McLaren identify new 'battleground' after F1 rules reset

McLaren boss Andrea Stella has identified the new "battleground" between leading teams in F1's new technical era.

In 2025, the downforce on cars was produced by ground effects, where the car was run as low to the ground as possible to generate load and downforce, with the MCL39 machine dominant in the early and European legs of the season. 

However, for 2026, the rules reverted to a more 2021-style of downforce generation, with 'aero-rake' being reintroduced, whereby the rear of the car is run slightly higher than the front to aid downforce. 

As with the first year of any rules cycle, the regulations are currently immature, meaning there is great scope for a team to bring a huge performance boost with upgrades, with Stella describing how McLaren's fresh package, set to be introduced in Hungary, will change some of the original concepts on the MCL40.

"There are a few technical considerations that we can make. The first consideration I will make is that, unlike the previous regulations, the pattern of competitiveness here is quite repeatable," Stella began to tell media, including RacingNews365. 

"It's quite consistent and pretty much independent of the track layout. You have Ferrari, Mercedes, and then Red Bull, and then McLaren, so it's not like there's much sensitivity on track layout, corner type, or setup, which is the second consideration. 

"Last year, if you found a way to run as close as possible to the ground and not have porpoising and cope with the stiffness, then you would cash in on downforce, and elevate the category of your car.

"I think this year is much more difficult through set up to find any opportunity, because the cars are not as sensitive to ride heights as they were last year, so what is the battleground? 

"The battleground is first of all the developments themselves. Every team is bringing upgrades.

"I think everyone has delivered at least two to three-tenths for every major upgrade that they have taken. The second key battleground is the concepts from an aerodynamic point of view, are not mature yet.

"I have to say that our technical explanation to the fact that we are not as competitive as we would have liked, is that in some areas of the car our directions that we took in the initial design of the car, they need revision, and after we have seen some of the cars, and after we have done some more work of starting with concepts that you should pursue, we have understood that we should review the concepts in some areas.

"So you will see that with some of the upgrades that are coming, we have changed the concept in some areas of the car, and hopefully from there we will be able to add performance."