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While Mercedes has remained out in front through 2026, the order behind the Formula 1 World Championship leaders has been shaped by the rise and fall of aero updates. McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull have all been closely matched as the season has unfolded, with advantages changing hands almost every week. Every team is on a steep learning curve under the 2026 regulations, and within the limits of the cost cap they are pushing new parts to their cars as quickly as possible.

McLaren is targeting a significant step forward in Hungary this weekend as the team introduces a new package, most notably a revised floor. This is the first stage of a concept change that will continue with further updates when racing resumes after the summer break at Zandvoort in late August.

In the recent races, McLaren has dropped off the pace to some extent and has generally been behind Ferrari. It was unfortunate timing that a strong showing in Spa last weekend came alongside a costly grid penalty for Lando Norris, who lost places on the starting order because of new power unit control electronics. It was the fourth penalty of the season linked to reliability problems, and it meant that the World Champion would receive a 10-place grid drop.

He had to serve it somewhere, and Spa is a circuit where overtaking is possible and positions can be gained. What the team perhaps did not expect was that the car would prove highly competitive in Belgium, and for much of the weekend Norris was second only to Kimi Antonelli.

He could have qualified second, but an error on his final lap, along with a massive tow for Max Verstappen from teammate Isack Hadjar, left him third. The 10-place grid penalty pushed him down to a frustrating P13. It left everyone in the camp wondering what might have happened had he been able to start nearer the front.

“I have to say that throughout the weekend, when I saw Lando, like, P2 in every practice session, I was thinking to myself the penalty is a bit in the way at this circuit,” team principal Andrea Stella said after qualifying. “But at the same time I was responding to myself that there's many more races to go. It's important that we have this new component in the pool. We can't go without this penalty, so we have to accept it. And this improved performance is just a good indication for the races to come.”

In the race, Norris managed to climb back to seventh, which was a respectable result.

“We are very encouraged by the pace that Lando was able to deliver today,” said Stella. “I think with him starting in the natural position, P3, and based on what we saw today, the car had the pace in the race to contend for podiums.”

He pointed out that the MCL40 seemed to suit Spa: “At the same time, I think the car adapted well to Belgium, and it's not like now we go back to Silverstone, and we are in condition to compete for podiums in Silverstone. We are at the moment susceptible to the track condition, the level of grip. And our work and our objective is to make sure that we are independent of this variability, and we can compete for podiums because the car is strong enough to do it in every condition.”

At the very least, serving that grid penalty now means Norris can make full use of the new aero parts as they enter the system.

“If we think about it more objectively rather than subjectively,” said Stella, “And the fact that as of Hungary we will start bringing some upgrades to the car and we will bring some upgrades for a few races, then we want to be in good shape there. And let's take this performance here in Spa as a good indication that some more performant weekends are ahead of us.”

McLaren’s push for performance is not only about improving the MCL40, but also about deepening its understanding of how to use its Mercedes power unit, especially when it comes to optimising energy deployment. Since the start of the season, Stella has made it clear that customer teams are at a disadvantage compared with the works Mercedes squad, which naturally has had a head start in this area of understanding.

“Certainly this is an important topic,” he said last weekend. “When you come to a circuit like this, which is inherently highly power sensitive, and then you have such an energy starvation, then this concept of the sensitivities that we've been talking about right from the start—sensitivity to driving input, sensitivity to how much you deploy before a certain corner—here they were, if anything, even more visible.”

Indeed, at Spa the team was left puzzled by differences between its two cars over the weekend, with Oscar Piastri losing out to Norris in straight-line performance.

Stella also said that McLaren has only just received the simulation tools from the Mercedes High Performance Powertrains division that it needs to carry out detailed pre-race preparation.

“I would say we are a few races away from having a full understanding of the power unit behavior and exploitation,” he said. “And it's only now, and we are mid-season, that we are starting to have the required tools in order to be able to anticipate, optimize, and study these sensitivities, so that we know that if this little change happens, then we will have these bigger changes as a consequence. Which at the moment, and for some time, we had not been able to do.”

Better late than never. Even so, the obvious question is why it took Mercedes so long to provide McLaren with what is effectively the user manual for the power unit.

“We know that they've been pushing very hard,” said a diplomatic Stella when asked by Road & Track about the delay. “They were certainly very busy, and one of the elements that somehow created some shortcomings is the fact that some of these tools were not available just because of a timeline. So we worked together to make sure that they had become available as soon as possible. And as a matter of fact, now they are starting to be available. And we are definitely taking great benefit.”

Will that mix of power unit knowledge and a stronger aero package give McLaren a lift in Budapest? It will be interesting to see how it unfolds.