McLaren to investigate why Mercedes pulls 1.5 tenths on straights despite sharing the same power unit

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has admitted the team must investigate why the MCL40 is losing up to one-and-a-half tenths per lap to Mercedes on the straights, despite both cars being powered by the same Mercedes power unit.

Speaking in Austria, Stella estimated the total gap between the MCL40 and the championship-leading W17 at between three and four tenths per lap. He broke that deficit down as roughly 70% in the corners and 30% on the straights — the latter being the portion that currently has no clear explanation.

“In the corners, it’s very clear why that is the case — it’s the fact that their car generates more downforce than our car, and this is something we are working on,” Stella said. “The 30% happening in the straights, it might have to do with some additional aerodynamic drag that we have on our car, but we are also looking at the way we exploit the power unit, because the speed deficit is quite significant.”

The corner deficit is more straightforward to diagnose: McLaren is currently running less downforce than Mercedes, and Stella confirmed the team has development projects in the pipeline to close that gap. The straight-line shortfall is harder to unpick, because both teams are drawing on the same Mercedes High Performance Powertrains (HPP) unit.

Stella flagged two possible explanations: excess aerodynamic drag on the MCL40, or a difference in how the two teams deploy power from the shared engine. He noted earlier in the season that Mercedes, as the manufacturer of its own powertrain, had a natural head start in optimising its use — though he was careful to stress that dialogue with HPP remains positive.

His proposed method for isolating the cause is straightforward in principle: reduce the MCL40’s drag and check whether a straight-line gap to Mercedes still exists. If it does, the focus shifts to power unit operation.

“I don’t know if you have access to the GPS overlays, but I think nowadays that’s a really interesting source of information to see the characteristics of the various cars,” Stella added. “You will be able to see that there’s probably one-and-a-half tenths, one tenth at least, that we lose in the straights, and definitely we need to go and look into why that is the case.”

The findings underline the scale of the challenge facing McLaren as it attempts to overhaul Mercedes in the constructors’ standings. While Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri remain competitive, the team’s inability to match the W17 in a straight line adds a layer of complexity to its development programme that aerodynamic upgrades alone may not resolve.