McLaren secured their first victory of the season at the 2026 Hungarian Grand Prix with a win by Lando Norris. This result also marks the first race victory for a non-Mercedes driver in 2026. Team principal Andrea Stella shared her analysis of the race and McLaren's systematic recovery process since the start of the season at press conferences in Hungaroring.
Stella's infamous obsession with order came to the fore.
Stella's habit of arranging audio equipment on the table during press conferences with journalists has become a well-known detail, even outside the paddock. At the 7 pm session on Saturday evening, when a journalist suggested "let's leave it as chaos this time," Stella immediately responded with a "No," and rearranged multiple devices to form a perfect frame. Throughout the meeting, Stella encountered microphone malfunctions repeatedly, requesting a replacement microphone three times from team communications director Luca Colajanni; however, she dealt with each issue calmly and systematically.
The share of execution in pole position
Stella emphasized that not only speed but also the quality of team performance played a decisive role in Norris's first pole position as the 2026 World Champion. According to Stella, the car with the highest potential in Budapest was again Ferrari: “When we look closely at the data, evaluating it by looking at the best corners of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, we see that Ferrari has higher potential. The result largely comes from the quality of our performance; both for the team and the drivers.” Norris's pole position lead was 12 milliseconds, and Stella attributed a significant portion of this difference to the performance compressed by the Mercedes HPP power unit.
Special development package for Hungary
McLaren brought part of its first major development package of the season to Hungaroring; the remaining parts are planned to be added in upcoming races. Stella acknowledged that McLaren has been making significant strides in development since the Miami GP, while rivals who prefer smaller, more frequent updates have closed the gap. However, he highlighted McLaren's most distinctive feature as the consistent and substantial lap time gains achieved with each package brought from Woking to the track. Stella said on Sunday evening: “To be honest, we didn’t expect this lap time gain to be enough for pole position at Hungaroring, and we never thought we would achieve such strong pace in the race. If we want to consistently fight for wins, we must continue our development work.”
Special thanks to Mercedes HPP.
As Stella closed her Sunday meeting, she also mentioned Mercedes HPP, whom she said she had forgotten to thank earlier: “Following discussions on the use of the power unit, some really good work was done. Hungaroring was the event where McLaren and HPP demonstrated the best possible collaboration in squeezing every millisecond out of the power unit. A significant part of yesterday’s 12-millisecond pole position was due to the power unit; I thank HPP.”
McLaren had a difficult start to the season as a customer team that, while competing for the 2025 championship, couldn't simultaneously invest in a 2026 car. Stella had periodically stated that the Mercedes factory team had a better understanding of their product and that McLaren's simulation cars initially prevented them from getting the full potential of the power unit. Stella also explained that with the progress made in Hungary, the inconsistencies seen in the previous race had been largely resolved. It was also noted that the microphone worked flawlessly during Sunday's press conference.