McLaren’s MCL40 paid a clear price on the straights in Baku, exactly as Andrea Stella had predicted, but the telemetry tells a very different story about the slow corners. Against Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes, the data confirms a genuine straight-line limitation while showing that the feared weakness through Baku’s low-speed sections did not materialise against McLaren’s closest rivals.
The two concerns had been raised by Andrea Stella at the beginning of September, between Zandvoort and Monza. Monza had already supported the first prediction, with McLaren more than 10 km/h down in maximum speed during qualifying. Madrid then challenged the second, as Lando Norris took pole position on a circuit dominated by slow corners. Baku provided an opportunity to test both characteristics together, combining a 2.2-kilometre flat-out section with a sequence of 90-degree corners extending to Turn 7, which is taken in first gear.
The zero points scored in Baku, with Oscar Piastri finishing 13th and Lando Norris retiring, reveal relatively little about the underlying performance of the car. To separate the MCL40’s performance from the incidents that shaped the race, telemetry from Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren provides a much clearer picture. The straight-line weakness affects the entire team. The supposed slow-corner problem does not.
How the Baku telemetry was analysed
The analysis uses race telemetry from eight drivers: George Russell, Kimi Antonelli, Max Verstappen, Isack Hadjar, Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. The available channels include speed, throttle, braking and gear selection, with approximately four measurements per second. Corner numbers follow Formula 1’s official timing convention, while each corner location is within 25 metres of the minimum-speed point recorded in the telemetry.
Only green-flag laps were retained, specifically laps 4 to 29 and 41 to 50. Safety Car periods and pit-stop laps were excluded, as were Oscar Piastri’s laps following his lock-up on lap 40, when he was circulating on flat-spotted tyres. Kimi Antonelli was also excluded because he was racing with a car damaged in his qualifying accident.
Each lap was corrected for the factors capable of distorting the comparison. The effect of the slipstream was estimated using the gap to the car ahead at the exit of Turn 16. Tyre compound was also accounted for, because five drivers used both the Soft and Medium compounds, along with fuel load and the progressive improvement in track conditions.
The reference point is George Russell, who led from the start to the finish. Late in the race, Max Verstappen was almost always within 1.5 seconds, yet George Russell continued to reach between 322 and 327 km/h, essentially the same figures as during the first stint. That indicates George Russell was not simply conserving energy. The calculations were repeated using five different settings, and only conclusions that remained valid under all five are included. Differences below two tenths are treated as effectively equal.
The straight is the McLaren MCL40’s real Baku weakness
Andrea Stella was right about the straight. Once the effect of the slipstream is equalised, the two McLarens are the slowest of the eight cars in maximum speed. Oscar Piastri reaches a figure 9 km/h lower than George Russell, while Lando Norris is 3 km/h down. Compared with Ferrari and Red Bull, the deficit rises to around 8 km/h, close to what was already seen at Monza.
Ferrari, like Red Bull, can even reach maximum speeds 2-3 km/h higher than George Russell’s Mercedes, although Ferrari’s headline top-speed number is slightly deceptive.
The pattern remains visible even without applying corrections. On laps where drivers had at least four seconds of clear space ahead, George Russell reached 325-326 km/h, Lewis Hamilton 326 km/h, Charles Leclerc 330 km/h and Isack Hadjar 326 km/h late in the race. Oscar Piastri stopped at 317 km/h. The two McLarens had already ranked last among these eight cars at the speed trap in Friday qualifying, with Lando Norris at 317 km/h and Oscar Piastri at 320 km/h.
Where the time is lost is just as important. McLaren accelerates away from Turn 16 in line with the other teams and loses nothing over the first 500 metres. The problem begins above approximately 290 km/h. Over the closing part of the straight, the deficit grows to three or four tenths per lap compared with Ferrari and Red Bull. Of the McLaren limitations visible in Baku, this is the one that leaves the clearest mark on the stopwatch.
The profile is consistent with a car carrying more aerodynamic drag than its rivals. Andrea Stella wrote in McLaren’s race report of “too much aerodynamic drag, insufficient top speed on the straights and insufficient pace in the corners”. Part of the deficit could also be linked to electrical energy deployment, but the telemetry does not contain battery data, making it impossible to separate the two effects conclusively.
The upgrades were not enough to eliminate the problem. The FIA document listing technical changes showed eight new components on the MCL40, including a modified rear wing specifically intended to reduce drag in the straight-line configuration. Mercedes and Ferrari brought no updates. The broader performance of the Mercedes package has already made the W17 an important benchmark in 2026, particularly through the corners.
Ferrari and McLaren are slow on the straights in different ways
Ferrari requires a separate explanation. The SF-26 reaches higher peak speeds than George Russell, yet Frédéric Vasseur had spoken about an expected disadvantage on long straights and the Ferrari drivers spent much of the race defending.
