McLaren continues F1 development push with upgrades confirmed for Dutch GP

McLaren has confirmed it will bring more upgrades to this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix as part of its continued Formula 1 development push. 

After claiming its first victory of the season in the final round before the summer break at the Hungarian Grand Prix, McLaren will introduce further updates in a bid to improve its MCL40 challenger. 

Reigning world champion Lando Norris’s dominant first win of the 2026 was boosted by a significant upgrade package that McLaren unleashed in Hungary. 

The Woking-based squad finally trialled its own version of the ‘Macarena’ rear wing at the Hungaroring. McLaren appears set to race its upside-down solution for the first time at Zandvoort. 

McLaren’s upgrades for the final Dutch Grand Prix are set to focus on the rear-end of the car. 

“This weekend will see the team introduce further aspects as part of its ongoing development pathway. These parts will be focused on the rear side, to complete the package introduced in Hungary, a new rear wing and new rear brake ducts,” McLaren’s official weekend preview said. 

"The aim will be to validate the new parts quickly, understand their contribution across the weekend and maximise every opportunity available.”

McLaren technical director for applied engineering, Neil Houldey, said: “We head into the Zandvoort weekend after finishing the final race before the shutdown with a win and a strong performance, but we are very aware of how close the competition is and how important reliability will be. 

“We have learned a lot in the first part of the season about how this car needs to be driven to extract performance and on containing the issues we faced earlier in the year. 

“We have also worked hard as a team on continued development with some parts available this weekend focusing on the rear side, to complete the package introduced in Hungary with a new rear wing and new rear brake ducts. But we know other teams will bring developments too. 

"Therefore, it will be another tough event, and our focus is on getting everything we can out of the car. If we execute well, we can put ourselves in the fight with the leading teams.”

McLaren has won the last two F1 races at Zandvoort, with Oscar Piastri victorious in 2025, and Norris beating home hero Max Verstappen to the win in 2024. 

Houldey added: "We look forward to getting back racing after the break. We are moving into an extremely demanding second half of the season and with 12 races still to come, the team’s attention remains firmly on our own development and performance as we build on the work completed in the first half of the season to target greater consistency in extracting performance from the MCL40.”