25 May 2026 16:30 (UTC)
Pastries, pours and a Sprint podium: Behind the scenes in Montreal
Allow us to take you behind the scenes of the Canadian Grand Prix and deep into the paddock, with our regular post-race wrap-up. Covering all the action you might have missed, we'll explore everything from the outfits that caught our attention to the strongest snaps and the standout quotes.
Having enjoyed our two strongest rounds of the season in Japan and Miami, the Canadian Grand Prix was a much tougher weekend overall, with Lando forced to retire from Sunday’s race, and Oscar narrowly missing out on the points, but there were still some positive moments through the weekend, with several of our racing teams in action.
From the perfect pour to pastry-inspired fits, here’s what caught our eye in Montreal.
Given Lando’s monster opening pour, we’re surprised anyone even got a second turn - he seemed equally shocked! But the game’s the game, right? While it wasn’t quite enough to win the opening round, Lando’s huge first effort ultimately secured victory in round two following some more conservative attempts from Oscar, Ella, and Ella. Fine margins indeed.
This might just be our favourite Oscar Piastri look yet. Sticking with his classic T-shirt-and-jeans style, Oscar leaned into his ‘Oscar Pastry’ nickname in Montreal - a city renowned for its French-inspired pastry culture. The Aussie arrived on Thursday wearing an adorable ‘Pastry Piastee’, with an embroidered croissant on the front.
Lando fell marginally short of making it back-to-back Sprint wins as he finished second to George Russell. Capitalising on the battle between the two Mercedes drivers, he jumped ahead of Kimi Antonelli when the Italian ran wide following an attempted overtake on Russell. Although Lando was unable to also get past his compatriot, he managed to keep Antonelli behind and hold on for his second Sprint podium of the year.
On the other side of the garage, Oscar delivered another strong Sprint performance, converting his P4 grid spot into a fourth-place finish. After being passed by Lewis Hamilton at the start, Oscar remained patient and reclaimed the position on the very last lap, finishing just outside of the podium places. In his post-race debrief, he joked that he was making our social media team’s life easier by recovering P4 on the final lap, ensuring they didn’t need to change the graphic from Sprint Qualifying.
The Papaya Family weren’t short of things to do on Sunday, with three races to take in. Our Formula 1, IndyCar, and F1 Academy drivers were all in action, while Dries Van Langendonck and Christian Costoya were also racing in British F4 and Italian F4, respectively, for those wanting to soak up even more McLaren action.
Ahead of Sunday’s action, our F1, IndyCar, and F1 Academy drivers recorded a special extended Papaya Family race-day shout out for you.
There’s no hiding from the fact that Sunday was a difficult day, but it certainly wasn’t for a lack of effort or endeavour. We feel this image, with the car being worked on in the background, perfectly captures the relentless hard work that goes on behind the scenes across the whole team. Rest assured, we’ll learn from this weekend and come back stronger.
“Overall, the car is performing better in the corners, which has given both Lando and Oscar the confidence to really push. I must commend the entire team for their relentless efforts with the upgrades and the trackside group for optimising the package we have.”
Our photo of the weekend leads us nicely onto our final point, summed up perfectly by Andrea. Alongside the pride we feel in our team for their hard work through a challenging weekend, there were genuine positives to take away — including strong Sprint performances and the introduction of another upgrade package that we believe will pay dividends in the races ahead.
We'll now head back to the factory in Woking, regroup, and prepare to go again. With a weekend off separating the Canadian and Monaco Grands Prix, we'll use the time wisely, allowing ourselves space to recover, before diving into the data to give ourselves the best chance of being back to our best in Monte Carlo.
