Brundle warns McLaren's Azerbaijan upgrade could be heading for the bin after structural cracks emerge

Alex Brundle has warned that McLaren’s new upgrade package may have to be scrapped after structural weaknesses were exposed during a pointless Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend for the reigning constructors’ champions.

The Woking outfit arrived in Baku with a significant upgrade, but left with nothing to show for it. Lando Norris was eliminated in a multi-car collision at a safety car restart on Turn 1, when Alpine’s Franco Colapinto locked up and struck team-mate Pierre Gasly, who then careered into Norris. Oscar Piastri, who had been in contention for a podium, suffered his own lock-up that dropped him to 13th by the finish.

Speaking on the F1 Nation podcast, Brundle argued that the zero-points result did not accurately reflect the upgrade’s aerodynamic potential — but said the physical integrity of the new components was a far more pressing concern.

“Zero points is, I don’t think, a fair assessment,” Brundle said. “It’s all about performance, not result.”

He went on to highlight a troubling pattern observed across the entire race weekend. “They’ve got a problem though, which is that if that upgrade is not structurally strong enough, you’ve seen them all weekend with the cracks in the floorboards on the side of the car,” he said.

“Lando Norris was told again not to take the kerbs in the middle of the grand prix. So, if they brought an upgrade that maybe aerodynamically might help somewhere later in this season, but then they can’t run it because it’s not structurally strong enough to actually operate, that might be an upgrade in the bin.”

Brundle underlined the scale of the potential setback for a team defending its championship. “There is no bigger disaster in 2026 Formula 1 than spending a ton of money in wind tunnel time, especially when you’re the reigning champions, on some upgrades that don’t work.”

The result leaves McLaren third in the constructors’ standings with 306 points, a significant distance behind championship leaders Mercedes on 538 and Ferrari in second with 378.