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McLaren happy with Baku upgrade but sees no relative advantage

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Marshall said McLaren saw performance from its Baku upgrade but no relative advantage over rivals, whose updates and operational improvements he cited.

From the GPBeat newsroomPublished · · 1 min

Before FP1 at COTA, McLaren chief technical officer and chief designer Rob Marshall said the team was satisfied with its Baku upgrade and could see performance from it. He described it as a positive step, but said McLaren had seen no relative advantage over rivals. Marshall attributed that to competitors bringing their own upgrades or improving how they operated existing packages.

McLaren planned to test modest new components during practice, Marshall said.

Marshall described COTA’s bumps and kerbs as a challenge in the high-speed corners, with different demands elsewhere on the circuit. He said practice would help the team decide where a setup change offered the best trade-off.

Sources 01
  1. PRIMARY SOURCETHE BRIEFING: 2026 UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX – POWERED BY GOOGLE CLOUDBumps, braking performance, and upgrades: Answering this weekend’s key questionsMcLaren F1 · Team statement; interested source