The British team analyzed why its car had not yet reached the expected level at the start of the season.
The start of the 2026 season has made it clear that McLaren is going through a phase of technical adjustment with its new car. The British team believes the current performance does not fully reflect the car’s potential, especially given the context of adapting to the new regulations and the characteristics of the Mercedes engine.
The MCL40 was developed for regulations that significantly changed car design, introducing active aerodynamics and a greater dependence on energy management.
In that context, the team explained that one of the main challenges lies in aerodynamic balance. The car still does not generate the downforce required to maximize performance on certain circuits, which also affects the overall efficiency of the package.
Andrea Stella, the team principal, explained that the internal analysis allowed the team to clearly identify where the car's current limitations lie. “We are lacking aerodynamic downforce and efficiency,” he said while describing the team’s technical diagnosis.
The executive emphasized that this deficit becomes especially visible on circuits that combine long straights with fast corners. In those conditions, the lack of aerodynamic balance prevents the team from fully exploiting the car’s potential.
Stella also explained that adapting to the Mercedes engine is part of the current challenge. Although McLaren has used the German power unit for several seasons, the new regulations have significantly changed how the engine and chassis interact.
According to the team principal, understanding that integration is key to unlocking performance. “We need to keep learning how to extract the full potential of the package,” he explained while referring to the joint work between aerodynamics, chassis, and power unit.
Within the team, they believe that the situation is not unusual at the start of a new technical era. The 2026 regulations introduced major changes to hybrid systems and car aerodynamics, forcing engineers to reinterpret many solutions that worked in previous seasons.
Stella also acknowledged that the process of understanding the car has been affected by the information available about the new power unit. The executive admitted that the team expected to have more technical data to accelerate development.
“The discussion about having more information has been going on for weeks,” he explained while referring to the conversations with Mercedes’ engine department. According to him, on several occasions, the team simply went out on track, analyzed the collected data, and had to react to what they discovered about the car’s behavior.
Despite these initial difficulties, McLaren maintains a pragmatic view regarding the project’s development. The team understands that adapting to a completely new set of regulations requires time and deep analysis.
In that sense, the priority now is to identify which elements of the technical package can evolve more quickly. Work in the wind tunnel and in simulation will be key to improving the car’s aerodynamic efficiency.
With the championship still in its early phase, the real impact of those adjustments will be measured as the team introduces updates and continues understanding how to exploit the full potential of the MCL40 on different circuits.