After the opening race of the 2026 Formula 1 season, it has become clear that the Power Unit produced by Mercedes in Brixworth is the most competitive on the grid. However, this apparent performance advantage does not seem to extend to the customer teams. Andrea Stella, Team Principal of McLaren, revealed that Mercedes has not provided sufficient information to the Woking team regarding the operation and optimisation of the engine.
Analysis of the data from the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne highlights a noticeable difference in straight-line speed between the McLaren MCL60 and other cars equipped with the same Mercedes Power Unit. Stella put this situation under close scrutiny, pointing out that the lack of detailed technical information has been an issue since pre-season testing in Bahrain. According to the McLaren team principal, the gaps in understanding how the engine behaves have impacted the team’s ability to fully optimise the car’s performance.
Stella also emphasized that McLaren’s challenges extend beyond just straight-line speed. The team appeared to struggle with tyre management as well, with Lando Norris forced to adopt a two-stop strategy during the race. The performance gap to the leading positions remains significant, and several technical issues on the car still need to be resolved in order to compete consistently at the top.
McLaren and the controversy over the Mercedes Power Unit
Following the Australian Grand Prix, McLaren once again highlighted the ongoing issue of limited information provided by Mercedes to its customer teams. Woking is not the only team using Mercedes engines; Williams and Alpine also rely on the German manufacturer’s Power Units. However, the degree of support and data sharing seems to differ, according to McLaren.
“The discussion with HPP (Mercedes High Performance Powertrains) to get more information has been ongoing for weeks because even during testing, we would go on track, run the car, analyse the data, and say: ‘Okay, this is what we have. Now let’s react to it,’” Andrea Stella told Sky Sport UK.
“I have to say that, being a Mercedes customer team, this is the first time we feel at a disadvantage even when it comes to predicting how the car will behave and anticipating how we can improve it,” he added, underlining the challenges faced by McLaren in trying to extract the full potential of the Woking car.
McLaren’s renewed focus on the Power Unit
For the first part of the season, the British team intends to focus more heavily on this aspect, strengthening communication and collaboration with the Mercedes engine engineers. With modern F1 cars, a significant portion of overall performance depends on effective battery and hybrid energy management, a factor that was clearly visible during the Melbourne race weekend.
“I think we will need further analysis to understand whether these are just parameters we can control ourselves, or driver inputs that we can adjust, or if there are other, more systemic factors that a customer team may not necessarily be able to manage,” Stella explained.
The team principal believes there is still a lot of untapped performance to be extracted from the Mercedes Power Unit. However, McLaren also has to contend with a car weight that remains above the minimum threshold. In Australia, Lando Norris suffered from tyre graining more than any of the other top teams, and this issue will be closely analysed as the team prepares for upcoming races.
McLaren’s early-season struggles illustrate the importance of transparency and data sharing between engine manufacturers and customer teams. With more precise information and collaborative work on energy management and tyre strategies, the Woking team hopes to narrow the gap to the front-runners, maximise the potential of the Mercedes Power Unit, and improve overall competitiveness in the remaining rounds of the 2026 Formula 1 championship.
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