{"id":546630,"date":"2026-03-17T17:47:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T17:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/546630\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T17:47:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T17:47:08","slug":"how-mclarens-mercedes-power-unit-and-a-bold-wheelbase-choice-has-shaped-early-season-pace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/546630\/","title":{"rendered":"How McLaren\u2019s Mercedes power unit \u2013 and a bold wheelbase choice \u2013 has shaped early-season pace"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">McLaren\u2019s disastrous double non-start in Shanghai, because of two unrelated electrical PU problems, prevented us getting a better read on progress the team has made in closing the performance deficit to the identically-powered Mercedes team.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">Qualifying in <a class=\"text-brand-hot-red underline decoration-1 hover:decoration-[3px]\" data-f1rd-a7s-click=\"rich_text_atom_click\" data-f1rd-a7s-context=\"eyJhY3Rpb25UeXBlIjoiY2hpbmFfbGlua19jbGlja2VkIiwiY2xpY2tUZXh0Ijp0cnVlLCJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZm9ybXVsYTEuY29tL2VuL2xhdGVzdC90YWdzL2NoaW5hLjF4Z0plT1pmZU1nR0swbTBNaWNjQ0EiLCJwYXRoVHlwZSI6ImludGVybmFsIn0=\" href=\"https:\/\/www.formula1.com\/en\/latest\/tags\/china.1xgJeOZfeMgGK0m0MiccCA\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">China<\/a> suggested that the team had got a much better understanding of the optimum way of running the Mercedes PU. <a class=\"text-brand-hot-red underline decoration-1 hover:decoration-[3px]\" data-f1rd-a7s-click=\"rich_text_atom_click\" data-f1rd-a7s-context=\"eyJhY3Rpb25UeXBlIjoiaW5fbWVsYm91cm5lX2xpbmtfY2xpY2tlZCIsImNsaWNrVGV4dCI6dHJ1ZSwicGF0aCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmZvcm11bGExLmNvbS9lbi9yZXN1bHRzLzIwMjYvcmFjZXMvMTI3OS9hdXN0cmFsaWEvcXVhbGlmeWluZyIsInBhdGhUeXBlIjoiaW50ZXJuYWwifQ==\" href=\"https:\/\/www.formula1.com\/en\/results\/2026\/races\/1279\/australia\/qualifying\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">In Melbourne<\/a>, the leading McLaren had qualified 0.862s off the Mercedes pole. <a class=\"text-brand-hot-red underline decoration-1 hover:decoration-[3px]\" data-f1rd-a7s-click=\"rich_text_atom_click\" data-f1rd-a7s-context=\"eyJhY3Rpb25UeXBlIjoiaW5fc2hhbmdoYWlfbGlua19jbGlja2VkIiwiY2xpY2tUZXh0Ijp0cnVlLCJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZm9ybXVsYTEuY29tL2VuL3Jlc3VsdHMvMjAyNi9yYWNlcy8xMjgwL2NoaW5hL3F1YWxpZnlpbmciLCJwYXRoVHlwZSI6ImludGVybmFsIn0=\" href=\"https:\/\/www.formula1.com\/en\/results\/2026\/races\/1280\/china\/qualifying\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">In Shanghai<\/a> the deficit was approximately halved, down to 0.486s adrift.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">In China on Saturday, team boss <a class=\"text-brand-hot-red underline decoration-1 hover:decoration-[3px]\" data-f1rd-a7s-click=\"rich_text_atom_click\" data-f1rd-a7s-context=\"eyJhY3Rpb25UeXBlIjoiYW5kcmVhX3N0ZWxsYV9saW5rX2NsaWNrZWQiLCJjbGlja1RleHQiOnRydWUsInBhdGgiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5mb3JtdWxhMS5jb20vZW4vbGF0ZXN0L3RhZ3MvYW5kcmVhLXN0ZWxsYS42ZVlsN3lFYkNPOUs2bDZTZTRMSm9HIiwicGF0aFR5cGUiOiJpbnRlcm5hbCJ9\" href=\"https:\/\/www.formula1.com\/en\/latest\/tags\/andrea-stella.6eYl7yEbCO9K6l6Se4LJoG\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Andrea Stella<\/a> spoke about the process behind that improvement in relative pace. \u201cWe&#8217;ve been able to learn a bit more about how the power unit works,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It&#8217;s very complicated, with a very complex way of working.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McLaren\u2019s disastrous double non-start in Shanghai, because of two unrelated electrical PU problems, prevented us getting a better&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-546630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546630","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=546630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}