The world champion team sits third in the constructors' championship with 46 points, in Japan sensors appeared on the exhaust that raise questions, the upgrades will arrive in Miami and Montreal to begin the recovery.
Anyone who considers McLaren relegated to a secondary role in this 2026 season is completely mistaken. The Woking team is paying the consequences of Red Bull and Max Verstappen's reaction in the second half of the 2025 season, in order not to put the drivers' title, which already seemed assured with Lando Norris, at risk, the engineers had to work "overtime," taking time and resources away from this year's project, but everyone knows the reaction capacity of a team that knows how to manage moments of crisis with calm and rationality.
The current figures are not encouraging: after three Grands Prix contested, McLaren sits third in the Constructors' World Championship with 46 points, half of what Ferrari has (90) and 89 units behind Mercedes, however, a more detailed analysis changes the outlook: the MCL40 did not compete in China and Oscar Piastri did not take the start in Australia, the Australian's second place in Suzuka is by no means a coincidence, a sign that the regulatory revolution has yet to be fully absorbed.
This year, McLaren is paying the price of being a Mercedes customer team, the technicians led by Rob Marshall had not understood to what extent the management of the Mercedes AMG M17 E Performance power unit could condition performance per lap, nor did they gauge the importance of software development in battery recharging and in the use of the hybrid system, probably thinking that the instructions coming from the Brixworth technicians stationed in Woking were sufficient, now it is clear that this was not the case.
Precisely for this reason, an image captured by AG Images in Japan during free practice is interesting, on an MCL40, around the terminal phase of the central exhaust, a metal ring equipped with four radial sensors appeared, which had the function of recording the flow of hot gases, and two micro thermometers to read temperature variations. Why is a team that uses a manufacturer's engines delving into investigations that do not concern it? The question is legitimate.
Some insinuate that Peter Prodromou's aerodynamicists are also evaluating a different concept to Ferrari's: using exhaust blowing thanks to the FTM system to improve rear wing efficiency and contribute to diffuser flow extraction.
Andrea Stella's team will return to the track after the long one month break with a extensive package of updates that will be split between the Miami race and the Montreal race, these technical innovations will be key to starting the comeback against Mercedes and Ferrari. McLaren has shown in the past that it knows how to react, now, with the MCL40, they expect surprises in the short term.