Having started the 2026 season on the back foot, McLaren is showing signs of what made this iteration of the storied team so successful in the first place over the past two years.
True to its successful strike rate with in-season upgrades in 2024 and 2025, McLaren's latest upgrade package in Hungary, featuring a revised floor and the latest iteration of its front wing, was another significant step forward building on previous updates in Miami and Montreal. It gave its drivers a chance to fight for victory, with Lando Norris claiming his and the team's first grand prix win of the campaign.
McLaren's race-winning form has yet to be confirmed on different circuits and in varying weather conditions. But it has likely come too late to successfully defend either championship, with the team still 159 points behind leader Mercedes. In the drivers' championship Norris is still only fifth after losing a lot of ground during a difficult opening spell of the campaign, with Piastri further behind in seventh.
The team explained its sluggish start to the 2026 season was down to it having to fend off a late title challenge from Red Bull's Max Verstappen last year, combined with a course correction it made during the development of its 2026 concept.
"We obviously had a big, although slightly surprising, competition with Max at the end of the season," said Neil Houldey, McLaren's technical director for engineering. "But obviously, we were developing our car right until the end of the year whilst working on 2026. When you look at how we went into the start of 2026, we were a little bit on the back foot compared with a couple of teams.
"I think we've done a pretty good job of bringing a lot of upgrades that have added performance to the car. We've put ourselves in a better position from a PU perspective, from a car perspective. But you'd have to say that a couple of teams out there have certainly done a better job than us. And now we've got to find a way in this back half of the season to outdevelop them and become a little bit more competitive at more races."
Rather than last year, when the likes of Ferrari and other teams out of contention resolutely switched focus to the following season early, McLaren still feels adding performance to this year's car will stand it in good stead in 2027. That's despite its car design itself not fully carrying over, as the team is already plotting a 2027 challenger with a longer wheelbase and a changed suspension layout.
There are also a number of tweaks to the regulations next year, including the front bib or tea tray at the front of the floor becoming 300mm shorter, which will not only impact downforce generation but also ride heights.
"We expect the next few races to be bringing some major parts, and we expect to do that quite late on into the season as well," Houldey confirmed. "We're certainly not stopping development on ‘26 because we know that whatever we take from 2026 into 2027, that learning will carry over.
"Even if our car might get a little bit longer, even if conceptually the suspension might change, everything that we're learning this year is very much relevant for next year. So, we're very keen to keep developing the car for as long as we possibly can."
He added: "The best way to understand the performance you're generating is by putting it on the track and actually properly testing it and making sure it does what you expect it to do. If you stop 2026 now, it certainly puts you more into that theoretical world, and it doesn't necessarily mean that you'll generate lots and lots of 2027 performance.
"So, our view at the moment is there's so many races coming up that we can add performance to. Let's find ways of adding performance to those at those events, and we know that that learning will be useful for 2027."
Like every other team, McLaren has been able to take inspiration from what its rivals are doing, with the squad the third team to trial an upside-down rear wing first seen on the 2026 Ferrari in winter testing.
Houldey admitted the team was a little "disappointed" it had missed that opportunity in the regulations. But the innovation seen at Ferrari further underlines how the 2026 technical regulations are less prescriptive than perhaps first assumed.
"Aerodynamically, although [the cars] look quite close, I think they're not, actually," Houldey explained. "There's a little bit that people have opened up. I think the regulations give us enough freedom.
"When you're talking about year one, you really pick up a lot that other teams have done. You pick up a lot within the regulations when you re-read them that actually means that they're a little bit more open than 2022 to 2025, and obviously in that first year, you learn so much that it's good fun to be able to look at different concepts.
"Sidepods are a good example where maybe there isn't a huge amount of performance in them, but you see so much down pitlane that are different. No one's converged yet, so you've got a lot of things that you can try out to find the right direction."
