The McLaren System 1 crew is progressively beginning to hone in on regaining its well-known tyre administration prowess that helped make it so profitable in 2024 and 2025.
Chatting with Motorsport.com over the course of final 12 months, Stella was bullish about McLaren with the ability to carry over a few of its title profitable strengths throughout a wholly completely different set of laws due to the knowhow and methodologies it had constructed up below his tenure.
“There are a few issues that carry over, independently of the technical laws,” Stella stated. “One is the technical fundamentals whereby we pursued aerodynamic effectivity, interplay with the tyres, environment friendly cooling. It is common. And a few features of the methodology, or some features as to the way you generate this information, might be transferable.”
McLaren’s capacity to handle tyre temperatures was a very highly effective energy because it turned a dominant drive in 2024 and 2025, with it even accused by rivals of utilizing water cooling methods to maintain the rear Pirellis below management – claims that governing physique the FIA shut down after conducting exams.
However as F1 shifted to a radically completely different set of laws, that tyre energy, which was a key a part of McLaren’s title profitable arsenal, has seemingly disappeared, with the Barcelona Grand Prix on the scorching and excessive downforce Montmelo circuit maybe the very best indicator.
After having been buying and selling turns with Ferrari because the second quickest crew behind Mercedes, the Scuderia took a significant step ahead with its Barcelona improve. As Lewis Hamilton delivered an eye-watering closing stint to place 20 seconds on second-placed George Russell, Lando Norris benefitted from Kimi Antonelli’s retirement to say third, with team-mate Oscar Piastri struggling extra within the Spanish warmth as he completed a distant fifth.
Andrea Stella says McLaren has invested closely in its tyre administration
Photograph by: Steven Tee / LAT Photographs through Getty Photographs
Afterwards, Stella admitted that Ferrari has merely produced a greater automobile now with extra downforce, however on Saturday he additionally acknowledged that McLaren hasn’t been in a position to carry over its tyre energy from final 12 months.
“Now we have invested through the years to ensure that we had been conditioning the tyres, particularly in scorching races, and hold them chilly sufficient that the grip would not decay at a quick price,” Stella defined. “I’ve to say that some situations modified from a technical perspective as we designed a brand new automobile, completely different tyres, so it is a journey that’s nonetheless ongoing.
“We all know at McLaren that we have now some alternatives to do higher. In the mean time we’re not as aggressive as we had been in 2025 by way of tyre conditioning and degradation, a really clear goal for growth. We aren’t having any specific benefit from this perspective.”
Stella says the 2026 regulation set has been such a seismic shift, with groups additionally having to include the extremely advanced new energy models and ancillary methods, that McLaren has wanted to do a “reset” and canopy all its bases earlier than with the ability to hone in on the finer particulars. That growth trajectory has successfully began now.
“It’s kind of of a reset that we had been type of compelled to take as we designed a totally new automobile, which created some additional calls for,” the Italian defined. “We wanted to satisfy all these calls for in a single go to start out a brand new mission. And now we’re beginning with the event and fine-tuning within the areas the place most alternatives exist.
“Now we’re progressively evolving in direction of what we predict is the appropriate factor to do for the tyres.”
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