McLaren has revealed that its last run of upgrades for its 2026 Formula 1 car will also act as tests for “fundamental concepts that will carry into next year’s car”.
After the Singapore Grand Prix, team principal Andrea Stella explained its late-season upgrade plan, indicating its final updates will be delivered across the following three rounds – Austin, Mexico City and Sao Paulo – to ensure McLaren has three rounds at tracks with different characteristics to verify the full package.
The upgrades are naturally targeted to aid McLaren’s efforts in the F1 world constructors’ standings in 2026, but there is a duel purpose to the updates as the Woking-based squad begins to shift focus towards next year.
“We do plan to deliver some upgrades. We hope that they will be able to fill this gap that we have to the best cars and put McLaren in condition to fight for podiums on merit,” Stella said.
“And then whether we can fight for the victory, this I think we will have to see probably in the last three races, because the upgrades will be delivered in phases.
“It's important for us that we deliver upgrades because we are in a close fight for a championship position. But we also want to prove some of the fundamental concepts that will carry into next year's car.”
Lando Norris, McLaren
Photo by: Clive Rose / Formula 1 via Getty Images
Stella explained that with the aerodynamic devices on its F1 car already starting to mature and become more complex, the team wants to trial parts that are likely to be foundational to its 2027 F1 car concept.
“Because at this level of maturity of the cars you are starting to push the aerodynamic development and you may start to see that things work, but some things may not work, because the aerodynamics is starting to get complicated enough after what is basically two years of development,” he said.
“If we consider that the development started the 2nd of January 2025 and now, we are well into 2026. So, after two years now that it's complex, it may go right, it may go wrong.
“So, we wanted to track test some of the fundamentals we carry into next year and I think this is quite convenient because Red Bull is pretty much on par with us in terms of points and they are ahead in terms of competitiveness. And we wanted to set a quest [to catch] Ferrari in the championship.”
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Ferrari remain second, 105 points clear of McLaren, with a maximum of 258 points left to score presuming the remainder of the 2026 F1 calendar is fulfilled given the uncertainty around the Qatar and Abu Dhabi GPs due to the ongoing war in Iran.