McLaren reveal F1 pre-season test surprise

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has revealed that "plan A" for McLaren’s shakedown is for it to take place next week in Barcelona, during the official week of running for all teams.

Unlike some of its rivals, the Woking-based outfit has opted against completing any running before heading to Spain, and McLaren will also not run on the first day of testing.

Stella confirmed that the team will not start testing until either the second or third day of next week’s official shakedown, but that its 2026 car has been successfully built.

During a technical roundtable for select media, including RacingNews365, Stella confirmed the current whereabouts of the car and outlined McLaren’s run plan for next week.

Currently, McLaren’s 2026 challenger is in Austria on the dyno at AVL RACETECH, the motorsport division of major Austrian mobility technology company AVL.

Discussing AVL RACETECH and the team’s plan for Barcelona, Stella told select media, including RacingNews365: "It’s a facility at AVL [in Austria] that we have been using for some time, and that’s where the car is at the moment.

"Then the car will be in Barcelona for the shakedown on track. This will happen directly at the test. We plan to start testing either on day two or day three, so we will not be testing on 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.

"Then we will start from, like I said, either day two or day three, and we will test for three days."

Why McLaren will not run until the Barcelona test

McLaren is not alone in opting against performing a pre-Barcelona shakedown, with Red Bull having made the same decision.

So far, Audi, Cadillac, Racing Bulls, and Alpine have all conducted at least some running, but in Stella’s eyes, it comes with consequences.

Stella explained that the British outfit had planned all along not to run before Barcelona and to delay its track debut for as long as possible, in order to maximise development time and ensure the car that exits the garage is a competitive one.

"Actually, this was always going to be Plan A," said Stella. "There’s also so much change that we don’t necessarily need to be the first on track. So we wanted to give, like I said before, as much time as possible for development, because every day of development, every day of design, adds 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, but at the same time, it means that you might have committed to the design and realisation of the car relatively early.

"So you will have compromised some development time and ultimate performance. Obviously, there will be updates, I guess, for every car between 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 configuration. 

"That’s why we pushed all the timing to the limit, but within a very manageable limit. So at the moment, like I said, we are on plan to be testing on day two, and we didn’t feel any urge to plan for testing on day one."