McLaren believes it can continue developing the MCL40 deep into the second half of the 2026 Formula 1 season without compromising its 2027 project. Andrea Stella says the team is in a strong position to balance the two programmes, while Neil Houldey has revealed that further upgrades could arrive even after the more significant package planned for Baku.
After the summer break, every Formula 1 team will face an increasingly important strategic question: when to stop investing resources in the current car and when to shift the main development effort towards the following season. According to Andrea Stella, McLaren begins that process from a favourable position because the transition between its 2026 and 2027 projects should be considerably smoother than the challenge it faced last year.
Andrea Stella explains McLaren’s 2026 and 2027 development balance
During a McLaren team Q&A, Andrea Stella explained that the situation is fundamentally different from 2025, when the team had to keep pushing its existing car while simultaneously preparing for an entirely new generation of Formula 1 machinery.
“In a sense, this year it is easier to find a middle ground between the two requirements. Whilst in 2025 we were faced with the need to strike a balance between two extremes – pushing right to the limit to win the world championship and having to design a new car practically from scratch – this year the transition between the two projects is much smoother, given that the regulatory changes are relatively minor.”
A major reason McLaren can afford to keep learning from the MCL40 is that the current technical era is still relatively young. Andrea Stella believes knowledge accumulated throughout 2026 should remain relevant when the team develops its car for next season.
“We must bear in mind that this generation of cars is still very much in its infancy, both in terms of the chassis and the power unit; therefore, practically everything we continue to learn in 2026 will be useful to us next year.”
That crossover could allow McLaren to continue extracting performance from its current package while simultaneously strengthening its 2027 project. The Woking team has already made important progress during the season, with its recent development work contributing to a significant improvement in the MCL40 and strengthening the argument that McLaren could become an increasingly serious force in the 2026 development race.
Andrea Stella nevertheless acknowledged that the allocation of resources will still require careful management.
“Of course, we’ll then need to find the right balance in terms of the budget cap, wind tunnel testing hours and computer simulations, and the allocation of resources across design and production, but I believe we’re in a good position on all fronts.”
McLaren could bring MCL40 upgrades even after Baku
Neil Houldey, McLaren’s Technical Director of Applied Engineering, has also expressed confidence that development of the 2026 car could continue beyond the team’s final major package currently planned for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The decision has not yet been made and will depend on McLaren’s competitive position, the progress of its rivals and the performance opportunities identified by its engineers.
“It’s an open point at the moment. We’ll be looking at where we are, where our competitors are, and where we see the opportunities. I think there’s a good chance we’ll have upgrades beyond Baku that can dig more performance out of this car, without impacting 2027.”
Any developments arriving later in the season would not necessarily involve another extensive redesign of the MCL40’s bodywork. Instead, McLaren could focus on smaller components that can be incorporated into the existing package without consuming the same level of resources as a major aerodynamic overhaul.
“It’ll be things like I just mentioned, that can be bolted-on, or bonded-on, rather than the big, wholesale bodywork upgrades, but still areas in which there’s good performance opportunities there for the taking.”
That approach differs from committing substantial resources to another completely new package and could allow McLaren to pursue incremental gains while increasingly directing its design capacity towards 2027. Ferrari has adopted its own contrasting philosophy, choosing a race-by-race development approach while McLaren introduces larger upgrade packages.
For McLaren, the crucial advantage is that work on the MCL40 does not necessarily represent development that will be discarded at the end of the season. With both the chassis and power-unit regulations still at an early stage, many of the lessons learned during the remainder of 2026 can feed directly into the 2027 car.
The Baku package therefore may not represent the end of McLaren’s development programme. If engineers continue to identify worthwhile gains that can be introduced without compromising next year’s project, the MCL40 could continue evolving until much later in the season.
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