McLaren left the Italian Grand Prix with fourth and fifth places for Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri on a Monza circuit that had never been expected to favour the MCL40. Team principal Andrea Stella believes the Woking squad largely maximised its race result, but admitted Mercedes held a clear advantage over the rest of the field and confirmed that McLaren will introduce another upgrade package at Baku.
Speaking to the media after the Monza weekend, Andrea Stella offered a realistic assessment of McLaren’s position in both championships. He also praised Kimi Antonelli’s extraordinary victory from the back of the grid, describing the Italian driver’s home triumph as an “iconic day” that will be remembered for years.
Andrea Stella confirms McLaren upgrades for Baku
“I think our execution in the race was better than in qualifying,” Andrea Stella said after the Italian Grand Prix. “In qualifying we should have done better than P6-P8 and I think we paid a bit of a price for that in the race.”
According to the McLaren team principal, the characteristics of the 2026 Formula 1 cars also make it difficult to build a substantial advantage while racing in traffic, particularly at a circuit such as Monza.
“With this Formula 1, it’s not easy to overtake and make progress. You only have to look at how long it took Lando to overtake Gasly and close the gap to the cars ahead. In addition, power and battery management become the dominant factor at a circuit like Monza. I think this was the most complex race in those terms, but overall we weren’t in contention for victory because Mercedes had an advantage over everyone else.”
McLaren had already been preparing its next development step before arriving in Italy, with the team targeting further progress with its planned Baku upgrades after Lando Norris’ victory at Zandvoort. Andrea Stella has now confirmed that those developments remain scheduled for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Stella hails Kimi Antonelli’s historic Monza victory
As an Italian himself, Andrea Stella also had warm words for Kimi Antonelli following the Mercedes driver’s remarkable home victory.
“Even though he had a very competitive car, he was starting last and his team-mate was second on the grid. I think it’s a special day for his championship, for his career and more generally for motorsport and for all Italian fans and Kimi’s supporters. It’s an iconic day that will be remembered in the years to come and will represent a new benchmark in terms of records at this circuit.”
While Mercedes established itself as the clear benchmark at Monza, McLaren finished the race as the third-fastest team. Nevertheless, Andrea Stella remains confident about the section of the championship leading towards the final chequered flag of the 2026 season.
McLaren believes it can fight for wins in nine of the final ten races
“I think a realistically positive conclusion is that we can consistently fight for victories in nine of the final ten races,” Andrea Stella told the media. “I think our baseline is well suited to Malaysia, Austin and Brazil, where there are long-duration corners and where our car seems able to express its potential at its best.”
Andrea Stella then turned to McLaren’s development programme, revealing that the next package will arrive in Azerbaijan.
“We have some upgrades that we will bring to Baku, although we think that circuits like that one, but also Madrid, where there are slow corners and you need to be very precise with the racing line, perhaps won’t allow us to perform at our best.”
That assessment reflects one of the weaknesses McLaren has already identified in the MCL40. Lando Norris has previously explained how improving McLaren’s low-speed performance could significantly increase its winning potential, making the upcoming development programme particularly important.
Andrea Stella remains realistic about McLaren’s championship chances
Looking at the championship standings, leading McLaren driver Lando Norris is 96 points behind Kimi Antonelli. In the Constructors’ Championship, McLaren sits 181 points away from the lead, while Ferrari represents a more realistic target at 59 points ahead.
“From a championship point of view, I think we need to remain very realistic,” Andrea Stella said. “We shouldn’t race looking at the standings; we have to concentrate on one race at a time.”
The gaps underline the challenge facing McLaren despite its recent improvement. The latest Formula 1 championship standings leave little room for poor weekends if Lando Norris is to reduce his deficit over the remaining races.
McLaren sees clear progress from Oscar Piastri
After a difficult first half of the season in terms of confidence with the car, Oscar Piastri was able to match Lando Norris much more closely at Monza in both qualifying and race pace.
“I think this race confirms Oscar’s trajectory,” Andrea Stella said. “Over a couple of races we noticed that, especially in the race, when the car slides, we needed to make some adaptations to his natural driving style.”
McLaren has adopted an approach similar to the work previously carried out with Lando Norris as it attempts to help Oscar Piastri extract more consistently from the MCL40.
“We adopted a little of the same approach that we used with Lando last year and we have seen quite a lot of development. We were happy to see how competitive Oscar was in qualifying at Zandvoort, we worked a little and this type of work seems to have proved useful, enough to confirm the progress. I think he will have a very strong second half of the season.”
Andrea Stella’s assessment follows a period in which McLaren has been working closely with Oscar Piastri to adapt his driving to the characteristics of the 2026 car, while Lando Norris has also spoken about how he has evolved his own driving approach during the 2026 season.
Norris-Piastri Monza battle tests McLaren’s racing principles
Andrea Stella also addressed the events of lap 51, when Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri came together in a particularly close fight. McLaren has repeatedly stressed its intention to allow both drivers to race fairly, but the Monza battle demonstrated how difficult those principles can become to manage when the team’s result is at stake.
“We are coming from two seasons in which we have had a fair approach. It is always complicated to translate these principles into a race, but today as well we maintained this line, with a risky approach.”
Andrea Stella made clear, however, that McLaren’s willingness to allow its drivers freedom to race has limits.
“From our point of view, I think it is important to stand alongside the drivers, although as soon as the interests of the team are put at risk, you have to start being stricter as a team.”
Monza therefore delivered a mixed but ultimately encouraging picture for McLaren. Mercedes was beyond reach, qualifying execution cost the team track position and the MCL40 remained vulnerable in areas that do not naturally suit its strengths. Even so, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri recovered to fourth and fifth, progress with Oscar Piastri continued and another upgrade package is already scheduled for Baku as McLaren attempts to strengthen its challenge over the final ten races.
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