McLaren will face a major challenge in 2026 due to reduced wind tunnel time after their championship success, warns Sam Bird.
“They will have less wind tunnel time than everybody else… it’s going to be quite challenging for them,” Bird explained.
McLaren dominated 2025, capturing both the Drivers’ Championship with Lando Norris and the constructors’ title. But their success comes with a price.
The British team will get just 70% of available wind tunnel hours next season. Their competitors will receive more time on a sliding scale – each team getting 5% additional hours based on where they finished in this year’s standings.
Bird believes this disadvantage could create real problems for McLaren, especially with new rules coming.
“I think a lot stems on how this team now moves forwards and focuses their 2026 work, because it’s all change and we don’t know who’s going to be the best yet,” he told the F1 Chequered Flag podcast.
“Going forwards with being constructors champions, they will have less wind tunnel time than everybody else, which, when there’s a new era of Formula 1 dawning, it’s going to be quite challenging for them.”
But McLaren might have a head start on 2026 development.
“I think they stopped work on the 2025 car pretty early on in the season. I think it wasn’t long after Silverstone where it was right, we’re going to stop this project. We’re going to be focusing on 26.”
## Montoya: “Anybody would have been world champion” in the McLaren
McLaren had the fastest car for much of the 2025 season, winning their second straight Constructors’ Championship easily.
The team then secured their first Drivers’ title since 2008, with Lando Norris crowned champion in Abu Dhabi.
Juan Pablo Montoya thinks the McLaren was so good that most drivers could have won the title in it. Read the full story and Montoya’s view here.
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