2026 McLaren Mastercard F1 Team

[CjC]

Stop with the conspiracy nonsense. Things like this happen and at the moment Mclaren is in no way a threat to Mercedes.

Use a little logic, please.

The logic that Mercedes didn’t release the final spec PU till the very last moment they had to?

Mclaren did the most laps of anyone in testing to then have a double DNS on the second weekend?
These are the issues teams should be solving on day 2 of testing not race 2.

Yes McLaren aren’t a threat now but the points lost early in the season probably won’t be recoverable at the end of the season if McLaren become the team to beat again.

Mercedes haven’t don’t anything wrong but they have given themselves a massive insurance policy against McLaren, the reigning back to back WCCs

[f1Follower]

All this just shows that being a works team still has its advantages. So the fact that mclaren dominated mercedes for the last 2 seasons makes it even more impressive.

As a customer team its impossible to start a new regs cycle in front. The team got a brand new pu just a week ago.

McLaren will definetly come back bilut it will take some take. We just have to be patient .

With the current engine rules and more AI getting used in the engine deployment there is no chance for the customer teams to win the championship. Engine data is required by the customer teams along with the Works teams.

[CjC]

So Mercedes brings new engines post testing with new software and engine for sure along with fuel. Mercedes has the most understanding of the newer engine with the gear ratios and they are not sharing the data to the customer teams

Consider Ferrari using the same engine post pre-season testing with customer teams as well. Same with RBPT and AUDI. The whole reason for the Barcelona was to ensure that the engine manufacturer have a reliable package. What is the point of Barcelona test(mostly for engine) and you change the engine after pre-season testing. Homologation should be done pre-season testing of Baharain so that customer teams should know what they are going to get as an engine package to develop their understanding and build gearboxes and other components based on the newer engines.

In the age of AI data is the actual power and Mercedes gets all the engine data whereas no other teams gets the data. FiA should ensure that all the teams should be shared the data.

+1

[Balalu]

Conspiracy or not, it does not look good from Mercedes HPP's side.

Even if within the rules, they sabotaged their customers from the get go. And now this.

[SilviuAgo]

They don't have a clue what is going on. So embarrassing.

[restless]

I can imagine Toto pressing a button 30min before start... button saying "Disable Mc engine" ...

[Darth-Piekus]

Didn't Max DNFed with the same electrical problem as the Mclarens?

[f1Follower]

I can imagine Toto pressing a button 30min before start... button saying "Disable Mc engine" ...

He did it by not sharing any data on the engine side. Also if the engine is non complaint with the compression ratio trick then it will be double whammy to the customer teams

[_cerber1]

The worst thing is that we're losing the opportunity to gain experience during the race. This is a huge blow, as it pushes us back one step. The title race is over for us.

[Darth-Piekus]

The title race is not over yet. Let's continue pushing and we will see. Pity that Mercedes is holding Mclaren back but what can you do? Let's keep going even if we wont get it. We can still beat them on development and start next year in front.

[FittingMechanics]

The worst thing is that we're losing the opportunity to gain experience during the race. This is a huge blow, as it pushes us back one step. The title race is over for us.

I'm really curious where we would end up. Ferrari is about 25s back, Bearman about 50s.

Are we in between or behind? Such a shame at least one couldn't start.

[_cerber1]

I'm really curious where we would end up. Ferrari is about 25s back, Bearman about 50s.

Are we in between or behind? Such a shame at least one couldn't start.

We would have been somewhere in between, the extra weight would have remained, and as a result, increased tire consumption, but I think we would still have been faster than Haas.

[_cerber1]

McLaren
Following investigations into the issues on each car, it was two different electrical problems on the power unit side which caused the double DNS today.

[Emag]

No need to delve into conspiracies. They haven't started the season the way they wanted. They had electrical issues in testing as well so this is something to look into deeper. It's not like they missed a win. It will take half a miracle to take this away from Mercedes anyway. They are in an incredibly strong position.

[FittingMechanics]

No need to delve into conspiracies. They haven't started the season the way they wanted. They had electrical issues in testing as well so this is something to look into deeper. It's not like they missed a win anyway. It will take half a miracle to take this away from Mercedes anyway. They are in an incredibly strong position.

This is easier to accept as the expected outcome was P5 and P6. Very early in the formula.

Imagine the conspiracies if McLaren was at the front and had double DNS.

Looking forward to see how Japan goes.