McLaren explain why they won’t run on day one of Barcelona Shakedown as they outline prediction for car development

McLaren have revealed that they are planning to run from either the second or third day of the upcoming Barcelona Shakedown – rather than starting on day one – while the squad have also predicted that their new car will not change drastically between that first run and the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

During the shakedown – which will take place from January 26-30 – teams are permitted to test for three days over the five that are available to them. Ahead of the MCL40 hitting the track for the event, Team Principal Andrea Stella shared an insight into the work that has gone into building the car ahead of a season in which new technical regulations will be introduced.

“We are champions, but we don't carry the [idea of] being champions into 2026,” Stella explained. “Everyone will start from the starting blocks. Everyone will start from zero. Our internal narrative is anything we will achieve, we will have to deserve it, and we will have to earn it on the ground. So that's our mind, that's our philosophy.

“This is why we've been ambitious with the 2026 car. At the same time, because it's such a level of redesign, you also have to be cautious to make sure that you actually have a car – that you realise it in time, that you build it in time. And so far, I have to say that our programme is going to plan, something of which, obviously, we are happy with.

“It's been built, the car is now in AVL in Austria to run at the dyno. I think this is common practice now in Formula 1, such that you can sign off some fundamental systems of the car much more than what you can do when you run some of these subsystems, like the gearbox in a gearbox rig and dyno that we may have here at MTC.

“It's a facility, AVL, that we have been using for some time, and that's where the car is at the moment and then the car will be in Barcelona for the shakedown on track.

“We plan to start testing either in day two or day three [of the Barcelona Shakedown], so we will not be testing in day one. We wanted to give ourselves as much time as possible for development.

"You all may know that you are allowed to test three days over the five that are available in Barcelona, and then we will start from either day two or day three and we will test for three days.”

When asked if this approach could pose a risk, Stella responded: “Actually, this was always going to be plan A. There's also so much of a change that we don't need to be necessarily the first on track.

“We wanted to give as much time as possible for development, because every day of development, every day of design was adding a little bit of performance. This also means that if you are early on track, you will have the reassurance of knowing what you need to know as soon as possible.

“At the same time, it means that you might have committed to the design and the realisation of the car relatively early, so you're not compromised against development time and ultimate performance. Obviously, there will be updates pretty much, I guess, for every car between testing and at least testing in Barcelona and the first race.

“But we thought that in the economy of a season, it was important to start and launch the car in the most competitive package and configuration. That's why we pushed all the timing to the limit, but within a very manageable limit. So at the moment, we are on plan to be testing on day two, and we didn't feel any urge to plan for testing on day one.”

While other teams have suggested that their new cars could change between the initial running and the first race of the campaign in Australia, McLaren Chief Designer Rob Marshall believes making too many alterations early on could cause complications.

“Between Barcelona and Melbourne, I think what you see is probably pretty much what we will bring to the first race,” said Marshall.

“A lot of our effort will be into understanding this. Also, we need to take into account what the opposition are up to. We need to be inspired by what they may or may not achieve and may or may not show us.

“We really are going to have to be very focused on getting our heads around this car. It's very complicated, it's all new. There's a lot of stuff that we need to dial in and tune in, so I think bringing a lot of new stuff to it, early doors, would complicate stuff.

“I think we're better off understanding our platform before we get too keen on redesigning it before it's turned to wheel.”

McLaren are set to officially launch their new car, the MCL40, on February 9.