When the assembled media gathered in McLaren hospitality on Saturday for Andrea Stella’s session, the team boss shared a revealing quote. "When we try to analyse this, it gets immediately quite complicated," he said, noting that teams often do not Chez fully understand the power unit behaviour.

Stella explained that the engines use forward‑thinking algorithms that learn from each lap, constantly adapting the deployment strategy based on driver input. This means that even a slight deviation on an out‑lap can alter the power unit’s response for the remainder of the lap, a feature that can surprise drivers.

A clear example came from Isack Hadjar in Q3, who tried to tow Max Verstappen. The unexpected change in throttle order confused the algorithm, leaving Hadjar with an erratic power output. Piastri and Russell have similarly felt the effects of these variations during qualifying.

Drivers accept that most of the time the power unit is outside their control, but small input differences—such as applying more than 60 % throttle too early—can shift the energy management and trigger the algorithm’s adaptive response.