Stella reveals how efficient correlation has helped McLaren deliver reliable upgrades
After the Woking-based outfit won 11 of the first 14 races in 2025, McLaren's team boss Andrea Stella revealed how efficient correlation has helped McLaren deliver upgrades that did not cause side effects.
Having ended last season by displaying dominant performance, McLaren's 2025 F1 car, the MCL39 was the first McLaren car to be fully overseen by former Red Bull chief designer Rob Marshall, and it exhibited numerous technical improvements over its predecessor.
The MCL39 displayed dominant form during pre-season testing in Bahrain, and it carried this form over into the season, with Oscar Piastri leading his team-mate Lando Norris in the drivers' championship, and the papaya outfit enjoying an enormous margin over its rivals in the teams' standings.
As of the Hungarian Grand Prix, McLaren has scored podiums in all races except the Canadian Grand Prix. Between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, McLaren achieved seven 1-2 finishes in China, Miami, Spain, Austria, Great Britain, Belgium and Hungary.
McLaren's current streak of four consecutive 1-2 finishes beginning in Austria was the first instance of such since Mercedes achieved five consecutive 1-2 finishes in 2019.
While McLaren used to introduce its developments as an extensive upgrade package, the Woking-based outfit has changed its approach, bringing new parts to its MCL39 on a regular basis.
Asked how McLaren appears to be the only team that has managed to introduce new parts on its car without causing any side effects on drivability, Stella has revealed that improving the correlation between the factory and the on-track performance has massively helped the Woking-based outfit deliver upgrades so far in 2026.
"This trend that we have been able to establish, whereby developments—being them from a mechanical point of view, but above all aerodynamic—have been successful, is the result of many factors.
"There's not much in Formula 1 fundamental for success that is a magic bullet. It's really the result of working on the fundamentals.
"The fundamentals don't only involve the capacity to generate ideas, to create the next geometry for a floor or a front wing, but they also involve understanding the methodologies you use for this development and understanding when these methodologies will be not only effective in being innovative but also in giving you the confidence that what you have achieved in development in the wind tunnel or CFD will actually transfer into something that works trackside.
"This is part of generating the knowhow as a team, which in itself is a very simple statement—“let's generate the knowhow to have the best correlation”—but in reality, is possibly one of the most complicated battlegrounds for any Formula 1 team.
"We have invested a lot from this point of view. I have to praise the quality of the people because even if we talk methodologies, they are always led by people. I have been very lucky that I could lean on very competent leaders and a very talented team," concluded Stella.
