2026 McLaren Mastercard F1 Team

[Seerix]

unfortunate, they can use the start and maybe overtake guys in row 3 (if redbull and merc have slow start), but it's not a good weekend indeed, sigh

[CjC]

Ah. Not ideal.
Lots to learn. We could potentially be seeing evidence that the short wheelbase isn’t the right way to go- again

[Darth-Piekus]

As I expected the car chassis is not that good in terms of mechanical aero and Monaco exposed it. Maybe its the short wheelbase, maybe the short gear ratio. I dont really know as Im not an engineer. What I know is that we are behind Mercedes, Ferrari and now Red Bull. It's concerning considering Mclaren was ages in front (at the start of 2026) compared to Red Bull (who was battling the midfield) on the basic car and then brought a fully upgraded car as Red Bull and now seem to be behind.

Some correction. It wasn't good at least in Monaco. Let us hope the new upgrades in Spain can finally unlock all that locked potential. I'm saying all that cause at the moment Mercedes is still the better car, Ferrari is I believe slightly better but closer to us still and Red Bull is still removing weight and is closer than before. They got to find a solution inside the team because it is unacceptable to have stopped development that early last year to produce an inferior car than a team that was more than half a second behind (Mercedes) a team that was more than a second behind (Ferrari) and a team who developed till the end of 2025, sacrificing 2026 (Red Bull). That is only for the aerodynamic part of the car. In terms of the engine and battery I feel dissapointed that the team is facing problems on things they should be knowing for years now while we see a team that literally created their first engine with the help of Ford who hasn't been in F1 for many years and seem to be on par with Mercedes and have less issues.

Don't misunderstand me. This is how I feel right now. Perhaps the team will turn the tables in the following rounds but the target remains to have the best car by the end of the year (as this year looks like 1997) and start next year as the best car on the field by far (like we did in 1998).This year might be lost anyhow.

[AR3-GP]

I'm struggling to piece together what Mclaren is struggling with. Andrea Stella was confident before the weekend. This is what he told reporters some weeks ago:

Mclaren says their strength is slow corners. Weak in medium and high speed.

Looking at the GPS data, you can clearly see that Ferrari is very competitive in the corners. You could see that here in Montreal too, in the first sector. It also comes down to handling the kerbs well. Ferrari mainly loses time on the straights. But there aren't many of those in Monaco. That's why Lando is right to see Ferrari as the favourite for pole position in Monaco. At the current stage of development, the McLaren is better suited to slow corners than to medium- and high-speed corners. Ferrari and Mercedes are superior to us there. That should put us in a good position for Monaco

https://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/for ... n-analyse/

It also sounds like there is some disagreement between Mclaren and the drivers about how the car is behaving.

What’s interesting is that while team principal Andrea Stella told reporters in Canada that the MCL40 is reasonably strong in slow corners, and could be expected to perform well around a circuit like Monaco, Norris’s expectations were different. Indeed, he had thought ahead of the event that the fourth row was his most likely destination.

“I think just a slight difference of opinion,” Norris said in Monaco when pressed on this topic.

“Obviously I'm the one driving the car, so I can tell the difficulty of extracting lap time, how difficult it was already last [race] weekend in Montreal.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/a-re ... /10827689/

I wonder if the upgrades in Miami have given the car a narrower operating window.

[CjC]

Not sure this will give you an answer but it might give you a few more pieces to put together:

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/what-explains-mclarens-2026-reality-check-in-monaco/

Stella says the MCL40 is gentle on its tyres which can have a negative impact on tyre warm up for quali.

Lando says he didn’t have confidence with the front of the car, with front locking etc. I recall similar issues with the flat bottom car in 2019 and also the GE car of 2024- the wet race in Brazil and the Las Vegas weekend come to mind.

Like the drivers say they just need more load. Martin Brundle keeps saying how excited McLaren are with what is to come in the development pipeline so we’ll just have to wait and see. I hope they are right

*I don’t know why the link isnt working- I haven’t done anything different*

[Emag]

This car is quite peculiar. They're doing things differently than the others and for the first time in a while, it seems like they're the ones in the wrong (for the time being).
What's coming out of them doesn't really align with what's being observed either. The MCL40 has shown anything but good tire life. Ever since the pre-season that was literally sticking out as a sore thumb with the way they were dropping off towards the end of the long run stints. But it depends by what Stella considers gentle on the tires I suppose.

On the other side, this is the shortest car (wheelbase-wise) out of the top 4 and they also have, by far, the shortest gear ratios. On paper it seems like this car should have been almost perfect-tailored to Monaco, but they were miles off. I would have thought they would be close with Mercedes and Ferrari, with maybe Ferrari having the edge, but I underestimated Mercedes. RedBull also did better than I expected here, but I guess if Max is comfortable with the car, you cannot rule him out of anything.

[bauc]

Wild guess...... we will win today from a Safety Car Restart

[venkyhere]

This car is quite peculiar. They're doing things differently than the others and for the first time in a while, it seems like they're the ones in the wrong (for the time being).
What's coming out of them doesn't really align with what's being observed either. The MCL40 has shown anything but good tire life. Ever since the pre-season that was literally sticking out as a sore thumb with the way they were dropping off towards the end of the long run stints. But it depends by what Stella considers gentle on the tires I suppose.

On the other side, this is the shortest car (wheelbase-wise) out of the top 4 and they also have, by far, the shortest gear ratios. On paper it seems like this car should have been almost perfect-tailored to Monaco, but they were miles off. I would have thought they would be close with Mercedes and Ferrari, with maybe Ferrari having the edge, but I underestimated Mercedes. RedBull also did better than I expected here, but I guess if Max is comfortable with the car, you cannot rule him out of anything.

Bingo. I expected them to lock out the front row before Friday, given the specific characteristics of the McL40.
Totally flummoxed by their pace. Should have finished ahead of atleast one overweight Redbull or one struggling Mercedes driver.