McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has confirmed the team will be deploying fresh F1 upgrades later in the season to try and defeat a resurgent Red Bull.
Following the Singapore Grand Prix, McLaren is now just seven points clear of a Red Bull team gaining momentum, with the team winning the previous two races in Bahrain and Singapore, with Max Verstappen also finishing second in Azerbaijan, where the RB22 received a big upgrade.
Just three races ago, after the Spanish GP, McLaren held a 76-point lead over Red Bull as it benefited from a strong run of its own with two wins and three poles in four races following a Hungary upgrade.
However, the lead has now been whittled down to single digits, with the reigning champions abandoning hope of catching Ferrari for second as attention turns to trying to fend off Red Bull for the bronze-medal position.
"We do plan to deliver some upgrades; we hope that they will be able to fill in this gap we have to the best cars and put McLaren in condition to fight for podiums on merit, and then victory," Stella told media, including RacingNews365.
"This, I think, will probably be in the last three races because the upgrades have to be delivered in phases - and it is important for us to deliver upgrades because we are in a close fight for a championship position.
"This is quite convenient because Red Bull are pretty much on a par with us in terms of points, and ahead in terms of competitiveness - and we want to set a quest for Ferrari in the championship."
"But we also want to prove some of the fundamental concepts that we'll carry into next year's car, because at this level of maturity of the cars, you are starting to push the aerodynamic development, and you may start to see some things work."
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Rules are maturing
Part of the reason Stella is keen for McLaren to bring new parts to the 2026 MCL40 machine is to ensure the 2027 MCL41 can be as developed as possible.
"Other [developmentss] may not work because the aerodynamics are starting to get complicated enough after basically two years of development, if we consider that development started on January 2nd, 2025, and now we are well into 2026," he added.
"So after two years, it is complex; it may go right. It may go wrong, so we want to test some of the fundamentals we carry into next year."
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