McLaren F1 chief boasts Mercedes are beatable as Miami upgrades confirmed

An edited photo of Andrea Stella looking serious and Toto Wolff grinning on a background of a McLaren in the pits — Photo: © IMAGO

F1 2026

McLaren chief boasts Mercedes are beatable as Miami upgrades confirmed

Don't be fooled by Mercedes' early success in F1 2026

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Wednesday 15 April 2026 11:57

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A key player in McLaren's technical development has laid out how the papaya squad might be able to catch up to Mercedes sooner rather than later in the F1 2026 championship.

The Silver Arrows have made it clear they are the ones to watch after the three opening rounds on this year's calendar, with Toto Wolff's outfit once again hitting the ground running under the sport's overhauled regulations.

Even though Mercedes have taken an early lead in both the drivers' and constructors' standings, their advantage could take a hit very soon with the FIA ruling earlier this year that their compression ratio trick would not be allowed after a change to the sporting regulations is made from June 1 onwards.

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As a result, Mercedes are having to change their power unit in time for the Monaco Grand Prix, which takes place on June 7 and if reports are proved true that this change is worth 0.3 seconds per lap, a huge chunk of their' advantage could be wiped out.

Though this power unit change would also impact Mercedes' customer teams (including McLaren) technical director Mark Temple has revealed that the Woking-based squad could catch up to Mercedes through chassis improvements.

Mercedes have 'weak points', McLaren want to exploit them

Speaking on the F1 Nation podcast, McLaren's technical director noted that many teams were likely finding themselves in the early phase of discovering the potential of their chassis, implying that this could be what makes Mercedes beatable this season.

Asked by ex-F1 driver and pundit Jolyon Palmer whether it was a fair assumption to make that McLaren were now happy with their Mercedes power unit after a rocky start to the season, Temple said: "We've worked very closely with HPP. They've been very supportive on those things and we're definitely in a much better place.

"It's still F1, there's always more performance to find, but I think we're very much focused on the chassis performance aspect now. And in terms of the gap to Mercedes, the chassis performance and exploitation."

Podcast host Tom Clarkson then asked Temple if he thought Mercedes could be beaten, to which the Brit replied: "I mean, honestly, that's very difficult to say and people who know me will know that I don't like to speculate about those kind of things too much. I always think better just to focus on what's in front of you and what you can control and what you can do about it.

"But I will say obviously in Japan, Mercedes didn't finish first and second so they have their weak points, absolutely they're beatable. Hopefully we can be the ones who are able to beat them...they're certainly not invincible, that's for sure."

"We're all working very hard to try and close those gaps and I hope that we're the ones to do it first."

McLaren working on F1 upgrades ahead of Miami GP

The F1 technical chief then confirmed that McLaren do have something up their sleeve to prepare ahead of the sport's return at next month's Miami GP following a five-week enforced break from the calendar.

"For sure. The fact that there's a gap [in the calendar] means that it's a natural place to add components because there's two races that you can't add stuff to," Temple continued.

"We'll be aiming to bring some new bits to the car, hopefully it's a big step...I think we're happy with the development we're doing. The team's working really hard. Will it be enough to to jump any teams? Will they bring big steps? Honestly don't know.

"At this point, it's all about hope but actually it's much more about just getting on with it and yeah, let's see. It'd be nice to think we can definitely [beat Mercedes]."

When is the next F1 race?

After F1 opted to cancel both the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix, the next race won't be until the Miami Grand Prix, which kicks off on May 1.

The fourth round of the 2026 championship will also mark the second sprint race of the year, with a single practice session taking place on Friday, May 1, before sprint qualifying at 4:30pm local time (EDT).

Saturday, May 2 will then see the sprint race kick off at midday EDT before qualifying for the main grand prix takes place at 4pm.

On Sunday, May 3, lights out for the Miami GP will take place at 4pm EDT.

Written by

Kerry Violet - F1 News Editor

Having graduated from the University of Sheffield with a 2:1 in Journalism in 2022, Kerry continued her pursuit of finding a full-time position in motorsport through work with the F1 Arcade in London, where she got to meet true fans of the sport and make a live grand prix watch party memorable for them. It was here that she confirmed her dream of combining her background in journalism and love of motorsport, going on to volunteer with the female-led platform Empoword Journalism. Having completed stints as a screen editor and sports editor, Kerry landed her first F1-specific editorial role with GPFans and has thoroughly enjoyed continuing to work closely with the sport ever since. The access GPFans offers Kerry has allowed her to interview big names such as Naomi Schiff and David Coulthard and given her experiences she could only have dreamt of as a young F1 fan.

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