Lando Norris’s victories in Hungary and the Netherlands in the 2026 Formula 1 season do not mean that McLaren has eliminated its difficulty in low-speed corners. For Andrea Stella, the team principal, the difference between the two circuits helps explain why the MCL40’s limitation appeared less at the Hungaroring than at Zandvoort.
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Norris secured pole position and won dominantly at both tracks, but considers the McLaren car inferior to the Mercedes W17, driven by Kimi Antonelli and George Russell, the championship leader, in slow corners. The driver sees an advantage of the MCL40 in high and medium speed sections, while low speed remains a problem inherited from previous generations.
“I think I have clear ideas about part of this; part of it I am not sure about, so let’s start with the part where I have some clear ideas,” Stella began telling the press when asked why the weakness in low speed had not shown up in Hungary. “I think when Lando refers to the fact that in the race he cannot push at high speed, that is true, but only to a certain extent. I think the main problem in the race is that you can push at high speed and gain a little time, but you will not gain as much as you lose in all the low-speed corners.
“There are many more low-speed corners than high-speed ones at Zandvoort. Also, when you are in a race stint compared to qualifying, the duration of a low-speed corner is much longer. You brake much earlier. You go to an even lower speed, and the traction is much longer, so the grip-limited sections, especially at low speed, become much larger.”
“So, if you have a deficit in this condition, you can kind of compensate in qualifying because, with little fuel and new tires, the low-speed corner is still quite short, but in the race it becomes much, much longer. So I think when you have a deficit at low speed, that will always be a problem on tracks like this, where there is a predominance of low-speed sections.”
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The difference, according to the manager, lies in the very nature of the Hungaroring. Although it is classified as a low-speed circuit, Stella states that the track is, in practice, closer to a medium-speed layout: “Regarding why this was less important in Hungary, I am not so clear in my head why, but I think Hungary, which is often classified as a low-speed track, is actually much more of a medium-speed track.”
“Like, even turn two is above 120 km/h, just to give an idea; turn one, the chicane, and probably the penultimate corner are around 100 km/h, but everything else is well above 100. So I think the speed range is a bit different, and there are also some other things, in terms of setup, that you can do in Hungary and that you cannot do as much in Zandvoort, and that I think were a good benefit for our car.
“Now, I don’t want to reveal too much, but I think there is a difference in the speed range, and there are some technical differences in how you exploit your car that you can do in Hungary, but you cannot do here,” concluded the manager.
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