(Motorsport-Total.com) – After a weak start to the 2026 Formula 1 season, McLaren is now showing signs of what has made the current squad of the traditional team so successful in the top class over the past two years.
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True to the successful record with upgrades during the 2024 and 2025 seasons, McLaren’s latest upgrade package in Hungary, which includes a revised floor and a new version of the front wing, was another significant step forward after the previous updates in Miami and Montreal.
The package gave the drivers the chance to fight for victory, with Lando Norris securing his and thus the team’s first Grand Prix win of the season. However, McLaren’s form still needs to prove itself on various tracks and under different weather conditions.
And it is probably too late to successfully defend either of the two titles, as the team is still 159 points behind leader Mercedes. In the drivers’ championship, Norris remains only fifth after a difficult start to the season, where he lost a lot of ground, while Piastri is even further back in seventh.
The team explains its sluggish start to the 2026 season by having had to fight a late title battle against Red Bull and Max Verstappen last year, combined with a course correction during the development of its 2026 concept.
Other teams have “done a better job”
“We had a big, albeit slightly surprising competition with Max at the end of the season,” said Neil Houldey, McLaren’s technical director for engineering. “But of course, we continued to develop our car until the end of the year while simultaneously working on 2026.”
“Looking at how we started 2026, we were a bit behind compared to a few teams,” he explains, adding: “I think we have done a pretty good job by bringing many upgrades that gave the car more performance.”
“From the power unit perspective and the car perspective, we have put ourselves in a better position. But you have to say that a few teams out there have definitely done a better job than us,” admits Houldey. “And now we have to find a way in this second half of the season to overtake them and become more competitive in more races.”
Unlike last year, when teams like Ferrari and others no longer in the title fight shifted their focus early to the following season, McLaren still believes that performance improvements on this year’s car will benefit the team in 2027.
This applies despite the fact that the vehicle design itself will not be fully carried over, as the team is already planning a 2027 car with a longer wheelbase and a changed suspension layout.
Next year there will also be some changes to the technical regulations, including shortening the so-called “Front Bib” or “Tea Tray” at the front part of the floor by 300 millimeters, which will affect not only downforce generation but also ride heights.
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“We expect to bring some important parts in the next races, and we expect to do so relatively late in the season,” confirms Houldey. “We are definitely not stopping development for 2026 because we know that everything we carry from 2026 to 2027 will be carried forward as knowledge.”
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“Even if our car gets a little longer, even if the suspension concept changes, everything we learn this year is very relevant for next year. That’s why we are very keen to continue developing the car as long as possible.”
He adds: “The best way to understand the generated performance is to bring it to the track, test it properly, and make sure it does what you expect.”
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“If you stop 2026 now, you are more entering the theoretical world, and that does not necessarily mean you generate a lot of performance for 2027,” he warns. “Our current view is therefore that there are still so many races ahead of us where we can add performance.”
“Let’s find ways to add performance at these events, and we know that these insights will be useful for 2027,” says Houldey. Like every other team, McLaren was also able to be inspired by what the competition is doing.
Rules not as restrictive as in ground-effect times?
The team was the third to test a rotating rear wing, which was first seen on the 2026 Ferrari during winter testing. Houldey admitted that the team was a bit “disappointed” to have overlooked this possibility in the regulations.
But the innovation shown by Ferrari underlines once again that the technical regulations for 2026 are less strict than initially assumed. “Aerodynamically, the cars look quite similar, but they actually are not,” explains Houldey.
“There are a few areas that the teams have explored. I think the regulations give us enough freedom,” he emphasizes. “When you talk about the first year, you really learn a lot from what other teams have done.”
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“When rereading the rules, you discover a lot, which means they are a bit more open than from 2022 to 2025. And of course, in this first year, you learn so much that it’s fun to look at different concepts.”
“The sidepods are a good example that there may not be much performance in them, but you see so many different versions in the pit lane. No one has converged yet, so there are many things you can try to find the right direction.”
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