McLaren Wants to Know How Ferrari Develops This Fast
McLaren technical director Neil Houldey admits the team needs to understand how Ferrari has brought so much aerodynamic development within the same cost cap.
McLaren has spent this season watching Ferrari bring upgrade after upgrade to the track, and it does not entirely understand how the Scuderia is managing it.
Technical director Neil Houldey has admitted as much publicly, an unusual thing for a senior engineer at a rival team to concede, and a sign of how conspicuous Ferrari’s development rate has been under a cost cap that applies equally to everyone.
The Admission
Houldey did not dress it up.
“Purely in terms of volume, it does actually look as though Ferrari has brought a great deal that is new to the track in terms of aerodynamics, and that is something we have to look at and understand, namely how they achieved that,” he said.
The question is a real one. All teams operate under the same $215 million cost cap for 2026 and the same aerodynamic testing restrictions, which are sliding-scale and weighted against the teams placed highest in the previous Constructors’ Championship. Producing more parts within a fixed budget means finding efficiency somewhere: in design iteration, in manufacturing, in how quickly a concept moves from tunnel to track.
Ferrari has committed publicly to maintaining that pace through the second half of the season.
McLaren’s Different Philosophy
Fred Vasseur has offered his own reading of the contrast, and it is not a criticism of either approach.
“McLaren did a huge step forward, but they don’t have exactly the same philosophy, because they are bringing a big package,” the Ferrari team principal said. “Each time they bring something, they are making a huge step.”
That is the trade-off in a sentence. Ferrari iterates continuously in small increments; McLaren banks development and delivers it in larger blocks. Neither is obviously superior. Continuous iteration gives faster feedback and reduces the risk of a package that does not correlate; large packages concentrate resource and can produce bigger single jumps.
McLaren’s Hungary weekend supported Vasseur’s description. Lando Norris won at the Hungaroring after the team introduced the first part of a package due to be completed across Zandvoort and Singapore.
Where This Leaves Both Teams
The standings complicate any simple conclusion about who is developing better.
Ferrari is second in the Constructors’ Championship on 307 points, McLaren third on 220. But McLaren has closed ground in recent rounds, and the Hungary win was its first of the season, a striking statistic for a team that took the title fight to the final round a year ago.
Lewis Hamilton sits second in the Drivers’ Championship on 169 points and Charles Leclerc fourth on 138, against Norris on 128 and Oscar Piastri on 92.
So Ferrari has the better season and McLaren has the better recent form. Both teams are chasing Mercedes, which leads on 379.
Houldey’s Wider Point
The most revealing part of Houldey’s comments was not about Ferrari at all.
“If you don’t make progress and constantly find ways and means of doing things faster and more effectively, then you are basically moving backwards,” he said.
That is a statement about the nature of competition under a cost cap. When budgets were unlimited, development rate was substantially a function of spending. With spending fixed, it becomes a function of process: how a team organises itself, how quickly it learns, how little it wastes.
Which is precisely why a rival’s development volume is worth studying. It is no longer evidence that they are spending more. It is evidence that they are doing something better.
The Second Half Will Settle It
McLaren has confirmed it will keep developing the 2026 car rather than switching attention entirely to 2027, a decision that only makes sense if the team believes there is still something to win this year.
Ferrari, meanwhile, is holding its second engine upgrade back for Monza and has a final evolution package expected in Austin.
Twelve rounds remain, with 316 points available in the Drivers’ Championship and 548 in the Constructors’. Whichever development philosophy is right, there is still enough season left for it to matter.
Source: Speedweek
