The 2026 Dutch Grand Prix Sprint race provided McLaren with a glaring technical headache, and Team Principal Andrea Stella is already zeroing in on the culprits.
While Ferrari and Charles Leclerc successfully gambled on the soft compound, both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri struggled with severe rear tyre degradation on the standard medium rubber.
Speaking to the SkySports F1 broadcast following the Sprint, Stella admitted the team was caught off guard by the sudden drop in performance, emphasizing that the issue runs deeper than simply choosing the wrong tyre compound.
Instead of blaming Pirelli’s rubber, the McLaren boss pointed a finger at the team’s internal execution.
“When it comes to ourselves, I think the used medium was the right tyre like majority, and I think it was definitely the tyre to be,” Stella stated.
If the compound wasn’t the issue, why did the MCL40 chew through its rear tyres so aggressively?
“We need to look as to why we had so much rear tyre degradation, which rather than compound might have to do with car set-up and overall driving style,” Stella explained. He noted that there are “certainly a few variables that we need to look into and optimize for the rest of the weekend”.
Early Warning Signs for McLaren
The degradation was not a late-race anomaly. According to Stella, the warning signs appeared almost immediately on the pit wall telemetry.
“Lando said that already mid-Sprint that the rear tyres were difficult, and in the radio communication with Oscar and in the data we could see… that there were some issues going on with the rear tyres,” he told the broadcast.
While the car has shown blazing speed on fresh rubber, with Stella noting they are “definitely quite comfortable in terms of new tyres… and qualifying pace,” solving the long-run degradation is now the team’s primary focus before the main event gets underway.
With Sunday’s Grand Prix looming, Stella made the mission statement simple: “So, a clear objective. Hopefully, we will be able to improve”.