McLaren targets drag in bid to close Mercedes gap

Andrea Stella says McLaren has now pinned down where it is losing to Mercedes, with a deficit of roughly three to four tenths per lap split mostly in the corners but still significantly on the straights, prompting the team to prioritize cutting drag on the MCL40 while continuing close work with Mercedes High Performance Powertrains.

The McLaren team principal said the gap to the Mercedes W17 has “always been between three and four tenths,” with “probably 70% in the corners and 30% in the straights.” He said the cornering loss is the easier part to explain because Mercedes “generates more downforce than our car,” adding that McLaren is working on that area and has “good projects” in development.

The straightline deficit is smaller in proportion but harder to decode. Stella said McLaren is losing “probably one-and-a-half tenths, one tenth at least” on the straights, despite using the same power unit supplier as the Mercedes works team. He said that could be caused by “some additional aerodynamic drag” on the MCL40, but McLaren is also examining how it exploits the power unit because the speed deficit is “quite significant.”

That leaves the team trying to separate causes that are not easy to isolate from the outside. Stella said GPS overlays point to a difference of a few km/h, but reverse-engineering a rival’s advantage is difficult because “you can't effectively distinguish what's the drag from what's the power unit.” He also noted that different gear ratios may have an effect, while stopping short of drawing conclusions about any underlying power-unit difference.

Earlier in the 2026 season, McLaren’s focus on power-unit exploitation was more about electrical energy deployment. Stella said that area is “very sensitive to driving style” and to “how you distribute the deployment over the lap,” but he added that the team has made “good progress” with HPP and now has “better tools” through that collaboration. “I think we are better in terms of exploiting the power unit from an electrical energy deployment,” he said.

Stella said McLaren’s response is to concentrate on what it can directly change. “The only thing I know is which is under our control is that we need to minimise the drag on the MCL40,” he said. “This is what we are concentrating on, while we keep a very tight collaboration with HPP.”

That focus matters because McLaren arrived in 2026 as the reigning constructors’ champion but has yet to win a grand prix, while Mercedes has taken seven of the first eight victories. In a field this close, finding even the tenth to one-and-a-half tenths Stella believes McLaren is losing on the straights could become a meaningful step toward turning the MCL40 into a race-winning car.