Lando Norris
McLaren
Mercedes
Red Bull
Ferrari
Williams
Racing Bulls
Aston Martin
Haas
Alpine
Late last year, Andrea Stella suggested that Red Bull were too focused on the drivers’ championship rather than working on their car for the 2026 season.
Fast forward just six months from the time Stella made those comments, and he has been proven half right. While Red Bull are very much struggling, McLaren also find themselves in a similar position.
In fact, one might argue McLaren have had an even worse start to the season than Red Bull, especially after their disastrous double-DNS at the Chinese Grand Prix.
Disaster for Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, Alex Albon and Gabriel Bortoleto as they fail to start the Chinese Grand Prix!
Lando Norris is clearly unhappy with McLaren and their inability to adapt the car to the new regulations. While Oscar Piastri is yet to even start a race this season, watching the first two Grands Prix from the paddock.
After such a dominant season from McLaren last season, few would have expected such an outcome. And it’s hard to believe this has happened, given that Stella suggested they were ahead of Red Bull when preparing for this season months ago.
READ MORE: Guenther Steiner claims McLaren’s reason for Chinese Grand Prix double DNS sounds ‘far-fetched’
Andrea Stella said McLaren didn’t follow Red Bull upgrade approach last year to focus on 2026 development
In late October last year, as Max Verstappen began closing the gap to Lando Norris, there were questions as to why McLaren didn’t make many upgrades to their car like Red Bull had.
When ESPN asked about this, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella suggested that going as heavy as Red Bull had on upgrades would have negatively impacted their preparation for the 2026 season.
“The 2026 project would be heavily compromised… We want to win championships in the future. To win championships in the future you need to have a competitive car. I think we have been very considerate in the timing of switching our full resources to 2026.”
“With the 2026 car, every week we add a lot of downforce. So that’s where, with the best information you have available, you have to make a call.”
We also don’t have to forget that by being the champions, we are the most restricted by the regulations in terms of the wind tunnel allowance and the CFD allowance. We were so much in the diminishing returns we needed to be realistic and shift our attention to 2026.”
“Perhaps they (Red Bull) are happier to give up a little bit of the 2026 because they might have some other issues for 2026 whereby they say let’s focus on 2025.”
READ MORE: McLaren change focus as GPS data shows their chassis cost Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in China
Is Lando Norris’ championship title defence already over?
McLaren held back on upgrades in 2025 to help 2026 car development, but it hasn’t paid off
Clearly, Stella and McLaren felt that they needed to prioritise the coming season rather than go all-in on defending their constructors’ championship.
While they managed to bag both the constructors’ and the drivers’ championships, McLaren’s efforts to help their development for the 2026 season didn’t yield the results they had hoped for.
McLaren have blamed their issues on Mercedes, suggesting they didn’t have enough time with the power unit to develop their car to its maximum potential.
However, this excuse is starting to wear thin, especially considering a team like Alpine, with the same Mercedes power unit, has outperformed them, despite not having the same resources as them.
McLaren must evaluate the next few races and see if they can turn the situation around. If not, they might have to repeat their strategy from last year and switch focus to 2027, albeit far earlier than they had hoped.
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