Andrea Stella says McLaren feel that being a customer Formula 1 team put them on the back foot in 2026

While McLaren were able to integrate the Mercedes power unit in their chassis under the previous regulations, especially as they matured and learnings became less, that is not the case in 2026.

The new power units are still largely unknown to the teams, who learn more about how to run them in every session, and it is why McLaren, who have struggled with reliability in 2026, find themselves at a disadvantage.

Speaking at the Monaco Grand Prix, after Lando Norris retired with a power unit problem, McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella said: “Never before we felt that being a customer team has put us on the back foot.

"And when I say this, and I want to be clear here to avoid any misunderstanding, it's not because you are a lower priority for [Mercedes] HPP, because you have less opportunities to integrate, to stay on the same timeline when it comes to addressing reliability problems or exploitation of the power unit from a performance point of view, combining the efforts when you use the facilities, and some experiments on the chassis side that you can add to a long run of the power unit when you are a works team.

“There are many reasons why reliability associated to the power unit [plays a role], or taking advantage of being a works team from a power unit point of view. I think these reliability issues have come into focus in 2026, when we had such a major technical regulation change," the Italian explained.

However, it seems that McLaren and Mercedes are already working on an approach to sort out the situation.

Stella said: “That great relationship [with Mercedes HPP] allows us to review item by item, learn from each item, and solve it technically. But when you don't know what's coming, it's not sufficient to simply address item by item.

“You ultimately need to review the depth, the intensity, and the effectiveness of the various meetings, engagement, sharing of information, processes—from factory to factory, track to track, track to factory, and so on.

"The review is ongoing and is, in a way, punctual in terms of looking at each item individually," he revealed. “But it's also a wider review in terms of what do we have to enhance?

"Because in 2026, there's so much novelty, there's so many new things, and we kind of have to operate at a new level of collaboration compared to what we were doing before.

"These conversations have already started for some months now, but like everything in F1, there's always a lead time. It's not like you see the results the day after.

"So this is already happening and is relatively wide-ranging as a discussion," Stella concluded. (Source: Motorsport.com)