The Monaco Grand Prix marked a significant weekend for McLaren as it celebrated its 1000th grand prix, but the milestone race instead underlined the challenges facing the Woking-based outfit early in Formula 1’s new regulations era.
Reigning world champion Lando Norris retired for the second race in succession after a power unit issue forced him out in Monte Carlo, while Oscar Piastri could do no better than fourth as McLaren failed to challenge at the front.
The result followed a similarly disappointing weekend in Canada, where McLaren’s only 12 points came in the sprint race after Norris retired and Piastri finished outside the points in the grand prix.
The results in Canada and Monaco also ensured McLaren remains without a grand prix victory after the opening six rounds of the 2026 season, the first time that has happened since 2023.
Reflecting on the team’s recent form, Stella conceded the last two race weekends had highlighted shortcomings in both performance and reliability.
“There’s certainly an important reality check that comes from Canada and Monaco,” Stella said.
“And the reality check is first of all looking at the facts, we have not been fast enough, I would say especially in terms of race in both Canada and here.
“We have not been reliable enough and when we look at reliability, we have had issues pretty much in all areas of the car. It’s not like a specific area.
“Today was power unit. We have had other issues with the power unit. I would say this has probably been the most important area for reliability, but for Lando in Canada it was the gearbox.”
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The team’s haul of just 24 points from the last two races has seen it heavily outscored by all three of its main championship rivals Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull, continuing a frustrating spell for McLaren after signs of progress earlier in the season, including a double podium in Miami.
While Stella said the team understands the individual causes behind its reliability concerns, he suggested the frequency of the issues may be linked to the relative immaturity of the current project.
“There’s a performance assessment, and there is a reliability assessment that we are doing, looking at Canada and looking at Monaco,” he said.
“We understand these reliability issues in isolation, we can fix them, but obviously, when you have so many issues, it may be symptomatic of the fact that the project is still relatively young.”
Stella also acknowledged that the introduction of F1’s all-new 2026 regulations has highlighted some of the disadvantages McLaren faces as a Mercedes customer team.
“Never before we felt that being a customer team has put us on the back foot,” he added.
“And when I say this, and I want to be clear here, to avoid any misunderstanding: it’s not because you are a lower priority for [Mercedes] HPP,” Stella said.
“[It is] because you have less opportunities to integrate, to stay on the same timeline when it comes to addressing reliability problems or exploitation of the power unit from a performance point of view, combining the efforts when you use the facilities, and some experiments on the chassis side that you can add to a long run of the power unit when you are a works team.
“There are many reasons why reliability associated to the power unit [plays a role], or taking advantage of being a works team from a power unit point of view.
“I think these reliability issues have come into focus in 2026, when we had such a major technical regulation change.”
Despite those comments, Stella stressed McLaren’s relationship with Mercedes HPP remained strong and pointed out that not all of the team’s problems have originated from the power unit package.
“There’s some, like the gearbox problem on Lando’s car in Canada, which are purely on the McLaren side,” he explained.
“So I just want to be totally fair to our power unit supplier, with whom we’ve had a fantastic relationship, very successful.
“And still, the relationship is great.”
McLaren sits third in the constructors’ championship heading into this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, 47 points behind Ferrari in second and 126 adrift of championship leader Mercedes.
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