Toto Wolff commented on the statements made by Andrea Stella and Zak Brown, who claimed that McLaren was at a disadvantage as a customer of the German manufacturer this Formula 1 season.
Read more F1: Bottas worries about possible Aston Martin turnaround in championship
The British team has not been able to challenge the front-runners in the first half of the 2026 calendar, with the team principal insisting they are a step behind in the dispute. They are also facing numerous problems with Mercedes engines, suffering several retirements in the first races of the championship.
In the Woking-based team’s view, the disadvantage is largely due to the fact that they cannot react to reliability problems in the same way as the factory team, nor experiment with the chassis in the same way. So, when asked if the relationship with McLaren had become difficult, Wolff replied that “no, in fact they were very correct and kind in the way Andrea and Zak assessed the situation.”
Read more Hungarian GP 2026: F1 days and times at Hungaroring
“In a period of new regulations, obviously a team that integrates power unit and chassis will always have a certain advantage, simply because chassis development carried out in the simulator has a lag,” he continued.
“That’s why there are aspects related to the chassis that need to be learned during the implementation of the power unit; that’s what they said from the beginning, all the time. It’s a race to catch up, and I believe we are reaching the point where it is realized that the development curve and the level of understanding will stabilize, and then everyone will have practically the same degree of understanding on these issues,” he continued.
Read more F1: Albon will have a new race engineer at Williams in 2027
