when the timing of a virtual safety car worked against him<\/a>.<\/p>\nThat recent improvement has coincided with a steady development program, which will continue in Azerbaijan with further aerodynamic changes scheduled to appear on the car.<\/p>\n
McLaren has not detailed the individual components involved, but the new parts will be assessed during practice before the team settles on its final specification for qualifying and the race.<\/p>\n
The rotating H-Wing first introduced at Monza will also return after sitting out the Madrid weekend.<\/p>\n
McLaren chief technical officer and chief designer Rob Marshall said the upgrades would face a particularly varied test around Baku.<\/p>\n
\u201cBaku is a circuit of extremes, combining the longest straight in Formula 1 with some of the slowest corners, so there are significant compromises to manage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cStraight mode gives every team greater scope to run a low-drag car on the straights while retaining downforce through the corners, but the challenge remains the same: bring the best design and set-up choices, then execute them cleanly on track.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marshall conceded the team has not always accurately anticipated its level of performance this year as it continues to understand the current generation of cars.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are still learning about these cars at every event, and we have both overperformed and underperformed against our expectations at different races this season,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cBaku will provide another valuable test of the MCL40 across a very different range of characteristics.<\/p>\n
\u201cEnergy management and deployment will be particularly important, as will tyre and brake management with the cars arriving at Turn 1 after the long straight with these areas relatively cold.\u201d<\/p>\n
McLaren\u2019s ongoing push also comes as teams increasingly divide resources between the current campaign and development of their 2027 cars.<\/p>\n
Despite that crossover, Marshall said there was no intention of easing the MCL40 development program while victories remain within reach.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith regulatory continuity into next season and the competition at the front so close, our motivation to keep developing the car remains high,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must balance that with work on next year\u2019s car, but our immediate focus is on delivering more performance and fighting for more victories in 2026, while carrying forward everything we learn.\u201d<\/p>\n
McLaren expects Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull to remain in the mix in Azerbaijan, with Marshall predicting any of the leading four teams could emerge on top.<\/p>\n
The race will take place on Saturday rather than Sunday this year<\/a> to avoid clashing with Azerbaijan\u2019s national Remembrance Day, with FP1 getting underway on Thursday at 12.30pm local time (6.30pm AEST).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McLaren are set for more upgrades at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix this weekend. Image: XPB Images The reigning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":900738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,98125,817,813,816,913,85],"class_list":["post-900737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-azerbaijan-gp","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-mclaren","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900737","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=900737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/900738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=900737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=900737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=900737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"McLaren](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/XPB_1436482_HiRes.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMcLaren are set for more upgrades at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix this weekend. Image: XPB Images<\/p>\n