McLaren's MCL39: Bold Upgrades, No Caution Taken

McLaren unveils the MCL39, a car built on bold innovation, with Andrea Stella confirming a relentless push for performance without playing it safe.

McLaren F1 presented its single-seater today following a shakedown at Silverstone. The MCL39 draws inspiration from its predecessor but features significant innovations, as Woking’s team did not hesitate to introduce major changes, explains team principal Andrea Stella.

“What we have tried to achieve with this new car is innovative. It is a car in which we have aimed to raise the bar in many areas, including the fundamental design,” said Stella.

“Virtually every fundamental component of the car has been innovated to unlock, in some cases not just marginally, new technical development opportunities.”

“Most of the time, these innovations respond to aerodynamic requirements or, in other cases, mechanical grip needs. In reality, from the front wing to the gearbox, including the crash structure, everything has been optimized—sometimes incrementally, sometimes in a very substantial way.”

The Italian confirms that the initial shakedown brought no surprises: “The feeling was normal, I would say. That is the first positive step because they have been quite innovative with some designs and the areas they have tried to push with the car this year.”

“This has led to some clever design solutions, but the team has done a great job exploring different areas and pushing the limits.”

“You are always a bit nervous that things might not be perfect when you first try them, wondering how well they will match the track, the wind tunnel, and all the data combined. But I think everything is working as expected, and everything feels normal.”

McLaren retains its suspension geometry with pull rods at the front, as it provides both mechanical and aerodynamic benefits:

“Obviously, there are also suspension adjustments in terms of mechanical grip, but nowadays, suspensions tend to serve aerodynamics,” Stella explained.

He detailed how McLaren managed its car’s development despite a short off-season and the looming 2026 regulations:

“We have not changed our approach or development pace by front-loading our upgrades.”

“We have simply tried to develop the car as quickly as possible, which means there will be updates during the early races of the season. But this would have been the case even without the upcoming 2026 regulation changes.”

“We are simply moving as fast as possible because we are well aware that, despite last season’s success, the performance gaps we have mean we needed to be aggressive with the car and extract as much performance as possible.”

“I believe those gaps were so small that, given the development of other teams, if we had not pushed as hard as possible in development, we could have quickly lost the advantage we had.”

“So we have kept our foot on the gas in terms of development, and we will see if we have managed to outdevelop our competitors between 2024 and 2025.”

Even though McLaren chose an aggressive approach, the Italian admits there were times when they had to limit the number of new developments:

“This was something we evaluated carefully because the MCL38 was already a competitive car, so we had to be mindful and consider how many innovations we wanted to introduce.”

“Ultimately, we opted for a relatively ambitious approach in terms of innovation with this car. The main objective is to improve aerodynamic efficiency. At the same time, we also wanted to make some gains in terms of tire interaction and what can be done to enhance long-run pace.”

Stella is delighted with Lando Norris’ level, believing he is ready to fight for a championship:

“I saw Lando improve very quickly throughout the season. He was already an incredible driver, and he proved it immediately in Miami— as soon as he had a car capable of winning, he delivered.”

“And in terms of points, he scored as many as Max from Miami onward. His ability to evolve has been very impressive. The battles with Max in Austria, Austin, and Mexico showed how well he has adapted.”

He also has full confidence in Oscar Piastri to maximize the potential of the MCL39:

“We have two drivers in a position to succeed. The pressure is on the team to ensure we have a car capable of delivering podiums from the start.”