Home / Funny / Viral / Reason McLaren Are More Confident This F1 Season Compared To Other Teams

REASON MCLAREN ARE MORE CONFIDENT THIS F1 SEASON COMPARED TO OTHER TEAMS

Published: 2026-01-12 20:09:10 Last Updated: 2026-01-13 08:26:24

Reigning champions McLaren seem to be embracing the new age of Formula 1 with greater confidence than its anticipated main competitors, despite a complete reset of the sport's regulations ahead of the 2026 season.
The Woking team won the Constructors' Championship in 2025, and Lando Norris won the team's first Drivers' Championship since 2008. The new technical rules don't come at the best time for McLaren. Although it is very hard to predict the 2026 rankings due to significant changes to power units, chassis, and aerodynamic regulations, most people would anticipate that the strength of the top four teams from 2025—McLaren, Mercedes, Red Bull, and Ferrari—will keep them around the top of the grid. Due to the modifications, there will be more testing than normal. The first of three events will take place in Barcelona at the end of January, followed by two more tests in Bahrain in February.
The serious action starts in Australia on March 6–8, with all 24 rounds of the season shown live on Sky Sports F1. Following the final race, the principals of each of the "big four" teams were questioned about their aspirations and expectations in the face of the greatest technological advancements in the history of the sport as the 2025 season came to an end in Abu Dhabi in early December.
Over the past year or so, there has been some sort of consensus in paddock chatter that Mercedes might have an advantage over their competitors due to their new engine's superior development. Additionally, McLaren, Williams, and Alpine will use it, potentially providing those teams with a chance to profit. Confidence in Mercedes is also based on the Silver Arrows' eight consecutive constructors' titles following the introduction of new engines in 2014, in addition to rumours from factory workers.
However, Mercedes team head Toto Wolff is not anticipating a recurrence of the supremacy his team saw in 2014 following a brutal four years of the ground effect era. "It's not comparable," he declared. "The grid is just much more competitive than it was in previous years." When asked if he was optimistic about Mercedes' recent aerodynamic shortcomings, Wolff responded, "I'm never confident." I have a pessimistic outlook. We just do all within our power to produce a car with a power unit capable of competing for a world championship.
"It's super difficult to predict because we set ourselves targets that we are on track to meet, but whether those targets were set ambitiously enough and whether those targets have been set in the right place, in terms of priorities, only the future will show."

Has the miserable 2025 damaged Ferrari's confidence?

Ferrari had an even worse 2025 season than Mercedes, finishing fourth in the constructors' standings after starting the year with the expectation of being McLaren's primary title contender.

For the first time in his illustrious career, Lewis Hamilton finished an F1 season without a grand prix podium, which drove him to the brink of despair.

Before the previous two seasons, Fred Vasseur, who became the Ferrari team principal at the beginning of 2023, was noticeably optimistic, stating that his goal was to end the trophy drought that had lasted since 2008. Therefore, it was equally noteworthy that his faith in the project seems to have been slightly undermined; even Ferrari's early decision to halt development of their 2025 car to focus on 2026 did not offer much comfort.

When asked what he anticipated in 2026, Vasseur said, "I have no idea about this." You are fully aware that our sport is comparable. I can do well, but I would seem foolish if someone performed better. "We are concentrating on our project, working on it, pushing ourselves to the maximum, and doing our best. You will undoubtedly do better the more time you devote to the project. However, I'm not sure if Alpine, Red Bull, or McLaren are ahead of us. Nobody knows this, and I believe the most crucial thing is to avoid wasting time trying to figure out who is ahead of you or behind you."

Additionally, Vasseur cautioned against overreacting to the outcomes of the first race in Australia. "It will be a lot about development and capacity of quick development," he stated. "In Australia, the season won't end. Whether we are P1 or P10 is irrelevant. Everyone will have a long way to go.

Unlike Mercedes and Ferrari, Red Bull finished the season ahead of schedule as Max Verstappen won the final three races and nearly spectacularly pursued Norris in the race for the championship.

Since taking over as team principal in July from Christian Horner, Laurent Mekies seems to have had a very favourable impact; nonetheless, a significant disability may prevent further advancement under the Frenchman's direction.

For the first time in the team's history, Red Bull is manufacturing its own engine with assistance from American automaker Ford, posing a problem that Mekies openly discussed in Abu Dhabi. "It was a crazy call (to manufacture an engine), probably a call that only Red Bull can make," Mekies stated. "We began on this field, and now that we have a building and 600 people, we will attempt to combat those who have been doing it for 90 years.

"It's extremely Red Bull, and we're quite delighted to do it with Ford. We love the challenge and the idea. To assume that we will immediately land it at the top would be naïve. Therefore, we are aware that there will be a few extremely difficult months ahead of us, along with many sleepless nights and headaches, but it is also a gift to be connected to such difficulties."

During the ground-effect era, McLaren achieved an incredible comeback, winning titles in 2024 and 2025 after a poor start to the 2023 season. Andrea Stella's ascension to team principal in December 2022 proved to be an inspiring appointment, even though few in the sport thought such a change within a set of rules was conceivable. Naturally, the Italian, who is nearly always quite calm and thoughtful when speaking, agrees with his colleagues that it's hard to say where each team will finish this season.

In contrast to their remarks, it was noteworthy that he was open to expressing optimism about McLaren's future in 2026, with his positive sentiments mostly motivated by the elite technical team he has put together. "The technical team ultimately conceived, designed, developed a car that, from being ninth or 10th best car at the start of 2023, it was one of the best cars at the end of 2023, and then it became gradually the best car definitely in the first part of 2025," Stella stated. After 26 years in Formula 1, I believe this is one of the best technical departments I could have worked in.

"And this means that while the specifics of the current regulations will not necessarily apply on to the future, the working way, the standards, the approach to the development of the car to the objectives from a technical point of view, they do carry into the future, and this makes us optimistic for the 2026 season."

Article Tags: Viral Formula One McLaren