McLaren team principal Andrea Stella shared his insights on Mercedes‘ latest claims that they do not have sufficient funds to bring many more upgrades to their 2026 challenger.
At the 2026 F1 Dutch GP, McLaren’s Lando Norris clinched his second consecutive race win of the 2026 season, once again beating both Mercedes drivers to the top step. McLaren’s pace resurgence is the result of the upgrades the Woking outfit brought across the Hungarian and Dutch GPs.
Mercedes’ natural response to McLaren’s sudden increase in pace should be to bring their own upgrades. However, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff revealed that the Brackley outfit is restricted by their 2026 cost cap. Hence, Mercedes does not have the capacity to divert from their upgrade plan and fast-track any additional upgrades. It is worth noting that the team has not brought a major upgrade since Montreal and has also been less aggressive when it came to developments compared to their rivals.
Stella does not believe Mercedes lacks the flexibility to respond to McLaren
Stella, however, is not convinced Mercedes is at a disadvantage under the 2026 cost cap limits and believes they have more leeway in their budget to potentially respond to McLaren than Wolff suggests.
According to the Italian, the 2027 power unit regulations grant all F1 teams, including Mercedes, an additional cost cap allowance of approximately $3 million. Teams can utilise this $3 million directly in their 2026 calculations. Hence, Stella argues that Mercedes does have the flexibility to introduce more upgrades.
“I would like to believe you, but I actually don’t believe you. And I don’t believe it because, thanks to the 2027 power unit regulations, all teams will have an allowance in their reporting for the cost cap. If I’m not wrong, it’s like 3 million that you can use in the 2026 reporting for cost cap calculations.”
In fact, Stella is confident that Mercedes will eventually utilise the additional cost cap soon in response to their rivals, including McLaren’s development.
“And I’m sure that Mercedes, having seen that the rivals are kind of elevating the game. I’m sure they will now cash in on their development that surely is happening in the ground. I’m sure their car in the wind tunnel is quite a bit faster than the car they have on track and they will want to now convert some of this potential into upgrades that make it to the real car. So I’m just pretty sure that they will have upgrades. Obviously, it would be good if not, but I don’t even want to think it.”