When the two straights are combined — the section between Turns 2 and 3 and the main straight — Ferrari takes the same amount of time as George Russell’s Mercedes. Red Bull is four tenths faster than both, while McLaren is two tenths slower. In race conditions at Baku, the straight-line hierarchy is therefore Red Bull first, followed by Ferrari and George Russell’s Mercedes at a similar level, with McLaren behind.
Ferrari loses its time during acceleration. On the short straight between Turns 2 and 3 and over the first 500 metres after Turn 16, the SF-26 loses ground to Red Bull. Over the final part it maintains the gap rather than recovering it.
Charles Leclerc was clear about the problem: “Against the Red Bulls it was very difficult to defend because we were too slow on the straight.” The issue was also visible in Ferrari’s Baku telemetry, where the SF-26 displayed a very different performance profile from McLaren.
McLaren experiences almost the opposite phenomenon. The MCL40 exits Turn 16 better than Ferrari and Mercedes before it stops gaining once speeds climb beyond 290 km/h. Compared with George Russell’s Mercedes, Ferrari’s deficit is therefore created in the corner and acceleration phase, while McLaren’s deficit develops farther along the straight.
This picture is specific to Baku. Technical previews indicated that Ferrari had selected a low-downforce configuration for the circuit, while at other venues the straight-line gap to Mercedes has been greater.
Every car loses speed at the end of Baku’s main straight
There is also another phenomenon that is not specific to any one team. All the cars reach maximum speed between approximately 5,100 and 5,300 metres into the lap before beginning to slow despite the throttle remaining fully open. Over the final 800 metres before the finish line, between 10 and 17 km/h is lost.
The behaviour is consistent with what Formula 1 drivers describe as clipping. Under the 2026 regulations, electrical energy accounts for roughly half of the power available, and the usable electrical contribution is exhausted before the end of the straight. On a circuit such as Baku, where cars remain at full throttle for around 2.2 kilometres, the effect becomes particularly visible. Lewis Hamilton specifically identified energy management as one of the first areas Ferrari needed to analyse, an issue also examined during Ferrari’s Baku FP3 running.
McLaren behaves similarly to the other teams in this respect. Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris lose around 14 km/h, comparable with George Russell. The Red Bulls lose slightly less, around 10-12 km/h, although they were almost always benefiting from a slipstream. What hurts McLaren is therefore not the amount of speed lost once the decline begins, but the lower speed from which that decline starts.
McLaren’s feared slow-corner weakness does not appear in the data
The second concern raised by Andrea Stella does not stand up in the same way. Through Turns 1 to 4, the four 90-degree corners comparable with those in Madrid, McLaren loses an average of 0.16 seconds per lap to George Russell. Red Bull loses 0.14 seconds and Ferrari 0.41 seconds. Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are separated by only one tenth, suggesting the figure reflects the car more than the individual drivers.
The same pattern appears between Turns 5 and 7 and through the castle section. This sequence includes Turn 7, the slowest corner of the lap, taken at around 72 km/h in first gear. McLaren loses 0.11 seconds to George Russell there, less than Red Bull’s 0.18 seconds and Ferrari’s 0.31 seconds. After qualifying, Charles Leclerc had already identified the second sector as the area where George Russell was making the difference.
Turns 15 and 16 initially appear to be an exception. Across the section containing the two corners, McLaren is the slowest of the three chasing teams, losing 0.15 seconds to George Russell compared with 0.11 for Red Bull and 0.07 for Ferrari. The time, however, is not actually being lost in the corner itself. Through Turn 16, the McLaren carries 116-117 km/h, faster than Red Bull and Lewis Hamilton.
The deficit begins earlier. Following the short acceleration zone after Turn 15, McLaren arrives at the braking area as much as 5 km/h slower and begins braking a few metres earlier.
When all the slow corners are combined, McLaren loses 0.43 seconds per lap to George Russell, effectively identical to Red Bull. Ferrari loses 0.79 seconds. Against its direct rivals, therefore, McLaren does not display a particular slow-corner problem. Only Mercedes remains clearly ahead, with the W17 outperforming everyone through these sections — a strength also visible in the wider analysis of Mercedes W17 performance in 2026.
After Madrid, Baku is the second consecutive race in which Andrea Stella’s second prediction has not been reflected by the data.
One McLaren, two very different ways of producing a lap
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri produced almost identical overall pace, at 0.60 and 0.64 seconds per lap slower than George Russell respectively once conditions are equalised. They arrived at those figures in very different ways.
Between Turns 5 and 7 and through the castle section, Oscar Piastri was the fastest driver of all, matching George Russell. Yet Oscar Piastri lost 0.31 seconds through the final part of the straight. Lando Norris lost 0.24 seconds in the castle section but only 0.08 seconds on the straight.
Tyre compound does not explain the difference. Compound has no meaningful effect on the straight-line comparison, while the cornering data has already been corrected for the tyres used.
There are, however, two official clues. In McLaren’s practice report, the team explained that it had brought a new, higher-downforce rear wing. Oscar Piastri used it in the opening session, while Lando Norris ran the older specification to provide a direct comparison.
