McLaren hit back over Lewis Hamilton's F1 upgrade claims

Lewis Hamilton

McLaren hit back over Lewis Hamilton's F1 upgrade claims

Lewis Hamilton finished behind both McLarens in Miami

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Sunday 10 May 2026 08:42

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McLaren F1 team principal Andrea Stella has hit back at seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton's comments about McLaren's upgrades.

At the Miami Grand Prix, Ferrari seemed to have been usurped in the pecking order by McLaren, having previously been clearly the second-fastest team in F1 2026 during the early weeks.

This was despite the fact that Ferrari had brought 11 upgrades to the Miami International Autodrome, while McLaren had only brought seven.

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And after the grand prix weekend, Hamilton deflected attention away from the failings of his Maranello-based outfit, claiming that McLaren's upgrades had over performed compared to that team's expectations, rather than Ferrari's upgrades underperforming.

Stella, however, painted a different picture of the Miami GP, claiming that it was exactly where McLaren had predicted they would be after bringing the changes to their 2026 cars.

"He was suggesting that we got more [from our upgrades] than we were expecting," Stella began to media at the Miami GP, asking for clarity on Hamilton's comments.

"I would like to say yes, but the answer is no, like pretty much what we measure in the data is consistent with what we were expecting from the development tools.

"So I would say that we are in line with our expectations. If anything, the number of components we brought to Miami, quantity-wise, is less than Ferrari, and there will be a few more to come in the coming races.

"But in terms of what we obtained for these components, it is pretty much in line with expectations."

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Have Ferrari blown their title chance?

Having been firmly the second-fastest team on the grid in the early weeks of 2026, there was hope that the five-week spring break in the sport would power Ferrari on to become a championship-challenging outfit, closing the gap to Mercedes.

But any hopes they may have had of challenging for a first world championship since 2008 would have taken a huge blow by the fact that McLaren - and the Red Bull of Max Verstappen - finished ahead of both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc in Miami.

Their result at the Miami International Autodrome looked more like 2025 when they finished fourth in the constructors' championship, with Hamilton down in sixth and Leclerc in eighth after a late penalty.

Ferrari have a busy few weeks ahead of them before the Canadian Grand Prix, where Hamilton will be hoping to add an eighth race victory around that iconic circuit.

F1 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari McLaren Miami Grand Prix Andrea Stella