Photo: Race Pictures

McLaren’s Stella insists F1 2026 remains the ‘ultimate challenge’ amid driver backlash

13:01, 22 Feb

byHenry Eccles

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella believes F1 remains the 'ultimate challenge' for drivers, despite heavy criticism of the 2026 regulations in recent weeks.

Among those to have spoken negatively on F1's new generation of cars is Stella's own McLaren driver, Oscar Piastri, who last week claimed the sport may need "some reform" as drivers have to prioritise energy management over flat out racing.

McLaren teammate Lando Norris also argued F1 2026 is currently not the "purest form of racing," agreeing with Max Verstappen's earlier verdict that the new rules are "anti-racing" and "Formula E on steroids."

F1 in 2026 still the driver's 'ultimate challenge,' says Stella

Photo: Race Pictures

Stella, however, when asked whether drivers were still being pushed to their limits in 2026, was confident F1 is still the driver's "ultimate challenge," pointing to a "more involved" role in extracting maximum performance.

Speaking to media, including GPblog, he said: "I think what we have seen here in Bahrain definitely confirms that it's the ultimate challenge. Probably this is because Bahrain is an harvest-rich circuit, so you drive in a very normal way.

"And if anything, I have to say, with these regulations, the cars slide quite a lot more and the role of the driver, if anything, is even more involved in extracting the most out of the car.

"Barcelona was a slightly different situation because in Barcelona, being a relatively harvest poor circuit, there were some special manoeuvres that needed to be made, like not being flat out in high speed, in order to balance the level of harvesting and produce the fastest lap time."

However, Stella conceded that there will be more tracks similar to Barcelona, which teams and the FIA will have to "monitor," but the McLaren boss was pleased to report that his immediate safety concerns with F1 2026 have been addressed.

"I think these two circuits don’t necessarily give the full picture. Definitely, there could still be cases in which the driver needs to approach driving in what is not the common way of driving a car...but like I say, we will have to monitor the situation a bit.

"For us what was important is that the safety concerns were addressed immediately. I think when it comes to improving the balance between the regulations in a way, in the current format, and some other driving challenges, there is time to fix this."

Stella singles out the 'teams to beat' in candid pecking order verdict

Elsewhere, the McLaren boss has offered his latest thoughts on the F1 2026 pecking order, claiming Mercedes and Ferrari are currently leading the top four ahead of the Papaya team and Red Bull going into 2026.

Read here to find out more.