Nine races into the 2026 season, Mercedes and Ferrari are no longer waiting for McLaren or Red Bull to join the fight. They are building a gap while the two teams expected to challenge them keep losing time to problems that cannot be solved with a quick setup change.
Mercedes leads the constructors’ standings with 333 points. Ferrari has 255. McLaren sits on 179, while Red Bull has fallen to 128. The numbers leave McLaren 154 points from the lead and Red Bull 205 behind.
McLaren entered the year as the defending constructors’ champion. Red Bull still has Max Verstappen, the driver who has spent years turning difficult weekends into major results. Neither advantage has been enough. McLaren is fighting drag, tyre preparation and a delayed aerodynamic direction. Red Bull has improved the RB22, but its balance remains inconsistent, and its rear wing has failed at high speed twice in two weekends.
The Standings Are Only Half the Problem
McLaren showed in Miami that the MCL40 can still threaten the front. Lando Norris won the Sprint, then finished second in the Grand Prix as Oscar Piastri took third. That form did not survive the next phase of the season. Norris qualified sixth at Silverstone and Piastri started eighth. The pair finished fourth and 11th on Sunday.
Red Bull has produced an equally sharp swing. Verstappen finished second in Austria after a major update helped the car move closer to Mercedes. A week later at Silverstone, he qualified seventh and spent much of the weekend complaining about the balance. He still dragged the car into third during the race before a rear wing failure sent him into the gravel with four laps remaining.
Those weekends explain why the championship gap feels worse than the table suggests. Mercedes and Ferrari are refining cars that work across a wider range of circuits. McLaren and Red Bull are still trying to predict which version of their cars will arrive when the garage doors open.
McLaren Has Speed, but No Clear Shortcut
The clearest weakness is on the straights. Norris was 11 km/h slower than Kimi Antonelli on the flat run toward Copse during Silverstone qualifying. In Austria, he was 9 km/h slower than George Russell approaching Turn 4. Drag explains part of that loss, but McLaren also trails Mercedes through the corners.
Cold conditions make the problem worse. The MCL40 has struggled to generate temperature in the harder tyre compounds, while changing wind has made the car difficult to trust. Canada, Monaco and Silverstone exposed those limits. Miami suited the package. Silverstone punished it.
Andrea Stella has admitted that McLaren changed its aerodynamic direction after earlier design choices failed to deliver. That reset has pushed the development programme roughly two or three months behind the leading teams. McLaren expects the first signs of the new work in Hungary, with the more important pieces likely to arrive after the summer break.
Spa will bring a newer Mercedes power unit specification, but it is a reliability update rather than a performance boost. McLaren delayed fitting it because of its component cycle, not because Mercedes withheld equal machinery. A new rear wing will also be tested, although the team has already warned that one part will not transform the car.
Red Bull Cannot Keep Asking Verstappen to Rescue It.
Red Bull has changed the RB22 aggressively. Updates in Miami and Austria improved its pace, and the power unit remains one of the strongest parts of the package. The car still lacks a stable aerodynamic balance, especially when the conditions or circuit characteristics move outside its narrow comfort zone.
The bigger concern is trust. Verstappen crashed in Austria after the rear wing failed to return properly from Straight Mode. A different failure in the same area struck at Silverstone. Both incidents happened in fast corners, where a sudden loss of downforce gives the driver almost no time to react.
“When the rear wing does not close fully, you lose a lot of downforce and you spin off the track,” Verstappen described the effect in blunt terms.
Laurent Mekies, who replaced Christian Horner as Red Bull team principal in July 2025, has accepted that Verstappen has every reason to be angry. The team has promised a full review, but a mechanical fix only addresses the immediate danger. Red Bull must also find the balance that allows both drivers to attack without guessing how the car will respond.
Spa Could Shut the Door
Spa is a severe test for both teams. Its long straights will expose McLaren’s drag and gear ratio compromises. The fast corners will test whether Red Bull can trust its rear wing when Straight Mode closes and full downforce returns.
A wet weekend could blur the picture, but it would not remove the pressure. McLaren needs proof that its new wing begins to reduce the speed deficit. Red Bull needs a clean event after two frightening failures and must show that the Austrian improvement was not limited to one circuit.
No championship is officially decided after nine races. Inside the paddock, which offers little comfort. McLaren must recover months of lost development while Mercedes and Ferrari continue moving forward. Red Bull must make the RB22 safe, predictable and fast at the same time.
Pedigree will not rescue either campaign. Norris and Verstappen are already extracting more than their cars regularly deserve. Unless the next upgrades change how those machines behave across several tracks, the 2026 title fight will continue without them.
READ MORE: Russell Salvages Silverstone Podium, But Wolff Warns Mercedes Must Fix Glaring Flaws
FAQs
Are McLaren and Red Bull out of the 2026 F1 title race?
Not officially, but their large points deficits and continuing technical problems have left both teams with little room for another poor weekend.
How far are McLaren and Red Bull behind Mercedes?
McLaren trails Mercedes by 154 points. Red Bull sits 205 points behind the championship leader.
What is wrong with McLaren’s 2026 F1 car?
The MCL40 suffers from high drag, inconsistent tyre preparation and wind sensitivity. McLaren also changed its aerodynamic direction after the season began.
What caused Max Verstappen’s rear wing problems?
The rear wing failed to reattach properly after Straight Mode. Red Bull experienced related failures in Austria and at Silverstone, although the precise causes differed.
Why is the Belgian Grand Prix important for both teams?
Spa will expose McLaren’s straight-line weakness and test Red Bull’s rear wing reliability through fast corners and demanding low-drag sections.
