McLaren head to the Miami Grand Prix buoyed by renewed confidence, with team principal Andrea Stella declaring the squad “much better prepared”.
Stella revealed that a recent breakthrough in understanding their Mercedes-supplied power unit has propelled the team’s progress.
The Woking outfit endured a difficult start to the 2026 campaign, including double DNS retirements for Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in China due to separate power unit failures.
Stella had earlier pointed to a knowledge gap between McLaren and Mercedes under the new regulations, which feature a 50:50 split between electrical energy and internal combustion.
However, collaboration with Mercedes High Performance Powertrains has yielded what Stella describes as a “significant step forward”.
Encouragement also came from Suzuka, where Piastri narrowly missed victory after an ill-timed Safety Car, while Norris secured fifth place and the team claimed a strong P2 finish.
McLaren now face the challenge of overturning an 89-point deficit to Mercedes as Formula 1 arrives in Miami, the first American race of the season. The event also brings rule tweaks, including reduced recharge in qualifying and a +150 kW boost cap.
“In Miami, like we have seen before from the simulations, to a certain extent, we will be able to predict through simulations the behaviour of the power unit, once we apply the new regulations,” said Stella.
“At the same time, offline simulations, or even running these regulations at the simulator doesn’t mean that you can cover all the possible scenarios.
“So, you have to definitely be quite forward-thinking in terms of considering everything that can happen and make sure that the way in which you exploit the power unit is the most optimal.
“But I’m quite confident that, to a certain extent, we can achieve this with the current simulation.”
He added: “I can also confirm that in terms of working together with HPP, and even in terms of developing the simulation tools, together with HPP, we have made a significant step forward compared to where we were in Australia. So I think as a team, we are now much more prepared.”
