McLaren studying Ferrari's upgrade pace as 2026 development war intensifies

McLaren has acknowledged Ferrari as the benchmark for in-season development in 2026, with engineering technical director Neil Houldey saying the Woking team is studying how its Italian rival has managed to produce such a high volume of car upgrades in the first half of the campaign.

The new 2026 regulations triggered an immediate and intense development war, with Ferrari and Red Bull standing out for the speed at which they have been able to manufacture and deploy upgrades. Both Ferrari and McLaren have since clawed back ground on the initially dominant Mercedes, each snatching race wins as the season has progressed.

“I think we’ve done a pretty good job of bringing a lot of upgrades that have added performance to the car,” Houldey told Motorsport.com. “But when you look around at our competitors, there are teams [like] Ferrari, who’ve done a fantastic job this year to just drive that development forward.”

Houldey was asked whether Ferrari may have front-loaded its development budget under F1’s cost cap, potentially leaving McLaren room to make a bigger impact after the summer break. He stopped short of that conclusion, but made clear that Ferrari’s output had prompted internal reflection at McLaren.

“From a volume standpoint it does look like Ferrari have managed to do a lot, and it’s something for us to look at and understand how they were able to achieve that — from an aerodynamic development point of view, from a manufacturing point of view,” he said. “How they turned around this stuff so quickly, it’s an inspiration for us to look at and say: ‘Come on, we did well in 2024, we did well in 2025 — but how do we do even better in 2026 and moving forward into 2027?’”

Houldey added that standing still in Formula 1 is not an option. “If you’re not moving forward and finding ways of doing things faster and more effectively, then you’re effectively going backwards yourself,” he said.

McLaren is expected to bring at least one further upgrade package to the Dutch Grand Prix in August. Mercedes, which has brought fewer novelties to the track than its rivals so far, is also anticipated to deploy additional developments after the summer break. The development push across the grid is expected to taper off later in the season as teams begin shifting resources toward their 2027 cars.