not least owing to the ongoing compression ratio row<\/a> \u2014 nothing is certain for the customer McLaren team.<\/p>\nStella said his team was trying not to think of itself as the defending champion given the lack of continuity between campaigns.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are champions, but we don\u2019t carry being champions into 2026,\u201d he said. \u201cEveryone will start from the starting blocks, everyone will start from zero.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur internal narrative is anything we will achieve, we will have to deserve it and we will have to earn it on the ground. That\u2019s our mindset. That\u2019s our philosophy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can see that the team enters 2026 in terms of competencies, capabilities, organisation, culture [that are], if anything, in the strongest position that I have witnessed since I\u2019ve been team principal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWherever we are in testing or race 1, we remain very confident that the wealth of capabilities, competencies and the way we use them, thanks to our organisation and culture, will be a success factor in the long term.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stella revealed that the build for the 2026 car is on schedule, with dyno testing underway in Austria before the team heads to Barcelona for the first pre-season test next week.<\/p>\n
The test runs from Monday to Friday, but each team can participate for only three of those five days.<\/p>\n
McLaren will not run on day 1 and is unlikely to run on day 2, having instead preferred to maximise development time before putting its car on the track.<\/p>\n
Though Stella claimed the car would receive few upgrades between the first test and the opening grand prix in Melbourne \u2014 reminiscent of the team\u2019s upgrade approach over the last two seasons \u2014 he said McLaren had been \u201cambitious\u201d with its design.<\/p>\n
Chief designer Rob Marshall said that though the regulation shake-up could rearrange the pecking order, he had faith that the same staff that delivered the last two constructors championships could come up trumps again.<\/p>\n
\u201cBuilt-in advantages have gone, have been wiped clear,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we\u2019ve still got the same people and tools doing it.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou hope our approach is consistent and we go back in the same way, and hopefully we get similar or the same results.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris will be able to stress less about team orders in 2026 when McLaren…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2620,2095,13273,14212,1724,64,223185,14017,63,689,18503,3159,937,24562,225379,225385,225386,82615,225388,16177,9239,2057,99068,941,1737,825,225377,647,2041,2067,677,225384,225380,102396,18923,225390,225387,12022,16260,121617,16193,225383,86299,220220,13759,25598,88562,3595,2020,85,22764,225389,73217,103100,225382,77611,31283,182100,13773,225378,3370,26124,225381,2614,660,12000,2062,2086],"class_list":["post-430317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-agence-france-presse","tag-america","tag-andrea-stella","tag-arvid-lindblad","tag-asia","tag-au","tag-aussie-jack-doohan","tag-austin","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-driver","tag-austria","tag-barcelona","tag-british-driver","tag-chassis-design","tag-close-title-fight","tag-compression-ratio-row","tag-constructors-championships","tag-double-championship-victory","tag-drivers-title","tag-eastern-asia","tag-europe","tag-fundamental-principles","tag-japan","tag-lando-norris","tag-max-verstappen","tag-maximise-development-time","tag-melbourne","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-oceania","tag-ongoing-compression-ratio","tag-opening-grand-prix","tag-papaya-rules","tag-power-unit","tag-pre-season-test","tag-preseason-testing","tag-province-of-barcelona","tag-qatar","tag-racing-rules","tag-regulation-changes","tag-regulation-shake-up","tag-reigning-four-time-champion","tag-ricciardo-amp-max","tag-rob-marshall","tag-safety-car","tag-slow-pit-stop","tag-southern-europe","tag-spain","tag-sports","tag-sprint-race","tag-success-factor","tag-suzuka","tag-sweeping-regulation-changes","tag-talented-title-calibre-drivers","tag-team-heads","tag-team-orders","tag-team-point","tag-team-principal","tag-teammate-rivalry","tag-texas","tag-title-chances","tag-tools-doing","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-victoria","tag-western-asia","tag-western-europe","tag-world-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768365730_454_poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n