What rival F1 team designs have grabbed McLaren’s attention

McLaren has revealed what solutions from rival Formula 1 teams caught its eye at the start of the new regulation cycle in 2026.

F1 has overseen its biggest-ever rule change in 2026, with chassis and power units being overhauled. As such, some eye-catching designs emerged from teams during pre-season testing and the early rounds of the season.

Several concepts up and down the grid have caught McLaren’s attention, including innovations from Ferrari, Audi and Aston Martin.

“There’s quite a few different solutions to look at on other people’s cars,” McLaren chief designer Rob Marshall told media including Crash.net.

“Audi’s sidepods are quite interesting. Clearly they've gone for a different solution, which no one's got anything quite similar to that. Maybe slightly reminiscent of a Williams from a few years ago, but I think everyone thought they were going to do something probably run-of-the-mill, but clearly they haven’t.

“Aston Martin, they've got quite interesting suspension geometry. The rear looks quite ambitious, very interesting. We can certainly see some reason for interest behind that. The front suspension is again very interesting, maybe inspired by something we did last year, quite similar in many ways.

“Then at the front of the grid, you've got things like Ferrari's rear wing, which everyone saw that and thought, ‘oh, okay, yeah, that's alright. Is that, we're sure that's legal? Yeah, it is. Okay, well, well done them’.

“And they've done some more interesting stuff with their exhaust exit as well, which everyone looked at and thought, ‘oh, that's quite interesting’. Yeah, that was good as well.

“Very different front wing sort of geometries from different teams. Everyone thought the front wings are going to look the same, but anything but that. I think every car's got something on it where you kind of look at it and go, ‘oh yeah, well, it's completely different to anything we were thinking of’.

“Bottom line is nothing like as prescriptive as we thought it was going to be.”

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Marshall explained why teams often end up copying rival team’s designs.

“We look at everything; some things are closed off to use quite quickly when you look at the regulations, but others remain open,” he said.

“Others are kind of limited by architectural changes you may have made, or what you do with the engine, but ultimately, we analyse everything. Some things go as far as being wind-tunnel, or CFD tested, and others are kind of thought experiments we do to see whether it would be good or bad for us.

“But the bottom line is that we look at pretty much everything the opposition does up and down the grid and try to assess whether those things would work on our car.

“There is a common phrase in F1 that copying stuff doesn’t work, what works on one car won’t work on another, but that’s not necessarily true.”

Marshall cited Brawn GP’s double diffuser innovation from 2009 as an example.

“The double diffuser worked on one car, and everyone copied it, so copying is just a part of F1,” he added.

“There is one thing in copying others, actually trying to understand what is going on, what the other team is trying to achieve, and that’s where the real trick of it is, because you can copy someone but don’t have their understanding.

“If you research it properly, hopefully, you will develop the same sort of background IP, so it is a nod to the other teams.

“It’s just a part of F1, some things you think of yourself, and you’re proud of those, then the stuff you copy, and other things you just develop or invent in the bath, and no-one wants to copy that.”