Rules still difficult In 2026 McLaren will be called upon to defend both the Constructors’ and Drivers’ titles for the first time since 1999, won last year by Lando Norris. All this will happen during a special season in the history of Formula 1, which will see the introduction of new technical regulations, many of which will be complex for fans to understand just a few weeks after the first tests take place. McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella realizes how difficult they actually are, all while awaiting the presentation of the MCL40 livery scheduled for February 9th. In this regard, the Umbrian engineer has in fact urged Formula 1 to be much clearer with the fans, illustrating more openly and in detail what will be the changes that will make next year’s races different from those of 2025. Stella’s invitation Explanations present in our guide, with Stella inviting F1 to be more specific on what may happen in certain cases, such as that of the new ‘push-to-pass’ overtaking methods, which no longer includes the use of DRS: “I think that, from the general point of view of F1, it is important that these scenarios in which overtaking takes place, and it may seem a bit strange that one car can overtake another so easily, are understood – he commented – I think it is important that spectators understand why this happens so easily, or that they are in a position to understand that a car has an almost completely charged battery while the one in front has an almost empty battery. So I think that the exploitation of the power unit as a variable in the race and overtaking will be particularly important to be able to communicate effectively with our spectators.” “At the same time, there are some new aspects related to Straight Line Mode, where we will therefore see cars with the front wing and rear wing open – he continued – this may not be the case in low grip situations. Other issues are, what do you mean by limiting energy consumption? You consume a lot more energy if you don’t open the wings. What does this mean, for example, for the grounding phenomenon? If the wings are not open, the car will run much lower and suddenly you could see grounding and hear the drivers on the radio which is about a lot of grounding and bottoming. So I think the more we make this clear to the fans and spectators, the more they will feel involved, and the more we can continue to offer as strong a spectacle as we have managed to offer in Formula 1. It’s one of the reasons why Formula 1 has grown so much in popularity recently.”
