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McLaren finally got the ball rolling in 2026 as Oscar Piastri scored a podium at the Japanese Grand Prix, and it has got team leaders feeling confident about the Mercedes engine.
The Aussie qualified P3 behind George Russell and Kimi Antonelli and shot into the lead off the start. He looked in a good position to win the race, but a safety car caused by Ollie Bearman’s frightening crash handed the lead to Antonelli.
The Mercedes driver secured victory by 15 seconds, but Antonelli admitted he was lucky to beat Piastri with the safety car. It was an encouraging performance from McLaren at the Japanese Grand Prix after a tough start to the season with the Mercedes power unit.
No Mercedes one-two in Japan!
Oscar Piastri takes second, with Charles Leclerc third
There have been some tensions between McLaren and Mercedes this year, with the Woking outfit struggling to understand the Brackley outfit’s engine in 2026. The customer teams felt a lack of support from the factory.
It was even suggested that some at Mercedes want to drop McLaren as a customer, but after Suzuka, it appears that the two parties have worked closely and made a breakthrough.
McLaren ‘team leaders’ now believe they ‘90%’ understand Mercedes’ engine after Japan
Journalist Ronald Vording spoke to ‘team leaders’ after the race in Japan, and they believe that McLaren are starting to understand the Mercedes power unit more. Lando Norris finished fifth behind Russell, with Piastri’s P2 totalling 28 points for the Woking outfit.
“McLaren have also made progress. We’ve actually seen that today, and indeed throughout the whole weekend,” said Vording via Motorsport.com Nederland.
“Afterwards, we spoke to some team members and they said, ‘Yes, you can see that now because we understand the Mercedes engine better.’ They were, of course, a bit frustrated about that in Australia.
“The team leaders said, ‘Yes, we’re now at about 90% understanding of the engine we actually want. In China they thought they were at 75%, so now they’re at 90%. So McLaren is on the right track.”
READ MORE: McLaren driver Oscar Piastri’s life outside F1 from height to girlfriend
Andrea Stella does not think Suzuka was a true reflection of McLaren’s performance
While McLaren looked impressive in Japan, team boss Andrea Stella wondered if the team were better than they actually are, as he explained to Vording.
“But Andrea Stella said, ‘Well, perhaps we looked a bit better today than we actually are.’ And that comes down to two things,” he added.
“Firstly, the new asphalt. They’ve largely resurfaced the track. That has actually made graining a less significant factor. And as a result, the lack of downforce – which they still have – was less of an issue than it normally would be. So Stella said that played a part.
McLaren score their first podium of 2026 at the Japanese Grand Prix!
How many will they grab in total this season?
“What also played a part, he mentioned, is that the race was a bit of a hybrid. Everything is hybrid in Formula 1, but he meant it a bit differently.
“By hybrid, he meant a sort of mix between yo-yo racing – more on that later with Max Verstappen – but yo-yo racing and a race in which track position was still quite important.
“Namely, what I just said about having free air, clean air. And he said, ‘It was a bit of both today, and that certainly helped us in the first stint because we had that track position that did help us.’ So yes, McLaren are coming, but apparently McLaren aren’t as good as they seemed today.”
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