Following a strong weekend in Miami, McLaren believed they were in a position to regain the momentum that led them to win back-to-back Constructors’ championships in 2024 and 2025. However, as team principal Andrea Stella stated, the 2026 F1 Canadian and Monaco GP instead provided the team with an “important reality check”.
Stella reflected on the team’s performance at the 2026 F1 Monaco GP and admitted that it was evident McLaren was facing multiple reliability issues with their power unit. The Italian also spoke on how they are at a disadvantage being a customer team.
Stella speaks on McLaren’s reliability issues at the 2026 F1 Monaco GP
In Montreal, McLaren had a challenging weekend after the team decided to start the race on intermediate tyres. The plan had ultimately backfired when weather conditions cleared following the start of the race, leaving the track dry. Nonetheless, drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri had shown flashes of pace, but car #1 eventually retired after facing a gearbox issue. The Briton faced his second consecutive DNF at the 2026 F1 Monaco GP due to a power unit issue that had him retiring on lap 45 of the 78-lap race.
Stella acknowledges that McLaren has been struggling in terms of pace. They could only manage the fourth row in Monaco. If it was not for the Safety Cars and red flag, Piastri would have been lapped by Kimi Antonelli.
He also emphasised that Norris’ retirements in Montreal and Monaco were due to separate problems, adding that the MCL40 was facing reliability issues as a whole.
“There’s certainly an important reality check that comes from Canada and Monaco. And the reality check is, first of all, looking at the facts. We have not been fast enough, and I would say especially in terms of race pace, in both Canada and here.
“And we have not been reliable enough. And when we look at reliability, we have had issues pretty much in all areas of the car. It’s not like this specific area. There was power unit. We have had other issues with the power unit. I would say this has probably been the most important area for reliability. But for Lando in Canada, it was the gearbox. So there’s a performance assessment, and there is a reliability assessment that we are doing, looking at Canada and looking at Monaco. We understand these reliability issues in isolation.
The disadvantages of being a customer team
Stella also shared that while the problems could theoretically be easily fixed, McLaren is facing multiple issues that resulted in the car’s lack of performance.
He added that while the team were trying their best to resolve these issues, he also saw this as a disadvantage of being a customer team to Mercedes.
“We can fix them. But obviously, when you have so many issues, it may be symptomatic of the fact that the project is still relatively young. And like I said before, like never before, we felt that being a customer team has put us on the back foot.”
Stella then clarified that he was not blaming Mercedes HPP. Rather, he was pointing out the structural limitations of being a customer rather than being a factory team producing its own engines.
“And when I say this, and I want to be clear here to avoid any misunderstanding, it’s not because you are a lower priority for HPPs. It’s because you have less opportunities to integrate, to stay on the same timeline when it comes to addressing reliability problems or exploitation of the power unit from a performance point of view, combining the airports when you use the facilities. And you have some experience on the chassis side that you can add to a long run of the power unit when you are a work team.“
Stella breaks down the technical issues McLaren faced at the 2026 F1 Monaco GP
Stella also broke down the “long list” of technical issues the team were facing, as well as the trackside performance issues McLaren encountered at the 2026 F1 Monaco GP.
The Italian shared how the 2026 technical regulation overhaul was one of the main reasons McLaren was facing reliability issues. He also went into detail about some of the performance issues the team faced in Monaco.
“There’s many reasons why reliability associated to power units or taking advantage of being a work team from a power unit point of view. I think these reliability issues have made it into 2026, where we had such a large technical regulation change. From a performance point of view, instead, I said yesterday already, it’s very clear that we don’t have enough grip, mainly because we don’t have enough aerodynamic load.“
Stella then spoke on the team’s struggle with the tyre operating window, which resulted in Norris and Piastri’s lack of grip at the 2026 F1 Canadian and Monaco GPs.
“And it’s also clear that we are not getting the tyres to operate in the window in which they perform at the best, especially in circuits like here in Canada, where the tarmac is extremely smooth, and all the tyres operate in a particular regime. And you see that the tyres are relatively stiff and they need the temperature to operate well. So there’s a long list.”
McLaren remains optimistic for a possible championship win
Stella reflected that McLaren is still a bit hopeful they can overturn the deficit, taking inspiration from their championship-winning 2024 season. Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes started that year ahead of them.
However, he also acknowledged that the 2026 F1 season will be much tougher to come back from.
“Performance and reliability, we remain obviously with the mindset that this could be another 2024 in terms of catching up at the end. But in 2024, our trajectory from reliability and performance was more convincing. So if we want to stay in the championship, we need to have a turnaround.”
