{"id":38820,"date":"2026-02-01T11:56:44","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T16:56:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=38820"},"modified":"2026-02-01T12:54:47","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T17:54:47","slug":"piastri-mclaren-finding-some-limitations-of-mercedes-engine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2026\/02\/01\/piastri-mclaren-finding-some-limitations-of-mercedes-engine\/","title":{"rendered":"Piastri: McLaren finding ‘some limitations’ of Mercedes engine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reigning Champions McLaren<\/a> have been relatively absent from pre-season discussions. The Woking-based outfit are currently being overshadowed by Mercedes, their supplier team, and the seemingly bulletproof W17.<\/p>\n

Of course, this is not something McLaren will be particularly concerned about. Team principal Andrea Stella<\/a> prefers to go under the radar and avoid the usual expectations that come after clinching both Championships.<\/p>\n

Regardless, putting Mercedes aside and placing McLaren under the microscope, some important observations have been made about the papaya outfit.<\/p>\n

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Piastri gives first impressions of MCL40<\/h2>\n

Out of last year’s front-runners, McLaren encountered them most technical issues in Barcelona. This is not to say the MCL40 had a poor shakedown – having completed almost 300 laps in total.<\/p>\n

In any case, it should be noted that a fuel system problem on Thursday limited the MCL40’s running. Turning towards on-track performance, McLaren’s fastest laps were among the best times set by Ferrari<\/a>, Red Bull<\/a> and Mercedes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Though nothing can be concluded from a pre-season shakedown, the British team avoided any detrimental surprises.<\/p>\n

The question becomes how quickly team papaya can optimise the MCL40. By extension, McLaren must determine if this car has the potential to fight with the best in 2026.<\/p>\n

Speaking of maximising their package, McLaren are also getting to grips with the Mercedes engine. As a customer team, one of their primary tasks is to work around the power unit provided to them by the Brixworth factory.<\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri has explained why understanding the Mercedes power unit is equally important to managing the car’s aerodynamic and mechanical aspects:<\/p>\n

“I feel like I got into a pretty good rhythm and was able to start to feel what the car is actually like, which was nice. Tried a few things already to see how we can improve it, and stuff like that.<\/em><\/p>\n

“But yeah, just trying to run it in different configurations and stuff like that, to see what it’s like for race weekend…<\/em><\/p>\n

“Still definitely a lot to learn, especially on the power unit side of things. Just how you get the most of it and how you go the fastest, basically.<\/em><\/p>\n

“So still plenty of things to learn there [about the engine]. But I think we’ve kind of understood some of the problems, some of the limitations. Some of the things are just different compared to last year – b<\/em>oth on the power unit and the car.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Obviously the car itself, it’s got a lot less downforce than what we had last year as well. So getting used to that and how that feel has been the biggest thing we’ve started to get ourselves into.” <\/em>(cont. on next page)<\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The challenge for customer teams<\/h4>\n

One of the most discussed teams during the winter break has been Aston Martin. Perhaps the biggest reason for this is Adrian Newey’s<\/a> incorporation into the team.<\/p>\n

Newey has overseen an ambitious AMR26, which features a variety of distinct and ambitious characteristics. Even when working with Renault-powered Red Bull cars the 67-year-old was renowned for audacious designs.<\/p>\n

However, Aston’s exclusive engine deal with Honda means they can make very specific requests. This means Newey’s technical team have a power unit that better accommodates certain aerodynamic and mechanical choices.<\/p>\n

Of course, this also comes with immense risk, If the Honda engine<\/a> is not up to scratch, it will be a long road for the Japanese manufacturer to close the gap – whilst also giving the AMR26 more work to do from an aerodynamic perspective.<\/p>\n

The opposite is true for McLaren, As a Mercedes customer team, the benefit from the security of receiving power units from the most reliable supplier in the sport.<\/p>\n

In a worst-case scenario, Mercedes might be surprised by another manufacturer and fail to produce the best engine. At McLaren, they will be hoping the German squad meets expectations and set the standard for powertrains.<\/p>\n

For McLaren, this takes away the uncertainty that Aston Martin (or Red Bull’s engine department) must overcome.<\/p>\n

Still, Piastri’s comments underline the fundamental weakness this creates. At a fundamental level, Stella’s personnel have to react and adapt to the engine provided to them.<\/p>\n

This is why McLaren’s relentless development from mid-2023 to 2025 (in stark contrast to Mercedes) was so impressive. It is now up to the engineers to Woking to replicate similar success in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reigning Champions McLaren have been relatively absent from pre-season discussions. The Woking-based outfit are currently being overshadowed by Mercedes, their supplier team, and the seemingly bulletproof W17. Of course, this is not something McLaren will be particularly concerned about. Team principal Andrea Stella prefers to go under the radar and avoid the usual expectations that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":38821,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":true,"sfio_embed_code":"<\/smartframe-embed>","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2582,1569],"class_list":["post-38820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-f1-2026-season","tag-oscar-piastri"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38820"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38823,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38820\/revisions\/38823"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}