Daily News 19

Tag: MCL40

  • Andrea Stella: McLaren Must Help Oscar Piastri Stop “Thinking” About Driving ’26 F1 Car

    Andrea Stella: McLaren Must Help Oscar Piastri Stop “Thinking” About Driving ’26 F1 Car

    McLaren’s Stella: Piastri Still “Thinking and Driving” with 2026 F1 Machinery

    McLaren team principal Andrea Stella believes Oscar Piastri’s current performance deficit to teammate Lando Norris stems from the Australian driver still “thinking and driving” rather than operating instinctively with the 2026 Formula 1 regulations. The new technical framework has reduced aerodynamic output and introduced narrower tyres, significantly lowering overall grip levels and altering the driving demands compared to previous seasons.

    Piastri’s Strengths Clash with 2026 Car Characteristics

    Over the previous two seasons, Piastri established his strengths in carrying speed through high-speed corners and excelling in high-grip conditions. The 2026 rule changes have stripped away much of that grip, moving the MCL40 outside Piastri’s natural comfort zone. Combined with the charge-and-deploy nature of the new powertrains, this shift has contributed to a challenging campaign for the Melbourne-born driver.

    While Piastri and Norris were closely matched throughout 2025—aside from lower-grip events during the final flyaway races—Norris has held a clear advantage in the current season.

    Stella Targets Qualifying and Car-Driver Harmony

    Stella emphasized that improvement hinges on McLaren helping Piastri stop “thinking” on track, acknowledging that driving the MCL40 does not feel like a natural process for the 23-year-old.

    “I think with Oscar we need to qualify better, stay closer to the podium finish positions from the start,” Stella began. “In Monza he was P3 at the end of qualifying but somehow we managed to start P6 for the impeding. So there are several circumstances of which we need to take more control.
    “We need to execute better and then at the same time we need to get more in tune between Oscar and the MCL40 because still Oscar is driving and thinking. And when you drive and think, things get slowed down; slower as a driver in terms of deciding what to do and ultimately you are slower in terms of lap times.
    “So I think the agenda is very clear as to what we have to improve and I expect, like I always say, that we will get on top of that and we will see a stronger Oscar in the final part [of the year].”

    Front Wing Damage Compromises Piastri’s Race

    Piastri’s race was further complicated by front wing damage sustained in the opening corner after contact with George Russell’s Mercedes. The collision left a diveplane flapping against the endplate, costing measurable aerodynamic balance.

    “The front wing damage cost Oscar a few units of aero balance,” Stella added. “So definitely very measurable.
    “We were actually quite worried that this would have caused a lot of graining because the front end lost a lot of downforce. As a matter of fact, and thankfully, the hard tyres were hard and resistant enough not to open up the graining so Oscar could stay in the race.
    “When it comes to Oscar, I think the race was definitely compromised by not only the damage on the car but having lost further positions at the start. So I think even without the damage, it would have been a difficult race to get more out of the situation in which he found himself.”

    Despite the damage, the hard compound tyre proved durable enough to prevent graining, eliminating the need for a front wing change. Piastri managed a pass on Arvid Lindblad after his pit stop but ultimately finished seventh, trapped behind Franco Colapinto’s Alpine.

  • Why Lando Norris’ ‘masterpiece’ Madrid pole lap was ‘almost unrepeatable’

    Why Lando Norris’ ‘masterpiece’ Madrid pole lap was ‘almost unrepeatable’

    Norris Secures Third Pole in Four Races With ‘Masterpiece’ Lap in Madrid

    A remarkable final lap from Lando Norris in Q3 at the Madrid circuit delivered a third pole position in four races for the McLaren driver, prompting team principal Andrea Stella to label the performance a “bit of a masterpiece”.

    The achievement stands out not only in the context of the 2026 season but across Norris’ entire career. Perhaps the most striking detail was a slide at the 22nd and final corner—caused as his tyres began to degrade—that cost him over 0.3 seconds. Despite the mistake, his advantage was already so substantial that he still claimed his 19th career pole. The performance electrified the McLaren pit wall and fans alike, particularly because it appeared to materialize unexpectedly.

    Stella Hails ‘Most Impressive Lap’ in 450 Grands Prix

    “I would say that definitely this was one of the most impressive laps that I witnessed, as somebody that watches telemetry in 450 Grands Prix,” Stella said after the session.

