McLaren air 'unprecedented' claim at record-breaking F1 arms race

McLaren boss Andrea Stella believes the upgrades arms race between F1 teams is "unprecedented" in its success rate in 2026.

Over the course of the 2026 season, when teams have delivered upgrade packages, they have allowed it to take a giant step forward in pace, whilst rivals slip back as they develop their own new parts.

The pecking order then changes as other teams bring upgrades and improve as the gap of leapfrog continues in the first year of the new chassis regulations.

Given the relative immaturity of the 2026 technical regulations, this allows far greater scope for teams to find improvements with upgrades, as opposed to the final year of the ground effect rules where the mature regulations led to leading teams plateauing in upgrade efficiency and the pecking order remaining generally similar throughout the year.

Stella's McLaren delivered a big upgrade at the Hungarian GP, which allowed Lando Norris to win both the Hungarian and Dutch races from pole position, with a further pole at the Spanish GP, where Norris was denied victory by an unfortunately timed virtual safety car.

However, since the Madrid race, in Azerbaijan and Bahrain, McLaren has slipped back in the pecking order whilst Red Bull has taken a decisive step forwards with its RB22.

Reacting to the ever-changing picture, Stella felt the development rate was something never seen in F1, as he also urged caution over Mercedes' Sepang upgrade, which did not work as the team initially intended.

"I would say that I don't think Formula 1 has ever witnessed a rate of development and a successful development rate like in 2026, and we need to acknowledge the standards," Stella began to media, including RacingNews365. 

"The level at which Formula 1 teams operate in 2026, for somebody who's been in Formula 1 for a long time, is just unprecedented.

"So it makes the competitive requirements for a team to be able to succeed extremely high. We come from having been very successful in the past, but if we see the demand in 2026, I would say it is higher than we were able to compete for the world championship.

"I think when it comes to judging someone else's upgrades, you always have to be very respectful and prudent because we don't know the data; we don't know, like, we hardly understand what's happening on our car, so we are very cautious when we talk about other teams."

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Taking a pinch of salt

Reacting to the performance shown in Malaysia, Stella felt a "pinch of salt" was needed thanks to the unique conditions of a rough track surface and hot, humid conditions. 

"I think in Malaysia also we need to take the result with a pinch of salt because, first of all, the tarmac is very, very unique. Only in Bahrain do you have an equivalent level of roughness, and these cars are sensitive to roughness not only when it comes to tyres," he said.

"I don't want to expand on this because it gets a little too technical, but that's the case. Secondly, cars operate at a very high level of cooling, like you need to open the car significantly, so then you lean into your cooling power, and if you raise it by 20 degrees, it could be that the car with the best cooling power now may have the best downforce. 

"Okay, because you take off so much downforce as you open the car for cooling. So I think there are some exceptional conditions which make judging the performance of the cars and the pecking order just subject to observing more in the future."