Disappointment was evident throughout the McLaren garage after qualifying at Silverstone, but nobody within the team was looking for excuses. The MCL40 struggled throughout the session, leaving Lando Norris only sixth and Oscar Piastri eighth, both around seven tenths of a second adrift of Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s pole position. The result confirmed the difficulties that had already emerged earlier in the weekend, with team principal Andrea Stella openly acknowledging where McLaren is currently losing ground to Ferrari and Mercedes.
From a lack of overall grip and the car’s sensitivity to gusty winds to difficulties extracting the maximum performance from the Mercedes power unit, Stella admitted that the Woking-based squad still has several weaknesses. Despite that, the team remains optimistic that the upgrades scheduled for the coming races will gradually move McLaren back towards the front.
Lando Norris: “The lap was perfect, but we’re simply too slow”
Lando Norris believes he could not have extracted anything more from his qualifying lap. The British driver was satisfied with his own performance, insisting he improved in every corner and made no significant mistakes during his final attempt.
“I improved in every single corner and I felt I got absolutely everything out of the car. My lap was fantastic, I was really happy with it,” Norris explained. “We’re simply slow. We’re slow on the straights and we’re slow in every type of corner. There’s nothing else to add. Right now the car just isn’t very efficient.”
Norris also dismissed suggestions that McLaren had made the car worse compared to Sprint Qualifying. In his opinion, the team actually improved the setup, but the competition simply found even more performance.
“We’ve improved the car, we’re just further behind. I was four tenths off in Austria on a one-minute lap. This is a one-minute-thirty lap and now we’re seven tenths behind, so it makes sense. We haven’t become slower, we’ve stayed the same. Maybe yesterday my lap was magical, while today everyone else simply did a better job.”
His conclusion left little room for interpretation. “There are no excuses. The car isn’t good enough, we know that, and we just have to keep working hard.”
Oscar Piastri: “The car is nervous everywhere”
Oscar Piastri painted a similar picture after another frustrating session, describing a weekend in which McLaren never managed to place the MCL40 inside its ideal operating window. According to the Australian, constantly changing weather conditions only made an already difficult situation even worse.
“We’ve struggled with the balance of the car all weekend. And with these constantly changing weather conditions, everything became even worse.”
Asked where McLaren was losing performance, Piastri’s answer was immediate. “Everywhere. The car is just very, very nervous. And when you have that feeling in every single corner, especially the high-speed ones, it’s not enjoyable at all.”
He believes Silverstone simply exposed a weakness that has already appeared at several other circuits this season. “Today’s conditions clearly exposed our weak points. When grip levels are good and everything is stable, we can fight close to the front. But today there was nowhere to hide.”
Piastri also suggested that the problem is deeply rooted in the current car. “It seems we struggle enormously as soon as conditions become even slightly more difficult. We saw it in Canada and Monaco when tyre temperatures became difficult to manage. We struggle when it’s windy. Whenever something pushes us even slightly outside our comfort zone, we fall away significantly.”
Looking ahead to Sunday’s race, he remained cautious. “It’s going to be an uphill battle. Mercedes are clearly a step ahead, and Ferrari are as well. They didn’t look unbeatable in the Sprint, so we’ll see what we can do. But it’s going to be tough.”
Andrea Stella: “Mercedes uses engine strategies that we don’t have”
The most detailed assessment came from team principal Andrea Stella, who believes Silverstone highlighted virtually every weakness of the current McLaren package. He explained that the combination of low grip and strong gusts of wind particularly penalised the MCL40, allowing Ferrari and Mercedes to open a sizeable advantage.
“This is a circuit where we have a little less overall grip than somewhere like Austria. The car slides a lot. Today there were strong gusts of wind, and in those conditions the cars with the best cornering characteristics are rewarded. I’m not surprised Ferrari and Mercedes created a gap over Red Bull and McLaren when grip conditions are this difficult.”
According to Stella, the problems are not limited to aerodynamics. Silverstone also places significant demands on hybrid energy management, and McLaren believes it is still unable to exploit the Mercedes power unit as effectively as the factory team.
“We still seem to have a small deficit when it comes to extracting the maximum performance from the Mercedes power unit. We need to keep an open dialogue with Mercedes because there appears to be some performance we’re leaving on the table.”
The McLaren boss also confirmed that the team has not yet received the latest Mercedes power unit specification, although he stressed that relations with Brixworth remain excellent.
“We’ve discussed with them why we’re not yet receiving this specification. We understand the reasons. We trust them.”
Stella admitted he was also surprised to see Mercedes using certain power unit management strategies that McLaren does not currently appear to have available.
“It surprised us a little because it’s not something we’ve discussed, and I’m not even sure it’s available to us.”
The roots of the problem date back to last season
Perhaps Stella’s most revealing comments concerned the origins of McLaren’s current performance deficit. According to the Italian, part of today’s gap can be traced back to development choices made during last season, when the championship battle with Max Verstappen forced the team to dedicate a large share of its resources to developing the 2025 car.
“Part of the delay we’re experiencing today was accumulated during the development of the 2025 car.”
McLaren has only recently changed direction with its aerodynamic development programme, but Stella warned that such changes inevitably take time before delivering measurable gains on track.
“Now we have a clear direction for development, but aerodynamic changes take one or two months before they produce tangible results.”
The first meaningful improvements are expected to arrive around the Hungarian Grand Prix. Despite the disappointing qualifying performance, Stella still believes McLaren may have a slight advantage over Red Bull when it comes to tyre degradation during the race.
“The Sprint was probably a bit better than our true potential. In the race we seem to have a small advantage over Red Bull when it comes to managing tyre degradation.”
Even so, the McLaren team principal remains realistic about the challenge ahead. “I think tomorrow will be a little more difficult. We hope the wind won’t be as gusty, because today we clearly saw just how much we suffer in these conditions.”
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