High expectations have quickly met harsh reality for McLaren in F1 2026, with early setbacks undermining its bullish pre-season outlook.

Recent success suggests the Woking team is better at upgrading the car than making a fast start. But in the end, McLaren gets there.

McLaren F1 2026 season turnaround after early setbacks

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Last year, McLaren clinched the championship double in the final season of the ground-effect aerodynamic era when the team pulled off the almost unthinkable as it reeled in Red Bull after the team’s 21 wins in 22 grands prix in 2023 to win the 2024 Constructors’ title and then go on to secure the double with Lando Norris in 2025.

In four years, McLaren went from fifth in the championship, where it had 600 points less than Red Bull, to winning the team’s title by almost 400 points.

A touch of magic, a touch of design brilliance, and Miami upgrade magic (more to come on that).

It had McLaren bullish about its chances in F1 2026. Although the sport was introducing all-new cars with new engines, McLaren was adamant it was not a challenge it was worried about. Rather, it was one that the Woking team embraced.

Even in pre-season testing when it was clear that Mercedes and Ferrari had the edge, McLaren CEO Zak Brown declared: “What I would say is we feel like we’ll be competitive. The top four teams all seemed very competitive, so very early days but the indication is that we’ll be strong.”

And in McLaren’s defence, it would have been, if not for reliability troubles.

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Although not on the same page, power level, or engine mastery as Mercedes, McLaren’s MCL40 isn’t a bad car.

So much so, team principal Andrea Stella questioned whether Mercedes was playing fair with its customers at the Australian Grand Prix where pole-sitter George Russell was almost eight-tenths up on Oscar Piastri in P5.

“We have work to do to exploit the potential of the power unit, which, once I see the potential that HPP [Mercedes High Performance Powertrains] is extracting, looks like there’s more that is available,” the McLaren team principal said.

“What they are doing shows they understand a lot more, and maybe the flow of information hasn’t been as anticipated.”

He added: “I have to say, since we are a customer team, this is the first time that we feel we are on the back foot even when it comes to the ability to predict how the car will behave and the ability to anticipate how we can improve the car.”

Because Formula 1’s new power units are, well, new.

From a 50/50 split between electrical and combustion power, the battery may be just 50 per cent of the car’s power, but they are proving to be a much bigger percentage of the car’s overall performance.

After Stella’s complaints in Australia about the Mercedes know-how not being shared immediately with McLaren, the team hit a rock bottom moment in China when it recorded a double DNS.

McLaren couldn’t fire up Norris’ car to get it to the grid and then noticed a problem with Oscar Piastri’s ahead of the formation lap. Both issues were related to the Mercedes power unit, but it was two different problems. The team-mates watched the grand prix from the hospitality suite.

After China, McLaren had just 18 points to Mercedes’ 98.

But it was clear from the team’s qualifying performances, with back-to-back P5 and P6s, that the MCL40 wasn’t lacking in pace compared to the field – just compared to Mercedes’ W17.

The team finally got it right in Japan with Piastri – reliable and fast. The Australian driver qualified P3, the team’s best showing of the season, and raced his way to second place behind Kimi Antonelli. Although he was almost 14 seconds down on the Italian, it was a race that Piastri could’ve, would’ve, should’ve won were it not for the timing of a Safety Car that gifted Antonelli a free pit stop.

Nonetheless, it was a clear sign that McLaren had not fumbled its MCL40 chassis. The team wasn’t starting from a 2022 starting point; it was better off. It may not have the level of downforce that the drivers want, but let’s be honest, how many F1 cars do?

Three races in, one podium, 46 points, and a warning fired at second-placed Ferrari.

And then came the boon for McLaren… Formula 1’s Spring Break.

F1 2026: The season’s winners and losers

The results of the F1 2026 championship

The F1 2026 Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championship standings

Instead of developing the car back in Woking while still racing in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, McLaren – the king of Miami improvements – was handed an off-track holiday to focus solely on upgrading the car.

Although every one of its rivals was given the same opportunity, McLaren proved in 2023, and especially in 2024, and again in 2025 that it knows how to develop a car. And to the nth degree.

It shall, as Stella declared when he spoke with PlanetF1.com and other media during the Spring break, be an “entirely new” car by Canada.

“In our intent, there was always the idea to deliver sort of a completely new car especially from an aerodynamic upgrades point of view for the North American races,” he told PlanetF1.com and other media during the team’s spring debrief, “so we could keep up with this plan.

“Obviously, the fact that the calendar has been changed helped a little bit – like I’m sure it helped all the other teams that could work more streamlined towards upgrading the car, rather than being busy with racing.

“But I could say overall that across Miami and Canada, we will see an entirely new MCL40.”

And if the Mercedes’ works team’s engine advantage is anyway negated by the tweaked rules that dampen the extremities around energy management, McLaren could yet pull off a piece of Miami mastery.

F1 2026 rating to date

McLaren 8/10

Because most of McLaren’s misery this season has been the result of its Mercedes power unit.

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