McLaren now admit they are suffering from the push to win both Formula One titles last season, as Red Bull and Max Verstappen pushed them all the way to the final race. Following his home race in the Netherlands, the Dutch driver found himself 104 points behind championship leader Oscar Piastri.
Yet after his win in Zandvoort, the young Australian suffered a catastrophic run-in to the end of the season, failing to win another Grand Prix and scoring just three podiums. Meanwhile, his teammate Lando Norris was on the rise, but so was Verstappen, who claimed six race wins and three podiums in the final nine events.
The Cost of 2025 Glory
Verstappen won the season finale in Abu Dhabi, but Norris clung on to third place, giving him a two-point lead over the quadruple champion come the final standings. After an unimpressive start to the year, Red Bull continued to bring upgrades to their RB21, and Verstappen responded in relentless fashion.
Now, the McLaren team boss admits there was a price to pay for glory in 2025, and it came in brutal fashion come the start of this year. Since the introduction of the cost cap, F1 teams are restricted in how much they can spend in any given calendar year.
While Ferrari chose early last season to invest their resources in the all-new 2026 car, McLaren and Red Bull entered an arms race to become champions for 2025. The piper must be paid sometime, and McLaren’s start to the 2026 season was ignominious at best.
Mechanical Misery: A Disastrous 2026 Opener
While Lando Norris scraped a P5 at the season opener in Melbourne, his teammate was to suffer the ignominy of a ‘did not start’ at his home race. Next time out in China, neither McLaren started the race. Norris retired in both Canada and Monaco, whilst Piastri suffered mechanical issues last time out in Hungary and did not finish.
Yet with world champion Norris comfortably taking the checkered flag in Budapest, it seemed McLaren had finally turned their season around.
“After three years of steady progress that saw us win three out of four world titles between 2024 and 2025, the start of this season has been a real reset,” said McLaren team boss Andrea Stella.
“Not only because the rule changes were probably the most significant ever in the history of this sport, but above all because we realized just how heavy a price we had paid for the effort we put in during 2025 to secure the world double.”
Powertrain Friction and Team Unity
Meanwhile, Mercedes were cracking on with their all-new 2026 car and powertrain and emerged the best placed at the start of this year. McLaren were unhappy with the support they received from Mercedes High Performance Powertrains [HPP], suggesting Mercedes-AMG F1 had received preferential treatment.
Yet the McLaren engineers refused to turn inward on each other after the disastrous start to 2026, as Stella insists.
“We could have fallen apart; we could have found excuses for not being able to start the championship as we’d finished the previous one, but that wasn’t the case,” said the Italian. “We tried to understand the technical and strategic reasons, and we focused our efforts. And that makes me truly proud of this team.”
Can the MCL40 Catch the Leaders?
And indeed, the impressive margin of victory in Hungary suggests McLaren are now genuine rivals to Mercedes for the championship. Yet the learning curve has been steep, says Stella:
“I believe the most important lesson we’ve taken away from these seven months of hard work is that, in times of great difficulty, unity is strength,” he said. “We’ve demonstrated, first and foremost to ourselves, just how crucial team cohesion is to bouncing back and getting back on track towards the top.”
When asked whether McLaren can fight back to win honors at the end of the year, the McLaren boss was candid:
“That’s a difficult question, but there’s a very clear answer. If we can continue the season as we did in Budapest, we can still achieve a great deal. To do so, we must keep pushing with the development of the MCL40 and ensure we outpace our rivals—who certainly aren’t standing still—in this race within the race, which is the competition over updates.”
With the chassis and aerodynamic regulations continuing almost seamlessly into 2027, McLaren are not facing the ‘either/or’ choice they did in 2025. The further development of the MCL40 this year will carry over into next season.
Stella continues: “The result will depend on how effective the solutions we bring to the track prove to be. In the first part of the season, we struggled more than we expected in this regard too, but I believe that in recent years, once we’ve gained some momentum, we’ve been able to maintain it.”
The 159-Point Gap: Is a Title Charge Still Possible?
Going into the summer break in 2025, McLaren had a 299-point lead in the constructors’ race. This year they are third behind Mercedes and Ferrari, but the gap to the leaders of 159 points does not seem insurmountable with 12 race weekends remaining.
Not only have McLaren overcome the issues with their own car, but their knowledge of how to operate the complex all-new power unit has come on in leaps and bounds.
“Over the past few months, we’ve had the opportunity to deepen our understanding of the new power unit supplied by Mercedes HPP and to work with our technical partners to work out how best to utilize it,” Stella confirmed. “It’s been a long process, with its ups and downs, but one that’s starting to bear fruit. That said, I expect that optimizing the power unit will remain a complex issue throughout the 2026 season.”
Mercedes are expected to bring upgrades to their car at the next outing in Zandvoort. How it fares compared to the revitalized McLaren in the sand dunes on the Atlantic shore will define whether McLaren is in with a shout of yet more championship glory this year.
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A.J. Hunt is Senior Editor at TJ13, where Andrew oversees editorial standards and contributes to the site’s Formula 1 coverage. A career journalist with experience in both print and digital sports media, Andrew trained in investigative journalism and has written for a range of European sports outlets.
At TJ13, Andrew plays a central role in shaping the site’s output, working across breaking news, analysis, and long-form features. Andrew’s responsibilities include fact-checking, refining editorial structure, and ensuring consistency in reporting across a fast-moving news cycle.
Andrew’s work focuses particularly on the intersection of Formula 1 politics, regulation, and team strategy. Andrew closely follows developments involving the FIA, team leadership, and driver market dynamics, helping to provide context behind the sport’s biggest stories.
With experience covering multiple seasons of Formula 1’s modern hybrid era, Andrew has developed a detailed understanding of how regulatory changes and competitive shifts influence the grid. Andrew’s editorial approach prioritises clarity and context, aiming to help readers navigate complex developments within the sport.
In addition to editorial duties, Andrew is particularly interested in how media narratives shape fan perception of Formula 1, and how reporting can balance speed with accuracy in an increasingly digital news environment.
