McLaren arrived in Bahrain for pre-season testing determined to defend its status as Formula 1’s benchmark team – but Andrea Stella has poured a splash of cold water on that narrative.
After back-to-back Constructors’ titles and Lando Norris’ drivers’ crown, the Woking squad entered 2026 with confidence. Yet amid the glare of the Sakhir floodlights and the swirl of long-run data, Stella has hinted that Ferrari and Mercedes may have quietly edged ahead.
In the desert heat, it’s easy to be fooled by a "glory run" on low fuel, but Stella is looking at the cold, hard reality of long-run pace.
“Very difficult to say,” he said told reporters when queried on McLaren’s position in the pecking order.
“There is a race simulation that I was, I think, yesterday, Oscar, and Verstappen. It happened at a similar time of the day, and it was a similar pace.
“Often, the race simulation is actually where you can more accurately see what the genuine performance of cars is.”
However, the sting in the tail followed quickly. Stella warned that track conditions in Bahrain were a moving target, making any late-session heroics potentially misleading.
“The reason why I think we have to be careful is that depending on the time of the day, then the race simulation may be quite a lot faster,” he explained.
“Like now, Lando, he was performing pretty strongly in a race simulation, but at the same time, probably the end of day three was the fastest time the track has been across the six days. So, difficult.”
Then came the admission that will have Mercedes and Ferrari fans grinning: “I think McLaren and Red Bull are probably very similar. Ferrari and Mercedes are a step ahead.”
No Magic Bullet for Melbourne
For those hoping for a secret "B-spec" car to appear in the garage at Albert Park, Stella was quick to douse those flames. The car that struggled to match the Silver Arrows and the Scuderia in testing is essentially the car that will face the lights in Australia.
McLaren is therefore sticking to the development plan it revealed ahead of the start of testing. While the factory is working overtime, the gains will be incremental rather than transformative.
“In terms of car specification, what we have seen here at the test is fundamentally the car that we will see in Australia,” Stella confessed.
“There will be a few parts that are being manufactured in the meantime, and they will be ready just for Australia.”
Instead of a radical aerodynamic overhaul, Stella hinted that the focus remains on the invisible battle against the scales.
“Certainly working on reducing the weight of the car is always a development item because even if you are at the weight limit, you want to be actually under the weight limit because then you can play with ballast,” he noted.
“So I think this is something on which the teams will keep themselves busy for a long time until they are well under the weight limit.”
McLaren enters 2026 with the #1 on the car, but if Stella’s "startling admission" holds true, they’ll be the ones doing the hunting when the light go off down in Melbourne.
Read also: Total mileage and fastest laps from F1 pre-season testing
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via X and Facebook
