McLaren boss Stella names two rival teams he feels are ‘top of the list’ in early 2026 pecking order

McLaren team boss Andrea Stella has offered an early assessment of the pecking order in the build-up to the 2026 season, arguing that Ferrari and Mercedes appear to be the most competitive outfits as things stand.

After the private Barcelona Shakedown, F1 teams continued their preparations for the new campaign with the first of two pre-season tests in Bahrain last week, bringing plenty of mileage and some initial long-run data to analyse.

From this, Stella and McLaren have determined that Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes are all “very well-equipped” and “fast”, with a particular focus on the latter two teams.

“In terms of race pace, I can confirm that Ferrari looks pretty competitive,” began Stella, before listing standout simulation examples across different days of the three-day gathering.

“In the simulation that [Lewis] Hamilton did, and then there was at the same time one from [Kimi] Antonelli and one from Oscar [Piastri], I think Antonelli and Hamilton were quicker than us in the race simulation. Still, I would say that Charles [Leclerc’s] one was quite competitive and at the same level.

“I invite everyone to just be careful looking too much into what we see in testing. However, early indications from a competitiveness point of view, I think you can definitely put Ferrari and Mercedes at the top of the list, in terms of those that seem to be ready from a performance point of view in particular.”

As for how McLaren are getting on, Stella hailed a strong start to their Bahrain programme in terms of consistent, reliable running, though stopped short of reviewing the MCL40’s performance at this stage.

“I have to say that this test has been extremely positive in terms of the mileage that we have been able to achieve – reliability, functionality,” he said. “We have gone through all the list of tests that we had yet to complete, in order to sign off the new car, which is such a completely new project.

“There’s a positive in the work that we have been able to do so far. The first couple of days in Barcelona definitely were quite a bit of hard work to get the project going, but after that, day three in Barcelona, and this first part of the Bahrain test, are quite positive from a McLaren point of view.”

McLaren and the rest of the F1 grid will return to the Bahrain International Circuit for 2026’s second and final pre-season test on Wednesday.