P1racenews AI automatic summary:
F1’s reigning world champions McLaren are yet to enter the action in the first pre-season test.
McLaren plans to showcase their MCL40 challenger during the last three days of the initial F1 2026 pre-season test in Barcelona, according to Crash.net sources.
The team announced that their new car wouldn’t be prepared for the first day of the five-day closed-door shakedown at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Andrea Stella, McLaren’s team principal, noted that this strategy was intentional, allowing more time for designing the 2026 challenger and optimizing performance.
Speculations suggest McLaren will commence testing on the second or third day, yet the MCL40 was absent on Tuesday.
McLaren opts to skip Tuesday’s session, targeting participation in the final three test days for introducing their new car.
Teams are granted freedom to run their new cars on any three days this week, although McLaren decided to avoid the potentially rainy Tuesday.
During their time at the track, McLaren engages in activities like garage static tests. Ferrari and Red Bull are the only teams present on Tuesday.
Aston Martin will join the shakedown towards the end of Thursday, while Williams won’t be partaking in the entire week due to delays in car readiness.
On Monday, McLaren unveiled images of the 2026 car featuring a unique stealth test livery before its track debut as the Woking squad will officially present the 2026 livery in Bahrain on 9 February at a season launch event.
