Stella: Alpine and Williams are in greater need of new engines.

      Andrea Stella, explaining McLaren's far from outstanding results at this stage of the season, also referred to the fact that the team he leads has not yet received the latest version of the power unit from Mercedes.

      This version is already ready, and other Mercedes customer teams – Alpine and Williams – are already working with such engines. At the same time, the main focus in Brackley has been on improving reliability after George Russell and Kimi Antonelli retired from the Canadian Grand Prix and the Barcelona-Catalonia race, respectively. McLaren also faced difficulties that began in the very early stages of the season.

      Stella hinted that the updated power units could appear on Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri's cars at the Belgian stage of the championship. Williams and Alpine received them earlier, apparently because these teams are in a more challenging position than McLaren.

      "We discussed with HPP (Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains) the reason why we have not yet received power units of this specification," Stella told RacingNews365. "We understand their arguments, trust the HPP company, with which we have had a great partnership in previous years, and the Mercedes engine builders have certainly played a very important role in McLaren winning the Constructors' Cup twice.

      What is happening now does not change the foundations of our relationship, and negotiations with HPP are ongoing. We are rapidly working on upgrading our car, they are rushing to supply engines to four teams, and certain conditions have arisen that made it impossible to deliver these power units to McLaren.

      I hope we will receive them at the next stage of the season. At HPP, as in any other team, they are engaged in upgrading and refining their products, addressing reliability issues. We had problems related to the battery, while others had issues with the internal combustion engine (ICE). The engine builders are working at an extremely accelerated pace, which means it is difficult for them to implement all solutions and fix all shortcomings at once.

      The replacement of power units is based on mileage, and we have not yet received their latest specification, as the mileage of the Alpine and Williams cars is greater than ours, and they are in greater need of upgraded engines...

      In general, we accepted this argument. I think it is quite natural that customer teams are currently in a less favorable position."