Photo: McLaren Mastercard F1 Team

McLaren leave Barcelona upbeat despite 'niggly issues' with new MCL40

21:59, 02 Feb

byTobia Elia

McLaren’s technical director of engineering Neil Houldey has reflected on the MCL40’s first week on track during the Barcelona tests.

“After some very long hours and very long days, we’ve come away pleased with the outcome”

- Neil Houldey

The MCL40 was among the last cars to appear on track during the Barcelona tests, with Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris sharing driving duties across days four and five after the team deliberately chose to skip the opening day in order to push development as far as possible.

“It’s been a long test. For us, the shakedown really began with the full-car dyno in Austria, and we went straight from there into the Barcelona test,” Houldey said in conversation with F1 at the end of testing week.

“Over the first two days we were mainly focused on preparing the car and getting it ready. We maybe felt a little bit behind at times, and on the second day we didn’t quite get the mileage we were aiming for due to some small, niggly issues that ended up costing us quite a bit of downtime.

“On the final day, though, we had both drivers in the car and both completed a lot of laps without any issues whatsoever. After some very long hours and very long days, we’ve come away pleased with the outcome.”

Photo: McLaren Mastercard F1 Team

McLaren signals what the final MCL40 final livery could look like

Fresh off back-to-back Constructors’ Championships in 2024 and 2025, the reigning world champions are still among the few teams yet to unveil the livery they will race with in 2026.

In Barcelona, both drivers ran an all-black, stealth-style design — a look that turned heads around the paddock but was never intended to be the final version that will appear on the MCL40 over the course of the season.

The recently revealed team kit has nonetheless offered some further hints about the eventual livery, keeping the familiar papaya-and-black colour scheme while introducing a black stripe across the shirt, a feature not seen on last year’s design.

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