Andrea Stella shared his thoughts on Ferrari’s strengths, the MCL40’s shortcomings, and the steps McLaren intend to take to improve the car’s performance after Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri crossed the line in P3 and P5, respectively, at the 2026 Barcelona-Catalunya GP on Sunday.
Setting the fourth-fastest time in qualifying, Norris started the 66-lap race on the yellow-walled tyres. While he lacked the pace to challenge Lewis Hamilton and the Mercedes drivers, the reigning World Champion made the two-stop strategy of M-H-H work and inherited the podium upon Kimi Antonelli’s retirement on Lap 62.
Despite being on a similar strategy, Piastri struggled for pace relative to his teammate after starting the race from the fourth row on the grid. He was on course to come home in seventh place before Antonelli and Charles Leclerc retired with only four laps to go.
Stella claims the 2026 Barcelona-Catalunya GP corroborated Ferrari’s strengths
Speaking in a print media session after the F1 race, McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella discussed the strengths of Ferrari’s 2026 challenger following Hamilton’s first win in red at the Barcelona-Catalunya GP.
The Italian emphasised how the seventh round of the 2026 F1 season had validated their previously made observation that the SF-26—despite its comparative lack of straight-line speed—boasts the best chassis on the current grid.
“Yeah, I think this race gives us very clear indications. I think these indications in a way are consistent with what we knew already. I think these indications are that Ferrari at the moment is the car with the best chassis.
“We see in the middle sector, especially in the medium-speed corner, that Ferrari is the fastest in the corners, not necessarily the fastest in the straights.”
Potential solutions to improve the MCL40’s performance
Reflecting on how competitive the MCL40 was relative to the SF-26 during the 2026 Barcelona-Catalunya GP weekend, Andrea Stella drew attention to the fact that McLaren had fared well in the high-speed corners of the circuit. However, he also acknowledged the lack of grip they had felt in the medium- and low-speed sections.
As far as solutions are concerned, the 55-year-old highlighted their need to improve aerodynamic grip by increasing the amount of load the tyres are subjected to. At the same time, he explained that they seek to play with the tyre loads to amplify the grip in qualifying while also extending the performance life of the Pirelli rubber over a race distance in extremely hot conditions.
“We see that from a McLaren point of view, we are competitive in the high-speed corners, like you are in corner 3, 9, corner 14. But overall, we struggle with grip in medium-speed and low-speed.
“Very clear indications, as we knew already, that we have to add grip to the car of an aerodynamic nature. So, add load onto the tyres.
“And then we also have to improve the way we interact with the tyres in terms of qualifying preparation. For what comes to the first corner, for instance, we see that often in qualifying we lose time at the start.
“But then in conditions like this, in the race, we would like to reduce tyre degradation. So, quite a clear agenda from a performance point of view.
“We need to add aerodynamic performance; we need to add solutions for a better tyre exploitation.”
