McLaren aims to simultaneously close the performance gap to the front-runners while evaluating key aerodynamic concepts for next season’s car, according to team principal Andrea Stella.
Following the Singapore Grand Prix, Stella outlined his strategy for the team’s upgrade pathway. Reigning champion Lando Norris recently described the current McLaren as the fourth-fastest car on the grid, noting that it requires significant physical effort to drive competitively.
Stella acknowledged the team’s current performance limitations, particularly when compared to dominant forces like Red Bull, which has successfully implemented several upgrades this season.
“So overall I think there’s no big surprises,” Stella told journalists. “It was good to see that here in Singapore we are where we expected to be. I think, Verstappen and Red Bull, they are just taking advantage of the upgrades that they have delivered. And it’s what we call this season the ping-pong.”
“Basically people come with upgrades, even if like in the case of Mercedes I understand that they have some issues themselves. But when people come with upgrades they can take a little step forward. And even if here Red Bull when they were kind of dominant, but compared to us they had three tenths of a second. And three tenths of a second is a range that you can add with an upgrade.”
Lando Norris, McLaren
Photo by: Clive Mason / Getty Images
Regarding future upgrades and lessons from upcoming races, Stella confirmed: “We do plan to deliver some upgrades. We hope that they will be able to fill this gap that we have to the best cars and put McLaren in condition to fight for podiums on merit.”
“Whether we can fight for victory, I think we will have to see probably in the last three races, because these upgrades will be delivered in phases.”
“It’s important for us that we deliver upgrades because we are in a close fight for a championship position. But we also want to prove some of the fundamental concepts that we’ll carry into next year’s car because at this level of maturity of the cars you are starting to push the aerodynamic development and you may start to see that things work.”
“But some things may not work because aerodynamics is starting to get complicated enough after, what it’s basically two years of development if we consider that the development started the 2nd of January 2025 and now we are well into 2026. So after two years now it’s complex.”
“It may go right, it may go wrong. So we wanted to track test some of the fundamentals we carry into next year. And I think this is quite convenient because Red Bull pretty much they are on par with us in terms of points and they are ahead in terms of competitiveness, and we wanted to set a benchmark against Ferrari in the championship.”
Whether the upgrades yield immediate results remains uncertain, but McLaren has demonstrated a strong capability in implementing successful development programs recently.