{"id":796000,"date":"2026-07-12T18:47:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T18:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/796000\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T18:47:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T18:47:09","slug":"mclaren-boss-reveals-f1-curse-as-title-defence-in-jeopardy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/796000\/","title":{"rendered":"McLaren boss reveals F1 &#8216;curse&#8217; as title defence in jeopardy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has revealed Formula 1&#8217;s &#8220;curse&#8221; of always looking to the future, rather than enjoying past success and securing back-to-back titles.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>McLaren&#8217;s rise under the previous regulations was remarkable, going from effectively being the weakest team on the grid at the start of 2023 to securing back-to-back championships by the end of 2025.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>The Woking-based outfit entered this year&#8217;s new power unit regulations not only as the defending constructors&#8217; champions, but also with Lando Norris as the reigning drivers&#8217; world champion.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>As impressive as the British team&#8217;s recent seasons have been, it has been unable to dwell on the past, having endured a difficult start to the new regulations.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>McLaren has found itself adrift of Mercedes and, often, Ferrari across the opening nine rounds, and already sits 154 points behind the Silver Arrows.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>The papaya squad is yet to claim a victory in 2026, a stark contrast to the previous two years. As a result, the team is focused on the future and finding improvements, with Stella hopeful of returning to the front.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Asked if McLaren&#8217;s mindset is on enjoying being champions or looking to the future, Stella told the official Goodwood broadcast: &#8220;Well, first of all, the past is the past, but it&#8217;s an incredible past. It&#8217;s almost career- and life-defining, if you want.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Having been at McLaren, building block by block, day by day, together with Lando, we don&#8217;t forget where we started. We were almost last, and we ended up as constructors&#8217; champions, with Lando becoming world champion and us winning both world titles.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;So it was a massive achievement, and we were happy for ourselves, but above all for all the papaya fans who could celebrate it with us. Hopefully, it was a great emotion for them.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But there&#8217;s a little bit of a curse in F1, and in sport generally, and it&#8217;s the fact that you&#8217;re always looking to the future. Looking ahead, we want to be in a position very soon to repeat these kinds of results and see Lando and Oscar succeed, and then fight again for the world championship.&#8221;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has revealed Formula 1&#8217;s &#8220;curse&#8221; of always looking to the future, rather than&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":796001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,827,830,828,831,829,826,813,823,825,806,805,824,803,804,822,85],"class_list":["post-796000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-daniel-ricciardo","tag-f1-calendar","tag-f1-live","tag-f1-results","tag-f1-standings","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-max-verstappen","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motorsport","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796000","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=796000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/796001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}