2026 McLaren Mastercard F1 Team

[Macklaren]

Zak also hinted at frustrating powertrain issues during quali sigh

[jacme22]

It was a bad qualy but people need to calm down. Reliability issues seem to be improving but there is a aero package issue where we cannot be fast on corners without adding to much drag and we still have some tyre management issues. Let the team develop. It’s clear merc is two steps ahead and probably hiding still some and Ferrari have done a very development job. We are in month 5 of this new regs.

[McLarenMor]

People keep forgetting the most stupid rule ever invented, the CFD and wind tunnel time did not reset for the new regulations, McLaren were fighting a championship to the wire last year.

It would have been a MONUMENTAL achievement to be fighting for wins given this handicap and conditions.

This year they have grace IMO, if next year they are no where near, that's a failure of their own doing.

[CjC]

According to Ted, upgrades are coming in 2 races time

[Nicktendo86]

People keep forgetting the most stupid rule ever invented, the CFD and wind tunnel time did not reset for the new regulations, McLaren were fighting a championship to the wire last year.

It would have been a MONUMENTAL achievement to be fighting for wins given this handicap and conditions.

This year they have grace IMO, if next year they are no where near, that's a failure of their own doing.

Red bull fought for a championship to the last race in 2021 and came to 22 under new regs with a very good car which they quickly made the class of the field, there shouldn’t be any excuses

[McLarenMor]

People keep forgetting the most stupid rule ever invented, the CFD and wind tunnel time did not reset for the new regulations, McLaren were fighting a championship to the wire last year.

It would have been a MONUMENTAL achievement to be fighting for wins given this handicap and conditions.

This year they have grace IMO, if next year they are no where near, that's a failure of their own doing.

Red bull fought for a championship to the last race in 2021 and came to 22 under new regs with a very good car which they quickly made the class of the field, there shouldn’t be any excuses

The change was chassis only, plus Redbull was Honda factory team.

Furthermore, RedBull didn't finish first and the system was different and much more gentle in restrictions decline based on position.

Incomparable.

[f1Follower]

People keep forgetting the most stupid rule ever invented, the CFD and wind tunnel time did not reset for the new regulations, McLaren were fighting a championship to the wire last year.

It would have been a MONUMENTAL achievement to be fighting for wins given this handicap and conditions.

This year they have grace IMO, if next year they are no where near, that's a failure of their own doing.

Red bull fought for a championship to the last race in 2021 and came to 22 under new regs with a very good car which they quickly made the class of the field, there shouldn’t be any excuses

They had advantage of Newey who had seen ground effect era which was later banned. He was instrumental in the rear suspension design which led to their little to no porpoising car.

Rob Marshall enhanced that concept and brought to McLaren. No body in 2026 is talking about anti dive and anti squat as the car is not sucked from the ground

[Macklaren]

People keep forgetting the most stupid rule ever invented, the CFD and wind tunnel time did not reset for the new regulations, McLaren were fighting a championship to the wire last year.

It would have been a MONUMENTAL achievement to be fighting for wins given this handicap and conditions.

This year they have grace IMO, if next year they are no where near, that's a failure of their own doing.

Red bull fought for a championship to the last race in 2021 and came to 22 under new regs with a very good car which they quickly made the class of the field, there shouldn’t be any excuses

Ferrari was faster than RBR to start that season. Merc had a much more developed car (except that their philosophy was wrong).

Also it's not like we're miles off here like Aston. We're still in the mix, fighting for consistent podiums and hopefully back to fighting for wins soon like Japan and Miami, which everyone's forgotten about

[venkyhere]

People keep forgetting the most stupid rule ever invented, the CFD and wind tunnel time did not reset for the new regulations, McLaren were fighting a championship to the wire last year.

It would have been a MONUMENTAL achievement to be fighting for wins given this handicap and conditions.

This year they have grace IMO, if next year they are no where near, that's a failure of their own doing.

Red bull fought for a championship to the last race in 2021 and came to 22 under new regs with a very good car which they quickly made the class of the field, there shouldn’t be any excuses

They had advantage of Newey who had seen ground effect era which was later banned. He was instrumental in the rear suspension design which led to their little to no porpoising car.

