McLaren rivals left confused after major F1 surprise: 'I wish I knew'

Charles Leclerc has conceded that he "wish he knew" what made McLaren so dominant this year, in an F1 campaign which was predicted to be one of the closest in the history of the series. 

From the very beginning of the season, McLaren has boasted a clear advantage over all its rivals, with the Woking-based outfit having built a staggering 238-point lead after 12 rounds. 

In addition, Oscar Piastri has an eight-point buffer over Lando Norris in the drivers' title, whilst Max Verstappen in third is 69 points adrift. 

Nine grands prix have already been won by McLaren this year, with Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull having all failed to consistently take the fight to the papaya squad. 

Bizarrely, neither George Russell nor Leclerc know why their teams have fallen so far adrift of McLaren. As a result, Russell is looking forward to a fresh start in 2026 with the new power unit regulations.

"If we knew, we wouldn’t have fallen back, to be honest," Russell told media, including RacingNews365. "We don’t really know exactly why. They seem very good on the tyres. 

"They seem very good in hot races. Clearly, their updates are working as they expect. And I think when you find yourself on the right tracks of this development slope, the rewards are endless, and they’ve clearly found that perfect path. 

"Like Charles was saying before, these cars, these regs are not easy. I think we’re all looking forward to a change of regs. It’s not going to be easy next year, but the cars do seem a little bit more conventional. 

"But then obviously we’re going to have the challenges with the PU and the batteries, so that’s a secondary factor."

McLaren dominance not down to 'one thing'

Of the top four teams, Ferrari is the only one without a victory this year. The Maranello-based outfit has been the most inconsistent of the big names, a complete contrast to McLaren. 

Leclerc is certain that the step made by McLaren is not down to just "one thing", but rather several details which has continued to push it onwards. 

In Bahrain, Piastri delivered a pole position lap which still leaves Leclerc speechless, due to the staggering performance which was extracted from the MCL39.

Following on from Russell, Leclerc said: "I mean, I agree with everything that George said. I wish I knew what made McLaren so fast this year. 

"For sure, they’ve done a significant step forward, something that I don’t think many of us expected, exactly for the reasons you mentioned because when you get to the last year of those regulations, everything tends to converge a little bit. 

"But this year they just did a big step forward. I doubt that it’s coming from one thing. It never comes from only one thing. I think it’s just many different things that they are doing better than others, which makes a big difference at the end. 

"But it is true that one of the characteristics that significantly improved since last year is hot weather. I think I remember there was an FP3 in Bahrain this year where I’m still wondering how did Oscar do that lap time in that heat, which was very impressive. 

"There are these kinds of laps that you look and you say, you’re just a bit lost for words and you don’t really understand where the performance comes from. So they found something, especially whenever it’s warm and on tyres, that we’re still trying to figure out."