Ted Kravitz says McLaren’s problems are the ‘top story’ in F1 after the Bahrain test.
“That is the top story for me. Last year’s runaway champions, with the same engine as Mercedes, are fourth in the pecking order; that is what we are being told.” Ted Kravitz.
14 Feb 2026
Luke Newman
F1 Oversteer

McLaren have been ranked as the fourth-best team in Formula 1 after the first three-day test at the Bahrain International Circuit. Sky Sports’ Craig Slater and Ted Kravitz discussed the Formula 1 pecking order. Kravitz said, “At the moment, it is Ferrari one, and Mercedes two, but sandbags? There are also question marks about Red Bull being third or fourth, and which Red Bull? “We have seen from this test that it is the case again that when you talk about Red Bull and the pecking order, there is Red Bull Max and Red Bull Isack.”

“Some people are putting Red Bull Max as equal to Mercedes in second, if not very close behind. But Mercedes are saying their energy recovery system is the best out of anybody’s and is delivering good power without having any kind of drawback of where it generates, it generates very efficiently and deploys brilliantly. They are also saying, we have not seen a definitive race run for Max Verstappen, in the same conditions that we saw from: Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc, Kimi Antonelli, and George Russell.”

Slater added, “It is difficult to say whether Red Bull is a little bit higher than they potentially are, or if they are ahead of McLaren at this stage.” Kravitz went on to say, “But McLaren, by Andrea Stella’s own admission tonight, are fourth. With the caveat that he is not quite sure about Verstappen, but he is sure that Ferrari and Mercedes are ahead of McLaren. That is the top story for me. Last year’s runaway champions, with the same engine as Mercedes, are fourth in the pecking order; that is what we are being told.”

“McLaren, by Andrea Stella’s own admission tonight, are fourth”;


https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/ted...-bahrain-test/


Lando Norris: We're not quick enough | 'McLaren not close to Ferrari right now'
12 Feb 2026
Sky Sports

Lando Norris says his McLaren was not close to Ferrari's pace during the second day of testing in Bahrain.

“We're not quick enough”;

https://www.skysports.com/f1/video/3...rari-right-now


Lando Norris admits Red Bull ‘a good step ahead of us’
13 Feb 2026
James Phillips
Motorsport Week
Norris cut a relaxed figure at the end of day two, confirming McLaren is still in a data gathering phase, and he is happy with progress. “I think so,” he confirmed to a question from Motorsport Week on car progression vs simulator data. “I feel like we made some steps from yesterday to today. The biggest thing is hopefully until next week we can make a bit more progress and make something of all the data we’ve been getting over the last few days.”

“There might be some little things I can do better, but that’s certainly not going to make the difference to what they’re doing. They have a very good power unit by the looks of things. They deploy and have a lot of efficiency.We need to understand how they have that. There’s always things I can maybe do a little bit. There’s some things as a McLaren side we can do a little bit, but also from a McLaren HPP side, and Mercedes, I think that they know there’s certainly areas we need to improve.”

“The Red Bulls seem to have done a very good job and the Ford powertrain seems to be very strong, so fair play to them. But at the minute, they’re a good step ahead of us. It’s tricky. Also, Australia is a very different track at the same time. But when someone just has a deployment advantage, that’s just a beautiful bit of lap time to have in your pocket. Without trying, you can just go quicker. We’ll see.”

“They’re a good step ahead of us”;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2026/...p-ahead-of-us/


Norris offers worrying McLaren assessment in major Red Bull, Ferrari claim
13 Feb 2026
Samson Ero
GPblog.com

Lando Norris believes McLaren is currently behind both Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Ferrari in terms of pace with the start of the season on the horizon. Speaking to GPblog after his run on the second day of testing at the Bahrain International Circuit, the British driver acknowledged Red Bull’s clear advantage thanks to a highly efficient power unit.

“There might be some little things I can do better, but that's certainly not going to make the difference to what they're doing. They have a very good power unit by the looks of things; they deploy well and have a lot of efficiency. We need to understand how they have that,” Norris explained. Norris continued by highlighting that, despite a few areas McLaren can improve on regarding their powertrain, the Red Bull team appears to have executed their development exceptionally well.

“There are always things I can maybe do a little better, and there are some things we as a McLaren team can improve, but also from a McLaren HPP side, there's Mercedes. I think they know there are certainly areas we need to improve. But the Red Bulls seem to have done a very good job, and the Ford powertrain seems to be very strong, fair play to them. At the minute, they're a good step ahead of us,” he added.

“They deploy well and have a lot of efficiency. We need to understand how they have that”;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/norri...-ferrari-claim


McLaren’s hidden worry revealed as Lando Norris questions pace
Champion admits rivals may hold hidden advantage despite strong testing mileage
13 February 2026
John Smith
Total Motorsport

For all the encouraging signs coming out of the McLaren garage, the early 2026 testing picture is far more complicated than the timesheets suggest. Norris completed nearly a race weekend’s worth of distance in a single day, giving engineers valuable insight into tyre behaviour, software calibration, and energy usage patterns across different scenarios.

“There’s still plenty of things we need to get our head around, but I would say today was a good day for me in terms of understanding a lot of things and feeling more confident in the car,” Norris explained. “It’s fun looking into the details from today, looking at the information that we gathered, and them trying to turn it into a better power unit altogether.”

Norris also acknowledged that Ferrari appears competitive, suggesting McLaren may be facing pressure from multiple directions rather than a single dominant rival. “Also from a car point of view, they seem to be performing well, and we don’t seem to be quite at the level of the Ferrari either at the minute. I know we are going to improve, but I’m sure they are as well. We’ve got a pretty big step to make to be confident of beating them, that’s for sure.”

‘McLaren’s hidden worry’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/mcl...cerns-bahrain/


McLaren put ‘pressure’ on Oscar Piastri to change his management before 2026 F1 season
14 Feb 2026
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

F1-Insider put forward a different view of the situation. They say Piastri’s new direction ‘was not entirely voluntary’. One source told the publication that McLaren exerted ‘pressure’ after ‘tensions’ with the driver’s camp last year. The relationship was more ‘turbulent’ than it appeared from the outside.

There was a feeling that Webber was letting his own experiences, above all his title battle with Sebastian Vettel at Red Bull, unduly shape his advice to Piastri. Piastri says McLaren treated him fairly last season when he fought teammate Lando Norris for the world championship, shutting down any external accusations of bias. F1Oversteer has contacted McLaren for comment.

‘Piastri’s new direction was not entirely voluntary’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/mcl...026-f1-season/


Aussie F1 star Oscar Piastri loses legendary driver Mark Webber as part of his trackside support team
Announcement comes less than a month out from 2026 F1 season
13 February 2026
MICHAEL PONTICELLO FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA
MailOnline

Aussie F1 star Oscar Piastri will begin the 2026 season without former Red Bull driver Mark Webber by his side on track. Webber, a five-time race winner, has stepped back from his trackside support role.

The 24-year-old finished third in the 2025 World Drivers’ Championship after leading the way for most of the season. Piastri has since tweaked his team behind the scenes. The McLaren driver is set to add Pedro Maria, his race engineer from his title-winning 2021 F2 season, to his network. Webber will also give up his on-track position within Piastri’s team.

‘Oscar Piastri will begin the 2026 season without former Red Bull driver Mark Webber’;

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...port-team.html