McLaren’s 2026 season is turning into a high-speed headache, and the source of the pain might be sitting in their own garage. While the team publicly smiles about their Mercedes power units, whispers suggest a growing rift behind the scenes.
According to veteran F1 journalist Andrew Benson, speaking on the *Chequered Flag Extra* podcast, the Woking squad is privately fuming. The issue? A lack of crucial information from Mercedes about how to fully operate their complex new hybrid engines.
Benson revealed that McLaren’s struggles aren’t just about raw pace. The team reportedly feels left in the dark, struggling to master the intricate 50/50 split between internal combustion and electrical power. It’s a technical puzzle that even the factory Mercedes team has a head start on solving.
The most dramatic evidence came at the Chinese Grand Prix, where both McLaren cars embarrassingly failed to even start. Benson suggests the team’s polite public statements about “getting to grips” with the machinery mask a deeper frustration.
“They’ve been very polite in public,” Benson noted, “but privately there’s definitely some frustrations about the lack of information from Mercedes regarding the operation of the power unit.”
He added that McLaren’s current woes are partly self-inflicted, having sacrificed 2026 development to secure the 2025 constructors’ championship. But the engine issue remains the “main external reason” for their struggles.
With the season already halfway through, the question now is whether McLaren can bridge the knowledge gap—or if the silence from Mercedes will cost them dearly.
