McLaren finished the Australian Grand Prix a disappointing 50 seconds behind the leader. While part of this gap was due to an extra pit stop, the MCL40 was still further off the pace than expected compared to Ferrari. “Disappointing and too bad to be true” summed up much of the sentiment following this first outing of the season. McLaren’s true on-track rival proved to be Max Verstappen, who staged an excellent recovery with his RB22 and displayed overall better pace than the papaya car, which struggled with front-end graining. From pre-season testing, it was clear the reigning world champion car wouldn’t start as the car to beat like in 2025. However, the first weekend of 2026 was rather underwhelming.
“We finished a certain distance from the leader, so it’s clear we have work to do,” commented Andrea Stella, highlighting that the car is slightly behind in some areas but mainly pointing to the engine. “We absolutely have performance to find by making the best use of the Power Unit,” he added, expressing some dissatisfaction and frustration with the treatment from Mercedes HPP.
Weight issues and Mercedes Power Unit know-how
There are two fundamental reasons why the papaya car suffered a performance deficit, leaving it less competitive than rivals. One reason relates to McLaren’s work on reducing the car’s weight. As mentioned, the team started the season with a significant overweight, only partially reduced in Australia, according to rival team sources. The world champion team is focusing substantial efforts on lightening the MCL40, aiming to reach the minimum weight target by the Miami GP.
The other factor, highlighted by the Italian Team Principal, concerns the more advanced know-how of Mercedes regarding the Power Unit. It was reported that Mercedes’ customer teams were not able to access the same peak power as the factory team in Australia, partly due to reliability issues identified during testing, such as the problem Antonelli faced. In Melbourne, the MCL40 immediately lost Oscar Piastri due to an apparently minor incident during the formation lap, which Andrea Stella attributed not only to cold tires but also to an “unexpected torque delivery.” These new Power Units are still in a learning phase, and teams that are also manufacturers (like Mercedes) naturally have an advantage over customers in managing power and recharge strategy, which was also evident for McLaren in Melbourne.
Performance recovery through hybrid mastery and weight reduction
Once the team better understands hybrid management and achieves the planned weight reduction, regaining performance on the lap time side should be “easier” compared to pure aerodynamic development. Reducing weight also does not require complex correlation processes and represents a guaranteed lap-time gain. It should be noted that the MCL40 has remained largely the same aerodynamically since the Barcelona shakedown and will not change significantly in these opening races. This contrasts with the early developments seen on Ferrari, Mercedes, and Red Bull cars.
McLaren confirmed that the car started the season in the most up-to-date configuration possible, but it is curious how the 2026 approach seems different from that of their main rivals. However, this is not surprising given previous seasons, which have shown how quickly Woking can recover performance when needed.
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