McLaren reveals planned upgrades amid Oscar Piastri concern

McLaren team boss Andrea Stella has revealed that the team has more upgrades coming to its 2026 car over the upcoming races as it bids to arrest its recent downturn in results.

The Woking-based squad didn’t have the pace to match the other top three teams at last weekend’s United States Grand Prix, a fourth-row lockout preceding fifth- and seventh-place race finishes, with Lando Norris leading team-mate Oscar Piastri home.

McLaren drivers highlight downward trend

With that, McLaren has now gone four consecutive rounds without a podium, marking the team’s longest barren streak since 2023.

Following a sluggish start to 2026, McLaren appeared to have turned a corner when a sizeable upgrade package at the Hungarian Grand Prix helped to propel Norris to back-to-back victories in Budapest and Zandvoort, either side of the summer break.

But since lining up on pole position with Norris in Madrid last month, McLaren’s competitiveness has regressed relative to the opposition, with Red Bull’s resurgence having seen the reigning champions slip to fourth place in the Constructors’ standings.

Piastri, who has not stood on the rostrum since the Miami Grand Prix back in May, has suggested the rate at which the other leading contenders are improving their cars has overshadowed the improvements that McLaren has made with recent updates.

“I think it’s a bit of where we are at the moment. I don’t think we’re massively strong at the moment,” Piastri told PlanetF1.com and other accredited media.

“Obviously, we had a few upgrades this weekend, which are doing what we expect, but clearly the teams around us are adding performance to the car.

“It looks like Mercedes are much more on top of their upgrades now. The Red Bull is obviously quick, and Ferrari has some upgrades as well.

“So yeah, we’ve got to keep pushing. But yeah, none of these upgrades are really making the car easier to drive, which is kind of our biggest problem.”

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Norris concurred with his teammate’s assessment that McLaren now has the fourth-quickest car, with the Briton pinpointing slow-speed cornering as an Achilles’ heel that the MCL40 has inherited from its predecessors, despite the change in regulations.

“You hope that you put something on and it’s magical, and you go a lot quicker, and you’re fighting for a podium, all of a sudden things are all working as they should,” he said.

“But Ferrari bought upgrades, and other teams are still bringing in upgrades.

“So they’re delivering. It’s just not, I guess, just not really in all the places that we need them to. Like the slow-speed corners, we’re just nowhere near at the level we need to be, we need a lot more, a lot more rear and slow speed. It’s been our issue for a long time now. It seems to be very hard to tackle, but we’ll keep working.”

McLaren plans late-season upgrade push

Stella has divulged that McLaren plans to introduce more upgrades to the team’s 2026 car next weekend in Brazil, while there are also parts scheduled to arrive in Las Vegas.

“There will be some more stuff coming,” the Italian promised.

“I think ultimately we will only be able to do so across Brazil and Vegas. So Mexico there won’t be very much, but Brazil and Vegas there will be some upgrades.

“Hopefully, this will help us to, like I said before, to be consistently in the fight for podiums and hopefully start to lean on the level of competitiveness that is required to fight for the victory. So there’s a few upgrades that are still in the pipeline.”

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