Could McLaren follow Red Bull’s path with its own F1 engine

After the first few race weekends of the 2026 Formula 1 season, Andrea Stella came up with a quote that was as interesting as it was telling. According to the McLaren team principal, this is the first year his squad has felt the disadvantages of being a customer team in F1.

And no, that is not about pointing the finger at Mercedes. Of course, there was some dissatisfaction in certain parts of the paddock after the Australian Grand Prix, including over the older engine specification during winter testing and what quickly became known as the ‘knowledge gap’ compared with the works team.

But Stella always added that none of those things should be seen as criticism of Mercedes High Performance Powertrains. In fact, he stressed in every answer that the relationship is very good.

Instead, it is simply the downside of being a customer team in this new era, particularly under the current regulations, which are too complex and place a huge emphasis on what Stella tends to call power unit exploitation.

And it is precisely that exploitation of the power unit that has overshadowed everything else in the opening months of this year. It contributed to Mercedes’ flying start Down Under, although Mercedes team members immediately stressed – after certain analyses on this website – that the chassis side should not be forgotten. And, in fairness, there is some validity to that point.

McLaren finally gets its long-awaited simulation tools

McLaren has used Mercedes power units since 2021

Photo by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Images via Getty Images

Still, the knowledge gap is real. It was particularly decisive during the first three race weekends before the April break, but even afterwards teams such as McLaren have been caught out a few times. That happened at Silverstone, for example, where Mercedes used its now-familiar qualifying trick. Just before the finish line, George Russell and Kimi Antonelli lifted to avoid the normal ramp-down rate and use the 350kW of electrical power for longer.

Mercedes and Red Bull tried something similar with the power unit itself earlier this year, but the FIA put a stop to that. Under the regulations, it is still permitted through so-called ‘negative driver input’ – including lifting – as the FIA’s Nikolas Tombazis has confirmed. The fact that ‘negative driver input’ can ultimately make you faster says everything about the current regulations, by the way, but that is another story.

For now, the point is that customers like McLaren have consistently been one step behind in terms of power unit exploitation. That applies not only to such clever exploitation tricks, but also to the tools available. Stella revealed at Spa, for example, that ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix, round 10 of the season, his team had received several simulation tools it had been requesting for some time.

“And now as a customer team, we are finally getting the tools. We are, what, at race 10? We are finally getting the tools to actually simulate before the event. So there's a lot of work that goes into that preparation,” Stella said when asked by Autosport.

“I think I've been clear right from the start of the season that we were a bit on the back foot in terms of having this availability" Andrea Stella

Again, he immediately stressed that this was absolutely not about pointing the finger at Mercedes HPP.

“This has never been a point whereby we created any sort of controversy or polemic with HPP. We know that they've been pushing very hard,” he added. “They were certainly very, very busy, and one of the elements that somehow created some shortcomings is the fact that some of these tools were not available just because of a timeline.”

That said, McLaren does consider those tools important in order to make progress with power unit exploitation and, ideally, reach the same level as the works team.

“You need models of the power unit itself to be able to test different parameters and see how the power unit would respond, but also to optimise the deployment, optimise the driving, and optimise the gears, for instance, and so on,” he said. “I think I've been clear right from the start of the season that we were a bit on the back foot in terms of having this availability.”

Following Red Bull’s path is easier said than done

F1 2026 has seen Red Bull produce its own engines for the first time since its debut in 2005

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

That last point in particular has raised the question in the paddock of whether McLaren might eventually develop its own power unit. All the more so because McLaren CEO Zak Brown did not completely rule out that option earlier this year.

When the future came up, the American responded: “Now we've just got to wait and see what the [next] regulations are. And if we find them interesting, then we'll maybe take a look.”

Red Bull Ford Powertrains provides a successful example. Many in the paddock expected Red Bull to struggle in 2026 and it has so far, but for a different reason than expected. Of course, Mercedes and Ferrari have played the game cleverly, which has affected the ADUO results, and Red Bull certainly does not have the best power unit if you look at the electrical components as well. Nevertheless, the project has made an impressive start.

It shows that, in principle, it is possible to build such a project from scratch and be successful, and above all to no longer be dependent on an external power unit supplier. But McLaren insiders stress that its situation is not entirely comparable with Red Bull’s, and they are right for two reasons.

For one thing, the financial situation of a racing team such as McLaren is different from that of the parent company behind Red Bull Racing. Despite the restrictions in place, Red Bull GmbH has been able to invest heavily in the state-of-the-art facility in Milton Keynes and in recruiting personnel from Mercedes HPP. The two have gone hand in hand, as the first recruits from HPP played an important role in setting up Red Bull’s facility and were able to draw on their Mercedes experience in doing so.

Following Red Bull’s example is easier said than done, and McLaren is only too aware of that behind the scenes.

According to the contentious ADUO results, Red Bull has the best engine in F1

Photo by: Erik Junius

Moreover, there are two ways of looking at a new set of regulations. Yes, if the formula becomes simpler, with for example a V8 and a small electrical component, then in theory it becomes more manageable for a newcomer to build its own engine. But at the same time, many of the problems customer teams are talking about now would disappear. Power unit exploitation would become considerably simpler as well, reducing that ‘knowledge gap’.

There is a reason why Stella said that this is the first year McLaren has suffered from being a customer team, having not experienced the same disadvantages with previous engines that required less energy management. Fundamentally, it all comes down to the complexity of the current regulations, and if that complexity disappears, the same could apply to most of the disadvantages of being a customer team.

Brown is therefore right when he says McLaren would be wise to wait and see what the new regulations look like, but not only in the way that quote has been interpreted. It could equally mean that the need for an in-house engine project largely disappears.

Another manufacturer in the next rules cycle would be good for F1, but following Red Bull’s path is easier said than done. And perhaps, with a decent set of regulations, it would not even be necessary

Before then, there are still the intervening years to get through, until 2031 – or potentially 2030. And for those years, McLaren has embraced a different mindset internally: team members say the squad essentially needs to think as if it does build its own power unit. It needs to think like a manufacturer in order to avoid constantly being caught out and finding itself one step behind.

That, however, is once again much easier said than done, since the number of engineers specifically focused on the power unit is understandably only a fraction of the number Mercedes HPP has. But it is the mindset the Woking-based team is now trying to create internally: thinking like a works team and, on that basis, asking Mercedes HPP the right questions before something even becomes a problem.

In that respect, major steps have been made since the season opener and the initial frustration in Australia. No, McLaren is not there yet, but if it can gradually reduce the disadvantages Stella is talking about, then an in-house engine project might not even be necessary.

Of course, another manufacturer in the next rules cycle would be good for F1, but following Red Bull’s path is easier said than done. And perhaps, with a decent set of regulations, it would not even be necessary.