Andrea Stella sees no reason for McLaren to change how it handles its drivers after success in the past, as F1 2026 is going to be on same principals.
Apart from the meteoric rise of McLaren in the last few F1 seasons, it has been largely overshadowed by talks regarding ‘Papaya Rules’ and the team’s handling of drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Despite the sound showing by the team, the headlines have largely been on the drivers and the handling aspect.
Last year was a perfect example when the fight was between Norris and Piastri. Some incidents triggered stream of stories and fan reactions which continued on for months. The supposed equal handling of drivers didn’t sit well, due to loopholes it carried as per pundits and fans.
McLaren stayed firm on its stand, with both Norris and Piastri equally backing its team. Despite the late threat of Red Bull and Max Verstappen, the British team prevailed in securing the drivers’ title by two points in Norris’ side. And things aren’t to change in F1 2026 as well.
Team boss Stella has admitted that they have held talks since the last season and they are happy with how things panned out – of course there is always room for learning which they have. The Italian has reaffirmed the status of equal treatment and has said the same to Norris and Piastri.
It is the ‘McLaren way’ as Stella states. “We talked last year quite a bit about internal racing at McLaren, so let me say that from that point of view, we will enter 2026 with continuity,” he said to media including F1 website in a sitdown at McLaren Technology Center to discuss the 2026 season. “We will keep racing the McLaren way.
“If we have been able to achieve success in 2024 and then in 2025, what has added extra value to what we have achieved is the way in which we have achieved in such a collaborative, supportive way – [a] cohesive way – together with our drivers. I actually [came here] straight from a meeting with Oscar, and before I was having lunch with Lando. The 2026 season is already fully on, even in terms of how much the drivers are engaged, and I was particularly pleased to see how energetic, proactive, full of ideas, but also full of support to the way we have gone racing the McLaren way in the past.
“So that’s the perspective of going into 2026 racing from a team point of view. I can certainly say that like anything that we approach at McLaren, we go through a thorough process of review such that we can see where are the opportunities to improve, and this was the same for what we call the racing principles and the way we go racing and internal competition. We got quite a lot of feedback already during the season last year.
“We had conversations after the season and we are having conversations pretty much as we speak now. All this has led us to reaffirm fundamentally, like I said before, that the concepts of fairness, integrity, equal opportunities, sportsmanship, they are all fundamental for the team, for Lando and for Oscar. So they are reaffirmed, they are confirmed and consolidated, if anything. At the same time, we all acknowledge that the volume of work required, for instance, for the team and to some extent even for the drivers related to internal competition was important.
“Therefore, any attempt we can make to make this going racing together just simpler to some extent will be welcome. It will be in reality a matter of finetuning because, once we reviewed what we have done, in most of the cases we said that’s exactly what we would still do again. But we found a few opportunities in which we can streamline the way in which we operate collectively – like I said, reaffirming the fundamental principles that we have adopted in the past,” summed up Stella.
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