Andrea Stella has identified the enforced April break and McLaren’s Hungarian Grand Prix breakthrough as two crucial stages in the team’s 2026 turnaround, while warning that extracting the maximum performance from the Mercedes power unit will remain a complex challenge throughout the season. After a difficult start to Formula 1’s new regulatory era, Lando Norris’s victory in Budapest offered the clearest evidence yet that the MCL40 is moving in the right direction.
The first half of the season has been anything but straightforward for the reigning Drivers’ and Constructors’ champions. Formula 1’s sweeping new technical regulations reshuffled the competitive order, leaving McLaren with several problems to solve after its title-winning 2025 campaign. Nevertheless, the Woking team continued to respond, culminating in a major step forward at the Hungaroring.
Andrea Stella explains what McLaren learned from its difficult 2026 start
During the summer break, Andrea Stella reflected on the difficulties McLaren has faced and how the organisation has evolved while attempting to recover its competitiveness.
“I think the most important lesson we have learned in these seven months of hard work is that, in moments of great difficulty, unity is strength,” Andrea Stella said. “First of all, we have proved to ourselves how fundamental team cohesion is in recovering and getting back on the road towards the top.”
The Italian team principal also highlighted how dramatically McLaren’s competitive position has changed over recent seasons. After a difficult period during much of the previous decade, the team returned to the front and won three of the four Drivers’ and Constructors’ titles available across 2024 and 2025.
However, the introduction of Formula 1’s new technical regulations effectively reset that progress.
“After three years of constant progress that saw us win three world titles out of four between 2024 and 2025, the start of this season was a real reset,” Andrea Stella explained. “Not only because the regulation changes were probably the most significant in the history of the sport, but above all because we realised how high a price we had paid for the effort we put into 2025 to win both championships.”
McLaren had continued fighting deep into the previous season rather than switching its entire development focus early to the new generation of cars. That decision contributed to the MCL40 beginning 2026 behind some of its principal rivals, but Andrea Stella is proud of the way his team reacted.
“We could have collapsed,” he said. “We could have found excuses for not being able to start the championship in the same way we finished the previous one, but that did not happen. We tried to understand the technical and strategic reasons and we focused our efforts. And that makes me really proud of this team.”
April break helped trigger McLaren’s 2026 turnaround
Andrea Stella does not believe there was one single event that suddenly transformed the MCL40. Instead, McLaren gradually developed a better understanding of the scale of the 2026 challenge and the changes required to address it.
“There was not one single event that changed the course of things,” he explained. “Rather, there was a growing awareness of the scale of the challenge we were facing and of the adjustments that were necessary.”
One particularly important period came during the unexpected April break, when Formula 1 had an extended pause between the Japanese and Miami Grands Prix. McLaren was able to dedicate considerably more time to analysing its new car without the normal interruptions created by consecutive race weekends.
“Paradoxically, the enforced break in April probably allowed us to concentrate completely on analysing the performance of the MCL40 and fully understand the need to redirect or strengthen its development in certain areas of the car,” Andrea Stella said.
That work became an important stage in the development process that eventually delivered McLaren’s Hungary breakthrough. Rather than relying on one sudden improvement, the team progressively changed its aerodynamic direction as its understanding of the 2026 regulations increased.
Mercedes power unit remains a complex challenge for McLaren
Another major difficulty has involved learning how to extract maximum performance from the new Mercedes power unit. The dramatically increased importance of electrical energy recovery and deployment under the 2026 regulations has made power-unit optimisation a crucial performance differentiator.
Andrea Stella was keen to stress that McLaren and Mercedes HPP continue to work closely together despite the challenges of operating as a customer team.
“In recent months, we have also had the opportunity to deepen our knowledge of the new power unit supplied by Mercedes HPP and to work with our technical partners to understand how to use it in the best possible way,” Andrea Stella said.
“It has been a long process, with ups and downs, but it is beginning to bear fruit. Having said that, I expect power-unit optimisation to remain a complex issue throughout the 2026 season.”
The complexity of energy management has been evident across the grid, but McLaren has faced the additional challenge of competing directly against the Mercedes works team while using the same basic power-unit architecture.
Hungary confirmed McLaren’s new MCL40 development direction
In terms of outright car performance, Andrea Stella considers the Hungarian Grand Prix the most significant weekend of McLaren’s season so far. Lando Norris took pole position and converted it into the team’s first victory of 2026, while the aerodynamic package introduced at the Hungaroring provided confirmation that McLaren’s revised development philosophy was producing results.
“Returning to the performance of the car, it is clear that the Budapest weekend, which concluded the first half of the season, was the highlight,” Andrea Stella said.
“Not only because of the result, but above all because the aerodynamic package introduced at the Hungaroring was the product of this change in development direction and allowed us to make significant progress in terms of competitiveness.”
The scale of McLaren’s technical step did not go unnoticed by its rivals. Mercedes admitted it was surprised by the extent of McLaren’s Hungary upgrade, particularly the changes made around the floor of the MCL40.
For McLaren, the significance extends beyond one race victory. The Budapest package provided evidence that the engineering changes made during the previous months were correctly targeting some of the fundamental weaknesses that had restricted the car earlier in the season.
Can McLaren still mount a 2026 F1 championship comeback?
After Lando Norris’s victory in Hungary, McLaren hopes to become a consistent contender throughout the second half of the championship. Andrea Stella believes that will depend heavily on whether the team can continue developing the MCL40 faster than its direct rivals.
“If we can continue the season as we did in Budapest, I think we can still achieve great results,” the McLaren team principal said. “To do that, we have to continue pushing the development of the MCL40 and make sure that we outperform our rivals, who certainly are not standing still.”
“The result will depend on the effectiveness of the solutions we bring to the track. Even during the first part of the season, we struggled more than expected in this area. But I think that over the last few years, once we have built up a certain momentum, we have been able to maintain it.”
McLaren enters the second half of the campaign third in the Constructors’ Championship, behind Mercedes and Ferrari, while Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri remain outside the leading positions in the 2026 Formula 1 driver standings. The deficits are substantial, but Andrea Stella is unwilling to declare either championship fight over.
“There are still 12 races on the calendar, so there are plenty of opportunities,” he said. “There are 546 points available. Of course, the gap in both championships is significant, but we remember the lesson from last year very well.”
Formula 1’s remaining schedule includes two Sprint weekends as part of the 2026 Formula 1 calendar, providing additional opportunities for teams to score points during the closing stages of the campaign.
Andrea Stella also used McLaren’s recent success to underline the ambition that remains inside the organisation.
“After all, I always tell the team that if we have built a new trophy cabinet to display the most recent trophies at the McLaren Technology Centre, then we have a duty to do our very best to keep filling it.”
The Hungary victory has given McLaren renewed momentum, but Andrea Stella’s assessment remains grounded in the scale of the challenge. The MCL40 still requires further development, its Mercedes power unit remains difficult to optimise and Mercedes and Ferrari will continue introducing improvements of their own. Budapest nevertheless demonstrated that McLaren’s revised technical direction can deliver the performance required to return to the front.
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