Momentum from developments can bring McLaren into title contention - Stella

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella believes the team can bring itself back into title contention this season by maintaining the momentum it triggered before the summer break.

Lando Norris won the Hungarian Grand Prix by over 15 seconds having also secured pole position as McLaren introduced the first part of an upgrade package. The remainder is due this weekend at Zandvoort and Stella says history has shown that McLaren can build momentum when it identifies a development direction it wants to follow.

“If we can continue the season as we did in Budapest, I think we can still achieve a great deal,” Stella said. “To do so, we must keep pushing with the development of the MCL40 and ensure we outpace our rivals – who certainly aren’t standing still – in this race within the race, which is the competition over updates.

“The result will depend on how effective the solutions we bring to the track prove to be. In the first part of the season, we struggled more than we expected in this regard too, but I believe that in recent years, once we’ve gained some momentum, we’ve been able to maintain it.

“There are still 12 races left on the calendar, so there are plenty of opportunities given that 546 points are up for grabs. Of course, the gap in both championships is significant, but we remember last year’s lesson well: after all, I always tell the team that if we’ve set up a new display cabinet to house the new, recent trophies at the McLaren Technology Centre, then we have a duty to do our utmost to keep filling it...”

Stella suggests McLaren was actually helped by the enforced break in races caused by the postponement of two rounds in April, as it changed its approach following that period.

“There wasn’t a single event that changed course; rather, it was a growing awareness of the scale of the challenge we’re facing and the adjustments we needed to make,” he said. “Paradoxically, the enforced break in April probably allowed us to focus entirely on analyzing the MCL40’s performance and to fully understand that we needed to redirect or strengthen its development in certain areas of the car.

“Furthermore, over the past few months we’ve had the opportunity to deepen our understanding of the new power unit supplied by Mercedes HPP and to work with our technical partners to work out how best to utilize it. It’s been a long process, with its ups and downs, but one that’s starting to bear fruit. That said, I expect that optimizing the power unit will remain a complex issue throughout the 2026 season.

“Returning to the car’s performance, it is clear that the Budapest weekend, which brought the first half of the season to a close, was the highlight: not only because of the result, but above all because the aerodynamic package we introduced at the Hungaroring is the result of this change of direction in development and has enabled us to make significant progress in terms of competitiveness.”