The second clue comes from qualifying, when Lando Norris was the driver complaining that he was slower than his team-mate on the straight. Speaking to The Race, Andrea Stella linked that issue to a power-unit phenomenon that “seems to be related to the behaviour of the fuel injection”. In the race, their situations reversed and Oscar Piastri became the slower McLaren on the straight.
A higher-downforce wing on Oscar Piastri’s car would explain both his performance through the castle section and his straight-line deficit, but McLaren has not stated which configuration either driver actually raced.
The Baku hierarchy after correcting the telemetry
Once tyre compound, slipstream and fuel effects are corrected, the Baku performance order changes. Max Verstappen emerges as the fastest driver, 0.24 seconds per lap ahead of George Russell, although that estimate is less robust because Max Verstappen never ran consistently in clean air.
Isack Hadjar follows at 0.24 seconds behind George Russell. Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc are then covered by just five hundredths of a second, while Lewis Hamilton sits 0.92 seconds behind the Mercedes benchmark.
At team level, Red Bull and Mercedes occupy the top level. McLaren follows immediately behind, either level with or marginally ahead of Ferrari. The gap to Red Bull is around six tenths per lap, and more than half of that deficit is created in the final part of the straight.
Tyre choice also had an effect. Under Baku conditions, the Soft was worth approximately 0.35 seconds per lap compared with the Medium. Pirelli described the Soft as the most competitive tyre in the race, using the two Red Bulls and their contrasting strategies as an example. McLaren also acknowledged in its race report that the Medium compound particularly compromised Lando Norris during the first half of the race.
Restarts and Turn 1: where McLaren lost its points
McLaren ultimately lost its points at Turn 1 rather than through a fundamental lack of race pace. On lap 30, Lando Norris was running seventh when he locked up and flat-spotted his tyres. He stopped just as the Safety Car was deployed following Alexander Albon’s accident at Turn 6. At the restart, Lando Norris was caught in the contact between Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly, ending his race.
Oscar Piastri, still running on cold Medium tyres, lost second place at the first restart when Max Verstappen passed him. On lap 39, the first lap after the second Safety Car, George Russell and Max Verstappen on Soft tyres took Turn 1 only 4-8 km/h below their usual minimum speed. Drivers behind them on Medium tyres were between 13 and 20 km/h slower through the corner, and even on lap 40 they remained 8-15 km/h below their normal reference.
Kimi Antonelli was also 18 km/h below his normal benchmark despite running the Soft compound, because he was positioned in traffic. Both Medium runners and drivers without clear air ahead therefore struggled during the restarts.
Oscar Piastri’s lock-up occurred in precisely those conditions. On lap 40, Oscar Piastri began braking around 175 metres after the finish line, the same point as on a normal racing lap, and at 300 km/h, matching Isack Hadjar behind him. The car nevertheless failed to slow properly and Oscar Piastri reached the run-off area at 34 km/h. His first sector took 48.3 seconds compared with 38.8 seconds on the previous lap, dropping him from third to 15th.
Oscar Piastri said the mistake “definitely caught me by surprise”, and the telemetry supports that description: Oscar Piastri did not brake later than usual. It is consistent with the scenario described by Pirelli, in which bringing the front axle back into its operating temperature window was difficult after each restart.
Andrea Stella linked the incidents to the pressure created by having a car that was constantly required to defend. That connection is more evident for Oscar Piastri than for Lando Norris, whose race ultimately ended because of another driver’s mistake.
The verdict: one McLaren weakness is confirmed, the other is not
Of the two McLaren limitations expected at Baku, one remains firmly in place: straight-line performance. It is a team-wide characteristic. Across the straights, McLaren ranks last of the four leading teams, around two tenths behind Ferrari and Mercedes and almost six tenths behind Red Bull, despite the introduction of a rear wing modified specifically to reduce aerodynamic resistance.
The slow corners tell a different story. Through the 90-degree corners and the castle section, McLaren is effectively level with Red Bull and ahead of Ferrari. Even the small amount of time lost around Turns 15 and 16 originates from the speed at which the MCL40 arrives at the braking zone rather than from its performance through the corner itself. Andrea Stella’s reference to insufficient cornering pace therefore applies primarily when McLaren is compared with Mercedes, which remains ahead of every rival in those sections.
Baku’s zero-point result consequently does not represent the underlying value of the MCL40. McLaren had enough race pace to fight Ferrari in the group immediately behind the podium positions. The points disappeared at Turn 1 through a combination of another driver’s mistake and the difficulty of managing cold tyres after the restarts.
Sepang will provide the opposite type of test. Its long-duration corners are the kind of sections Andrea Stella has identified as favourable to McLaren. If the MCL40 returns to the front there, qualifying top speed will still be worth examining before looking at the starting grid itself. That comparison should reveal whether McLaren has genuinely overcome its straight-line limitation or whether the characteristics of the circuit simply make it less visible.
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