Andrea Stella admits McLaren has been left scratching its head after the Australian Grand Prix, with the team principal openly questioning why his squad appears so far off the pace of Mercedes despite running the same power unit.
Last Sunday’s opening race in Melbourne delivered a stark reality check for the Woking-based outfit. While Mercedes dominated the weekend at Albert Park, with George Russell leading teammate Kimi Antonelli to a commanding one-two, McLaren found itself trailing by a significant margin.
Russell’s victory capped a near-perfect weekend for the Silver Arrows after he secured pole position ahead of Antonelli, with the pair holding a sizeable advantage over the rest of the field at the checkered flag.
Ferrari mounted the closest challenge during the race, with Charles Leclerc briefly battling Russell for the lead, but the Scuderia ultimately settled for third and fourth.
For McLaren, the picture was far less encouraging. Lando Norris crossed the line in fifth place, a distant 35.5 seconds behind the winner, while Oscar Piastri’s race ended before it even began after a crash on the reconnaissance lap.
A 'Puzzling' Performance Gap
Despite predicting a difficult start to the campaign under the new 2026 regulations, Stella acknowledged that the scale of the gap to Mercedes remains concerning – particularly given both teams rely on the same power unit.
“The gap today was, if anything, similar to what we saw yesterday in qualifying,” Stella said, referencing the near one-second deficit Norris and Piastri faced to Russell during Saturday’s session.
“There's performance that needs to come from two main areas: one is the power unit exploitation and one is having more grip in the corners.”
However, the engine side of the equation is where Stella admits McLaren is still searching for answers.
“Still, we remain a little puzzled by the difference we see in the data between the speed of our car and the speed of other cars using the same power unit. It clearly indicates that we should be doing a better job in understanding how to utilise the power unit with the complexities that came with the 2026 regulations.”
The data analysis has revealed that the gap is not only on the straights.
“So, definitely work to do and at the same time, when we look at the GPS overlays, we see that Mercedes is faster in some of the corners. Therefore, like I said, we have clear objectives and priorities.”
Upgrades Needed — But Patience Required
With the season only just underway, Stella stressed that McLaren must focus on extracting more from its current package while working toward upgrades in the coming races.
“We need to find a way to extract more out of the power unit and on the other side, develop the car. This will take a few races in terms of seeing some major upgrades,” he said.
“Therefore, I think in these few initial races, we will have to make sure that we extract most of the car in its current configuration. But definitely work ahead of us and the gap at the moment seems to be in the range between half a second and one second.”
Norris Offers Blunt Assessment
Reigning world champion Lando Norris echoed his team principal’s concerns after a race that saw him locked in battle with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen rather than the leading Mercedes pair.
While the final gap to Russell looked large on paper, Norris believes it doesn’t fully reflect McLaren’s underlying pace.
“Just on pure pace, were we 50 seconds behind? No,” said Norris. “If I had a clean race like George and didn't have to battle as much, that would be a better look for us, but we had to.”
However, tyre issues quickly limited his race potential.
“So, I don't think it's dreadful, but we killed the tyres after three laps. We have our front graining issues like we always have and that's not changed from one car to the next.”
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Stella: ‘Tough’ Piastri will bounce back in China ’more determined’Norris admitted there is significant work ahead if McLaren wants to return to the front.
“We have a lot to try and figure out. The good thing is we have a big gap to the cars behind - similar issue to Red Bull - the bad thing is we have a big gap to the cars ahead.”
And the Melbourne race, he believes, served as a wake-up call.
“Today was, I think, more of an understanding that we're nowhere near where we need to be with the car and we've got to improve that.”
For McLaren, the mystery of its missing performance has now become one of the early storylines of the 2026 season — and solving it could prove crucial in the races ahead.
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