“It is clear that we still need to improve, first and foremost in terms of performance. Moreover, it is also clear that the start of the season has not been easy for us from a reliability point of view, so we still have a long way to go.”
This is how Oscar Piastri summarised the start of the season for the Woking-based team, the reigning double world champions and fresh off a drivers’ title that had been missing since 2008.
The first two races highlighted all the weaknesses in Andrea Stella’s team preparation compared to two rivals who sacrificed almost the entire 2025 season to arrive fully ready for the start of the new era.
On the other hand, in Suzuka — also thanks to more favourable conditions in several areas — many of the strengths of the British car were on display, with a clear step forward compared to Mercedes and Ferrari.
Leading McLaren, after a very disappointing second half of last season, is Oscar Piastri: whenever he has been on track in competitive sessions, the Australian has consistently beaten his teammate in both qualifying and race pace.
Piastri, another strong start like in 2025: are the new cars better suited to him?
Until August 2025, Oscar Piastri had one hand firmly on motorsport’s most important trophy. Then came the collapse, but it cannot be said to have been completely unexpected from a technical point of view: with the arrival of circuits demanding high downforce and low grip, car number 81 began to struggle again.
This year, it is possible that one of those limiting factors is less influential compared to the ground-effect generation. The 2026 cars generate around 20% less aerodynamic load in medium-high speed corners, also due to reduced drag requirements aimed at improving energy recovery and battery management.
The comparison between the rear downforce levels of the MCL39 and MCL40 in Suzuka makes the difference very clear.
In 2023 and 2024, Piastri struggled significantly on high-downforce circuits. In 2025, his progress reduced those weaknesses, but some specific tracks still exposed noticeable limitations. Could 2026 become the year of the definitive breakthrough for the McLaren driver?
The real confirmation will only come in the third phase of the season, between late September and early November, but the early-season signs confirm that the level of the former Formula 2 champion is not in question.
The qualifying comparison with Lando Norris is clear: 3-0 in favour of Piastri, with an average advantage of around one and a half tenths between the two McLaren drivers.
The most convincing performance came in the first race: the Melbourne circuit often highlights weaknesses that have historically troubled the home driver. After three qualifying defeats to Norris in head-to-head battles, Piastri turned things around at Albert Park.
In the first race of the season he completed — after two DNFs — the Australian delivered one of his best performances, thanks to an excellent start that allowed him to control the race from the front before the unfortunate Safety Car:
“I think this weekend was probably one of the best I’ve ever had in F1. I feel like I drove well in qualifying. In terms of the race, we couldn’t have done any better.”
McLaren: slow start like in 2023 and 2024, but Woking has proven it can develop
The qualifying sessions in Melbourne and Shanghai highlighted the gap in know-how between the factory operation and McLaren, triggering criticism from Andrea Stella regarding information sharing from HPP on the Anglo-German power unit:
“Since we became a customer team [of Mercedes], it is the first time we have felt in difficulty, also in terms of our ability to predict the behaviour of the car and understand how to improve it,” the Italian engineer said after the opening race.
In Suzuka qualifying, McLaren became the second force for the first time this season thanks also to a step forward in understanding the new power units. This allowed the team to recover a few tenths compared to Mercedes and Ferrari.
In race conditions, however, several variables came into play that helped reduce the gap to direct rivals. Suzuka was the first race without significant degradation issues, especially graining, which had heavily affected the MCL40 in the opening rounds.
This, combined with strong track position at the start, allowed McLaren to extract close to maximum performance from the papaya car and close in on Ferrari and Mercedes.
The gap to the Mercedes W17 package can be estimated at around 4 to 5 tenths based on the first three races, across circuits with very different aerodynamic and power unit demands.
The figure may look worrying, but expected in-season improvements are significant and do not rule out an unexpected recovery from McLaren or Ferrari.
It is no secret that teams will introduce their first major upgrade package between Miami and Montreal — covering developments originally planned for the Middle Eastern rounds — and this could effectively reset the competitive order.
“It will be a championship won or lost through development,” Charles Leclerc correctly analysed.
McLaren will be no different and will heavily upgrade the MCL40 with a package expected between Miami and Montreal. The team expects an improvement of around four tenths from the full upgrade package:
“Between Miami and Canada we will see a completely new MCL40,” Andrea Stella stated in recent days.
The Woking-based team has already shown — especially in 2023 and 2024 — that it is a specialist in in-season technical recovery.
This year, however, the mountain could be even harder to climb if the goal is to repeat recent success. At the moment, Norris sits 47 points behind Kimi Antonelli, while Piastri is 51 points adrift.
However, with Ferrari tied up in ADUO-related decisions and suffering from a power deficit, McLaren could emerge as the true dark horse of the championship.
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