What went wrong with McLaren's start to the 2026 F1 season?

Coming off a high last year with a Constructors’ and a Drivers’ Championship to their name, McLaren have had a rough start to the new season. Under the new regulations overhaul, the team in Papaya are currently sitting third in the standings, but nothing has seemed to go to plan for the British outfit.

Both MCL40's on track in China | Credit: www.McLaren.com

Following Lewis Hamilton’s championship win in 2008, McLaren began to lose their winning ways. However after a string of unfortunate performances, the team finally found their rhythm again with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in the seats.

2024 was when we really started to see the comeback for the team. McLaren managed to win the Constructors’ Championship with 666 points, only 14 points ahead of Ferrari. While Norris wasn’t quite able to catch up to Max Verstappen in the drivers’ title race, he showed he was on the right path to achieve that goal sooner rather than later.

For 2025, McLaren used that momentum from the previous season and made a package that looked unbeatable. Throughout the year, Norris and Piastri were the most dominant drivers in the field. Despite a late comeback from Verstappen, Norris was still able to hold off the former champion and took the 2025 World Drivers’ Championship for himself, along with another Constructors' title for the team.

With such a positive end to the year, McLaren should have gone into 2026 with even more confidence. However, the season unfortunately hasn’t gotten off to the best start for the reigning champions.

McLaren's 2026 so far

Neither Norris or Piastri were able to start the race in China | Credit: Formula One

In the pre-season testing, the MCL40 looked pretty reliable overall, with 1,185 laps completed over all of the tests between both drivers. Despite a few small issues, the car looked as though it could still put up a solid fight.

For the first race of the year, Formula One returned to Albert Park in Melbourne, Australia, Piastri’s home race. Being the first race of the regulation overhaul, it was hard to predict how the weekend would pan out. What wasn’t expected was Piastri to crash on the exit of Turn 4 before the race as he was making his way to the grid.

This was a shock moment for Piastri and fans alike. Norris still managed to bring some points home for the team as the reigning champion took fifth place. The next race weekend then rolled around which took place in China, and McLaren were of course hoping to get themselves back in the game.

Norris finished fourth in the sprint race, with Piastri in sixth, picking up some valuable points ahead of the big race. The pair had decent qualifying positions for the race too, with Piastri in fifth and Norris in sixth. However, Norris didn’t manage to make it out of the garage due to an electrical issue with the engine.

It wasn’t long before Piastri’s MCL40 was wheeled back to the garage from the grid after another issue was found, this time with his car, meaning the Australian missed out on another race distance.

Norris will attempt to defend his World Championship in 2026 | Credit: Formula One

McLaren is powered by a Mercedes engine and aren’t the only team who are customers of the manufacturer, along with Williams, Alpine and Mercedes themselves. Mercedes are currently the team to beat right now with both drivers topping the opening two rounds.

Unfortunately for McLaren, they haven’t been able to extract the same performance from the engine that Mercedes have. The electrical issues with the power units were separate for both Norris’ and Piastri’s cars, making it an even more difficult situation to understand for the team and fans.

Following the result of the Chinese Grand Prix, the drivers spoke to the media about the situation, with clear frustration across the board. Norris described the outcome as “disappointing,” before going on to explain: “We had an electrical problem on the power unit side that prevented us from starting the car.

“The mechanics worked as hard as they could to try and fix it, but unfortunately, we couldn't. What makes it even more frustrating is that Oscar and I seem to have had completely unrelated issues on both cars, so just very unlucky all around."

For Piastri, the bigger issue was the lack of track time at a crucial stage of the season, considering there is so much to learn about these new cars. He said: “[What is] even more frustrating is missing out on another race distance, as we know that time on track is critical in learning how to get the most out of this era of cars.”

McLaren’s back-to-back issues raise serious reliability concerns. Reliability is just as important as outright pace, especially in this new era of F1, and failing to start a Grand Prix is one of the worst-case scenarios. The fact that both cars were unable to start the race due to separate electrical problems only adds to the complexity of the issue for the team, leaving them with more questions than answers going into Suzuka.

Looking ahead

McLaren look towards a better weekend in Japan | Credit: Formula One

As the calendar moves on to Japan, McLaren find themselves at an early crossroads in the season. The Suzuka Circuit is one of the most complete tests an F1 car can face, with high-speed esses and a demand for aerodynamic precision making it an ideal benchmark under the new regulations.

For Norris and Piastri, the objective for the weekend will be to deliver a clean and consistent race weekend. After the disruptions of the opening two rounds, simply getting both cars to the chequered flag will be an achievement.

We know the MCL40 is relatively quick and will be able to qualify towards the front of the grid, but whether these reliability issues are deeper teething issues or simply a case of early-season misfortune remains to be seen.

Teams such as Mercedes started the season with confidence and consistency, extracting a strong performance from the same power unit that McLaren have struggled to maximise. This contrast will only put pressure on the Woking outfit to find answers quickly.

Suzuka will represent an early test for McLaren. A strong result will steady the narrative and emphasise McLaren’s status as title contenders. However, another setback could shift the conversation from a difficult start to a defining weakness in their 2026 campaign.

For now, McLaren’s season can be restored. But in a championship that rarely waits for anyone, their result in Japan could set the tone for their season that follows.