Ahead of the closed-door, private F1 testing event held at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya later this month, McLaren boss Andrea Stella revealed they will opt out of the first day of testing to spend more time on the development of their latest contender — the MCL40.
The private test session begins on the 26th of January and will run across five days. Out of these five days, teams have the permission to use three full days of uninterrupted testing.
McLaren has decided to head on a more development-led path. Instead of heading out on track precisely on the first day of testing, the Woking-based outfit feels more confident in choosing the second or third day to run their new championship contender for the first time.
This decision stems from the belief that any additional time devoted to the MCL40 will be beneficial to its overall development and competitiveness. Team principal Andrea Stella expressed a strong desire to maximise the car’s performance before leaning into the initial excitement of the first day of testing.
Stella on McLaren’s development-led approach ahead of F1 Barcelona testing
McLaren is currently running its latest F1 model on the dyno at AVL’s Graz facility, with the technical team focused on maximising performance gains before the car heads to Barcelona. Stella said to select media at Woking skipping the opening day of running was always part of the plan.
“Actually, this was always going to be plan A [to hold off on running],” he revealed. “There’s also so much of a change that we don’t need to be necessarily the first on track.
The car’s design is still evolving daily, which makes the additional factory time even more valuable than the testing time.
“We plan to start testing either in day two or day three,” Stella assured.
After winning the Constructors’ Championship for the second year in a row and the Drivers’ Championship in 2025, Stella is willing to push their newest model to its limits, making improvements and enhancing its capabilities wherever they can.
“We wanted to give, like I said before, as much time as possible for development because every day of development every day of design was adding a little bit of performance.
No urgency to be the first ones to show for testing
Unlike other teams, the Woking-based team does not want to take the path of overconfidence and set foot on track earlier than they have to. Despite what their competitors are choosing to do, Stella believes any early commitment can come at the price of confirming design concepts earlier than necessary — a compromise they were unwilling to make.
“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 – but at the same time, it means that you might have committed to the design and the realisation of the car relatively early.
Changes are continuous until the first race
McLaren remains optimistic about its schedule despite a delayed debut. The car will first appear in a testing livery at Barcelona, with the 2026 design slated for an unveiling on February 9. Once testing begins, the team intends to utilise its full three-day allocation without any interruptions.
Stella also downplayed any concerns about missing the opening day, emphasising that all teams are likely to introduce updates between testing and the first race of the season.
“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. We are on plan to be testing on day two and we didn’t feel any urge to plan for testing on day one.”
McLaren is in no rush to be the first ones out on the tarmac, especially in a season where every team is back to square one, questioning their decisions — whether it’s strategy or engineering. Given the team’s form over the last two seasons, every second spent toward bettering the MCL40 can easily give them a benefit heading into Australia.
