The 2026 F1 season begins this weekend in Melbourne, Australia and ahead of the Australian Grand Prix, Rob Marshall, McLaren’s Chief Designer, spoke about how complex the new regulations are.
“As we head to Melbourne for the first race weekend of the 2026 season, following nine days of running across the Barcelona Shakedown and Pre-Season Testing in Bahrain, it’s clear to see that these cars are very complicated to operate from inside and outside the cockpit.”
About the 2026 F1 season and the drivers, Marshall added, “The high driver workload means that there are many new tools that need to be optimised, and the entire team has been working extremely hard to maximise those learnings both during our time at track but also when back in Woking.”
McLaren’s Team Principal, Andrea Stella, has also discussed the high driver workload following criticism of the 2026 F1 cars.
McLaren on the power unit side of things ahead of Melbourne
Marshall continued, “We have spent much of our testing programme exploring the performance and capability of our car, with every lap providing valuable further understanding of the MCL40.”
McLaren is a customer team which used Mercedes power units. Under the new 2026 F1 regulations, teams have fine-tuned their power units to retain overtaking power while also preserving battery life, as Marshall notes.
The Briton continued, “Power unit exploitation has been a very intense focus, with multiple areas to get right on the hybrid side. Such as when to recover energy and when to deploy across the different scenarios a race weekend provides. This has required many laps, but we are confident in our learnings and will continue to explore areas for further exploitation in performance.
“Now we go to Melbourne and have to dial in the optimum settings with much less time and under the pressure of a race weekend at a very different circuit to what we have experienced throughout pre-season.”
McLaren’s Chief Designer also discussed his happiness to see so many different car concepts throughout the field.
“It is great to see that these regs have encouraged new designs and innovations up and down the grid. We all have the same goals, but it’s great to see we have different views on how to achieve them. With time, teams may all converge on a common design, but it would be encouraging to see them remain different and interesting for as long as possible.”
Marshall says McLaren in the leading group ahead of 2026 F1 season
In terms of McLaren’s F1 preseason testing, they were among the fastest on the grid with Lando Norris. However, teams will not have a clear picture of performance until qualifying and the race at the Australian Grand Prix.
Despite this, Marshall added about the upcoming 2026 F1 season, “For our part, I would say that we are reasonably happy with the foundation package of the MCL40. I believe that we know the potential of what the car can do and what we want it to do, but we must remain focused and driven to ensure we continue to use our learnings as the season progresses and remain successful in our development journey.
“To be in condition to compete at the front and challenge for the race victory, you will need to have done a very good job on managing the power unit,” he continued, “This is something you need to be on top of. Overall, this will be a fascinating season. The development race will be intense, and it has been harder than ever to judge the pecking order in testing.”
Marshall and McLaren are headed to the 2026 F1 Australian Grand Prix as the World Constructors’ Champions for the second year in a row. After they turned it around in the 2024 season, they dominated in 2025. Lando Norris will also be defending the Drivers’ Championship crown.
“I think we are in the leading group alongside some very strong competition, such as Ferrari, Mercedes, and Red Bull. But there are lots of elements throughout the 2026 season that could provide some surprises. We’re looking forward to getting the season underway.”
The 2026 F1 season kicks off this Friday with the first free practice session at 12:30 PM local time.
