McLaren name 'biggest factor' in falling behind F1 rivals after Silverstone letdown

McLaren boss Andrea Stella has pinpointed the team being out of upgrade sequence with its rivals as the "biggest single factor" behind its recent slump.

At Silverstone, McLaren was the fourth fastest car as Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri struggled with a nervous MCL40 machine, with Norris able to capture fourth place in the main race, albeit aided by Max Verstappen's crash and Kimi Antonelli's wheel shield failure.

Norris was also able to take a surprise third in the Sprint race, but team-mate Piastri was only able to finish in seventh for the Sprint, and then took 11th in the 52-lap race after requiring a front-wing change following contact with Liam Lawson on the first tour. 

McLaren is not currently running the upgraded Mercedes power unit that fellow customers Alpine and Williams are, with it understood that the new unit could be taken before the summer break. 

Whilst Stella pointed to this and the exploitation of the Mercedes HPP unit as factors behind McLaren falling behind, the Italian also felt the team's upgrade pace was the main factor.

The MCL40 received its last big upgrade package in Miami, but since then, problems have arisen with new parts, with a new front-wing being removed in Canada before being reintroduced in Barcelona.

Elsewhere, the team brought a new 'Macarena' style rear-wing to Austria, but the decision was taken not to run the part after concerns, with it also not appearing at Silverstone. Fresh parts are planned for the Hungarian GP, as Stella explained the problems the team has been experiencing. 

"I think the fact that we are out of sync with upgrades is probably the biggest single factor," Stella explained to media, including RacingNews365. 

"We see that everyone bringing upgrades improves their lap-time potential by three tenths or something, and definitely this would not close the gap that we have to Ferrari and Mercedes, because I think it's more in the area of half a second, but definitely it will be very helpful. 

"The second factor I would say is that at Silverstone, the grip is very low, the conditions are difficult, the car slides and is quite unpredictable with the wind, and there's a premium on cars that have more grip and more downforce, because the car is just a little bit easier to predict. 

"There are possibly some opportunities, let me say, by exploiting more out of the power unit that we have available, and I would not mention the tyres, because I think when I look at the degradation in the race, I think pretty much all cars have very similar degradation. 

"Certainly, we don't have any of the advantages that we had in 2025, so even this one is an area in which we need to try and create some competitive advantage.

"In the area of power unit exploration. I would say it is not only the deployment, but it has to do with some other factors, including the specification."