The Miami Grand Prix weekend brought McLaren back into the spotlight, following comments made by Lewis Hamilton regarding the team’s sudden performance gains.
Observing McLaren’s competitiveness during the Florida round, the seven-time world champion suggested that the improvements introduced by the team may have delivered a bigger performance step than initially expected internally. “I’ve heard the performance gain was much higher than they had anticipated,” Hamilton said, sparking curiosity within the paddock and among technical observers.
The response from McLaren team principal Andrea Stella did not take long to arrive. Speaking to the media, Stella made it clear that there was no “miracle” or unexpected jump in performance based on the team’s data.
“Hamilton suggested we got more than expected? I would like to say yes, but the answer is no,” Stella stated with his usual transparency. “What we measure in the data is absolutely consistent with what we expected from our development tools. We are exactly in line with our expectations.”
Development approach and the fight against Mercedes
Despite a strong weekend in Miami, which saw McLaren take Sprint victory and secure a double podium in the Grand Prix, Stella emphasised that development work is far from over.
Unlike some competitors, like Ferrari, which has introduced large and heavily packaged upgrade sets, McLaren has opted for a more modular approach, focusing on quality rather than sheer quantity of updates.
At this stage of the season, McLaren is working hard to defend its position and close the gap to the front-running teams, while Mercedes is pushing to return to championship-winning form after the difficult ground-effect era, during which the Brackley-based team managed only occasional race wins between 2022 and 2025, without ever mounting a serious title challenge.
The ongoing technical tug-of-war between McLaren and Mercedes highlights a fascinating shift in the 2026 pecking order, as Andrea Stella’s squad continues to extract maximum value from every aerodynamic tweak. By dismissing Lewis Hamilton’s claims of “unexpected” gains, McLaren is sending a clear message to the paddock: their current form is the result of precise engineering, not luck. As Mercedes struggles to move past the inconsistencies that have plagued them since 2022, McLaren’s ability to land exactly on their performance targets suggests they have finally mastered the complexities of the current regulations.
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