    “Because we were not honestly performing to the level of scoring of pole position. I think at no stage during the weekend we demonstrated that the car was performing at the level of being the best car.

    We were lacking quite significantly in the first sector – low-speed and kerbing – and for the drivers it was a very difficult car to nail a lap. We saw that there were spells of potential, but it’s always very difficult to put it together.”

    As Stella noted, the pole lap would have been even more dominant without the time loss at the finale.

    “I think the most impressive thing is the fact that it’s a pole position despite having lost three and a half tenths in the last corner,” the Italian explained. “Which means that it would have been a pretty convincing pole position without this issue.

    At the same time, this issue is a consequence of pushing to the level that Lando managed to push. But today, everyone will push the limits.

    The thing that makes the lap unique, when you look especially at the telemetry, is the precision, the braking, the speed you carry an entry, the striking of the kerb, the going on power – everything is executed with a pretty unique level of precision.

    So for me, that’s if anything the main attribute that would associate to this lap, just the incredible precision in the metre-by-metre execution.”

    McLaren’s Weekend-Long Focus on Sector 1 Pays Off

    Throughout the weekend, the McLaren engineering team concentrated on the critical opening sector, which features tight complexes at Turns 1 and 2 and again at Turns 5, 5A, and 6. Progress was hampered by a gearbox issue that cost Norris crucial track time in FP2, but incremental setup tweaks through FP3 and qualifying gradually delivered the improvements the team targeted.

    “Shout out to Lando, but let me say also to the team,” said Stella. “Because we had the clear objective from the first runs in practice to add some low-speed performance and kerbing performance.

    And we kept doing that session after session, but obviously P2 was a bit of loss of ground, because Lando lost pretty much the entire session. So I think this makes his work in Qualifying even more remarkable. And also on Oscar, we were experiencing a little problem on the car, so we didn’t have great references. We kept learning, we kept putting this together.”

    Overcoming the MCL40’s Inherent Low-Speed Weakness

    Stella emphasized that the core challenge was overcoming the inherent characteristics of the MCL40.

    “The car much more naturally performs well in high-speed, fast-flowing sections,” he said. “But struggles to be consistent when you brake and you carry the brakes into low-speed, and then you have to hit a kerb – it’s very unpredictable.

    And here there’s many of these kinds of corners. So to start with, in FP1, we saw the difficulties. What I appreciated in the work of the team is that we gave ourselves a clear objective, and we started to nail several areas of the setup that ultimately compounded and allowed the performance of the car to go to another level.

    So corner 5, corner 6, I think it’s one of the most difficult corners of the entire championship. The fact that a McLaren could have the fastest Sector 1, it was not only in 5 and 6, we can see in the GPS overlays that we are also the fastest in corner 1 and 2.

    But once again, the amount of kerb that you take in corner 1 and landing without upsetting the car, this is why I say the lap was almost unrepeatable, because all this was nailed. So the gain in Sector 1 comes 50% in 5/6, but the other 50% in corner 1 and 2.”

    Setup Changes Transform Car for Key Corners

    The setup revisions also paid dividends across other critical sections, as Stella further detailed:

    “Like I said before, the car was completely changed from the start of FP1 to perform well in these two corners, and corner 7 and corner 20. These are the places where we focussed, because we knew that in the other corners the performance was coming quite naturally for the characteristics of the car.

    And in these places, we forced the car to work, but still the performance needed to be extracted. And like I said, this required a level of precision that thankfully we were able to deploy in the final run of Q3. But you know, that lap gives you a sense that it would be difficult to be repeated.”

    He added: “Still, I think the exploitation of car potential for the pole position lap is pretty unique. I would say that if we put another set of tyres, I mean, we would gain three-tenths in the last corner, but I’m not sure we would be able to repeat what Lando was able to do in the first 21 corners.”

    Tyre Degradation Costs Three Tenths at Final Corner

    The only blemish for Norris and the team was the slide at the very end of the lap as the tyres passed their optimal window.

    “I think in the last corner he just paid the price of the fact that the lap was coming like one second faster than any other lap,” Stella explained. “Therefore, there was quite a lot more that was extracted from the tyres. But the tyres were tired, and somehow Lando did not take this into account, and he entered the corner with the same impetus that he had in some other corners.

    I think it’s just a little bit of a toll that was presented by the tyres – he oversteered in entry, and this means that he loses completely the racing line. And like I say, he lost more than three-tenths.”