Rob Marshall enhanced that concept and brought to McLaren. No body in 2026 is talking about anti dive and anti squat as the car is not sucked from the ground

all F1 cars since the time when 'downforce' came into F1, have always been 'sucked from the ground'.
Just that the 'ground effect era' was about 'tunnels' shaped like a venturi, creating this suction ; whilst flat floor era relies on 'floor rake' to create a crude venturi effect, and thus suction. It's a case of super high negative pressure employed over a 'snake footprint' like area @ super low ground clearance v/s moderate negative pressure employed over a large rectangular area @ a range of ground clearance heights.

[geogate]

bit of a wake up call there for the entire team

[jacme22]

Stella about the qualifying session.

"Today’s Qualifying saw difficult track conditions for the drivers, with gusty wind making the conditions tricky, especially in the corners. That tended to favour the best cars like Ferrari and Mercedes, who opened the gap in Qualifying and finished at the front in today’s session.

"Our Q1 and Q2 were tense as we adapted to the conditions, and while we improved in Q3, the gap to the front is still large. Ultimately, looking at performance right now, we’re operating as the third or fourth team alongside Red Bull, and that’s broadly where we belong at the moment with the MCL40’s current package."

And still complaining -with subtlety- about the PU.

Stella made it clear that Antonelli and Russell's throttle-lifting trick in Saturday's sprint qualifying had left them stunned. "We were a bit surprised, because it's not something we've discussed, and in fact, I'm not even sure it's available to us, as it probably requires some additional components, let's say, to use the power unit like that." Are they hiding something from them? FIA regulations require the units to be identical, but managing them is difficult if the supplier doesn't want them to be, because no one at McLaren can even touch the engines throughout the weekend.

“So, as I’ve already said, we’re in discussions with HPP at a technical level to ensure we’re utilizing the full potential of this power unit, which is brilliant, a true technological marvel. It has great performance potential, which also lies in the details of its operation, and now we’re waiting to see if we can improve our specifications,” he said, trying to smooth things over and avoid creating an unnecessary rift. Complaints, but light and constructive ones, are Stella’s tactic.

“And if this helps in any way with performance… It should only be a reliability improvement, so I’m not sure that’s the case, but there are definitely other factors we need to continue discussing with HPP, because when we analyze straight-line performance, even taking into account that they may have less aerodynamic drag, there are still some unknowns,” he added, hinting at those concerns about a lack of power delivery they’re noticing.

The new spec for Spa

Stella expects McLaren to have the latest power unit specification for the next race at Spa. “We spoke with HPP about the reason why we haven’t received this specification yet. We understand the reasoning. We trust HPP. We’ve had an excellent collaboration in previous years. They’ve been instrumental in the plan and in us becoming two-time world champions. So this doesn’t change the foundation of our relationship. The conversation continues. They’re working at full speed, just like us, to try and develop our car,” he says, hoping they’ll listen and help.

“They’re working at full speed with four teams to supply, so there are some conditions that prevented the delivery of the power unit to the customer. Hopefully, this will happen at the next race,” he says, looking ahead to two weeks from now.

https://www.marca.com/motor/formula1/gp ... laren.html

Surprised to learn the new spec was not made available to them and it wasn't a McLaren decision.

[Mcl_G10]

They should not be allowed to bring a new spec until all can recieve together.

We will always be a step behind.

[Balalu]

Despite the fact, as Stella also highlighted, Mercedes HPP being an integral part of McLaren's success in the past couple of years, it is clearly obvious that this year they are holding us back. Everyone with at least 3 working brain cells can see it.

[SilviuAgo]

For me Silverstone was another race until the upgrades were coming.
But Lando made a nice surprise. With the start (first clip below), fighting Russell and Max (second one), saving fuel for the last couple of laps. P3 and 26 points in Sprint races this year, most of the grid. With that MCL40 is something.





Let's hope for a solid Sunday and that Zak is right with the anticipated upgrades for Hungary, and fighting for wins. And curious about what Toto said that Ferrari spent like crazy this year budget and that they will run out of money soon. So another point for McLaren to catch up, at least with Ferrari.

[Ground Effect]

Does it suggest the Hungary upgrade will be substantial? I felt after Miami, only small upgrades would be added to the car consistently.