Ferrari and in the second part McLaren to catch up and to take points mostly from Ferrari, allowing Mercedes an easy 26 campaign.
And off topic Mercedes has now also "Kimi problem". Or at least Russell has it. Was clear favorite to this year title and now Kimi brought him some real headaches, so McLaren capability to understand Mercedes engine and energy deployment is not the only problem Mercedes has these days.

Meanwhile at McLaren, Lando is trying to steal Lewis's MP4-23

They actually did expect others to catch up. This based on Toto and Kimi interviews. They have targeted Canada as the race for the updates while others brought them to Miami. That's why Toto is saying their update has to work.

[haza]

Personally I’m not surprised if it’s true was mentioned after sprint qualifying on the sky coverage how McLaren were deploying far differently to Mercedes through sectors 1-2 and that made a lot of the difference for pole if true it’s another reason why McLaren should look at there own PUs i think the team has the best technical infrastructure of the grid an it shows when they’re found to deploy better than the team that built the pu McLaren has a lot of experience in hybrid tech between f1 and the automotive side albeit different company’s respectively but it wouldn’t be far fetched to assume they could easily use the combined knowledge of both divisions to develop their own engine through ricardo

[SilviuAgo]

They actually did expect others to catch up. This based on Toto and Kimi interviews. They have targeted Canada as the race for the updates while others brought them to Miami. That's why Toto is saying their update has to work.

I was not saying Mercedes didn't expect that their huge margin from Australia not to decrease in the season, what I was saying is that this happened too fast for them. To lose the Sprint (pole and win) to McLaren in Miami, and almost to lose even the main race, I am sure was not on Toto's cards.

As haza is saying in previous post, Toto Wolff acknowledged after Miami that Mercedes revised its energy deployment approach after recognizing losses in the first sector. By studying McLaren's methodology, Mercedes corrected the strategy before qualifying and recovered performance. The irony underscores a critical reality: McLaren, as a customer team, has achieved superior software optimization of the Mercedes power unit compared to the manufacturer's own implementation.

According to Gazzetta, McLaren's performance leap isn't attributed to secret technology but rather to superior software understanding and management. According to sources, the team at Woking has learned to understand and manage the complex 2026 power unit software more effectively than Mercedes' own engineers initially managed it in their own cars. This represents a humbling moment for Mercedes, requiring assistance from a customer team to fully optimize their own engine.

[CjC]

I don’t think having the knowledge is the problem which may be holding them back from building a PU in house. It’ll be the willingness to commit to spending hundreds of millions of dollars of their own money (which I’m not sure they have that sort of capital) or finding someone else who is willing to commit such a lot of money to build the infrastructure that’s the issue.

[haza]

I don’t think having the knowledge is the problem which may be holding them back from building a PU in house. It’ll be the willingness to commit to spending hundreds of millions of dollars of their own money (which I’m not sure they have that sort of capital) or finding someone else who is willing to commit such a lot of money to build the infrastructure that’s the issue.

They more or less already have it to an extent with Ricardo and autotecnica (Lmdh program) however you are right in saying they’d need to invest a lot into developing a high revving v8 if that’s the direction the sports heading and would likely have to buy into or outright either company that being said McLaren has been in a good position financially even with the current situation in the gulf and I do think it’s financially feasible but if they are going to they need to hit the ground running sooner rather than later

[Ground Effect]

This is hilarious, first they --- McLaren by waiting until the last possible moment for the updated engine and software in Australia and now they want advice from Mclaren on how to exploit the software.

https://amp.nextgen-auto.com/en/formula ... 08089.html

According to la gazzetta dello sport, mercedes is reportedly looking to mclaren for advice on the new engine after mclaren’s strong performance in miami. mercedes engineers are curious about how mclaren is handling the new engine software, which seems to be a key factor in their pace.

Earlier in the season, mclaren expressed frustration over the limited engine information coming from mercedes HPP and now it seems mercedes is turning to mclaren for insights.

This would actually be hilarious like you said, but I usually take these articles with a scoop of salt. These outlets are sometimes in the habit of just causing mischief or deflecting. A lukewarm performance by Ferrari and Italian media have this incredible story that sounds like a fairytale.

[venkyhere]

Personally I’m not surprised if it’s true was mentioned after sprint qualifying on the sky coverage how McLaren were deploying far differently to Mercedes through sectors 1-2 and that made a lot of the difference for pole if true it’s another reason why McLaren should look at there own PUs i think the team has the best technical infrastructure of the grid an it shows when they’re found to deploy better than the team that built the pu McLaren has a lot of experience in hybrid tech between f1 and the automotive side albeit different company’s respectively but it wouldn’t be far fetched to assume they could easily use the combined knowledge of both divisions to develop their own engine through ricardo

Don't forget that Mclaren have their own gearbox which (as per reverse engineered inference from telemetry) has shorter ratios for every gear w.r.t Mercedes. That the McL40 has shown lower Vmax in every single race this season, proves the inference.

[Balalu]

In my opinion, the article by La Gazetta Dello Sport is nothing more than La Gazetta over-reading into, and exaggerating this:

As haza is saying in previous post, Toto Wolff acknowledged after Miami that Mercedes revised its energy deployment approach after recognizing losses in the first sector. By studying McLaren's methodology, Mercedes corrected the strategy before qualifying and recovered performance.