Can McLaren Turn Its 2026 Formula 1 Season Around?

Can McLaren Turn Its 2026 F1 Season Around? Tinneke Photography Can McLaren get back in the game after a difficult start to the 2026 Formula 1 season? The first two races in Australia and China saw the reigning world champions not only lag behind Mercedes and Ferrari on pure performance, but also make only one start in four attempts, with Oscar Piastri crashing before the start in Melbourne, then both cars suffering pre-race Mercedes battery issues in Shanghai.

Their Suzuka weekend has certainly gotten off to a good start. Piastri led FP2 on Friday, albeit by the slender margin of less than a tenth of a second. The real picture will be more apparent after qualifying on Saturday, but at least for now, there can be some optimism in the camp even after Norris lost valuable track time with hydraulic issues.

Mercedes is ahead in two key areas. The works team clearly has a superior chassis package, helped by the fact that it could switch its R&D focus to 2026 earlier last year as it wasn’t in a title fight. Second, its works status gave it a huge advantage in terms of early knowledge of how the new power unit worked , which McLaren—as a customer—has had to find out for itself.

Ferrari has also snuck ahead. Tinneke Photography However, team boss Andrea Stella believes that McLaren can turn things around. “I think the MCL40 is a very high potential platform,” he says of the chassis package.