McLaren outlines Barcelona testing plans after sitting out first two days
McLaren is set to begin its Barcelona test programme on Wednesday.
Having not taken to the Circuit de Catalunya during the first two days of testing, McLaren intends to begin its 2026 programme on Wednesday.
The reigning F1 Constructors’ Champions sat out Tuesday’s running in Barcelona, following on from its previously-communicated intent to miss Monday’s track time.
McLaren confirms F1 2026 testing commencement
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McLaren’s MCL40 will take to the track for the first time on Wednesday, with the Woking-based squad having missed the first two days of action at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Team boss Andrea Stella had confirmed to select media, including PlanetF1.com, that McLaren would not take to the track on the first day of the Barcelona test, but didn’t foresee any problems with completing the three permitted days across the five-day event.
Following on from missing Monday, McLaren also didn’t take to the track on Tuesday, with only Red Bull and Ferrari opting to make use of the day.
But the MCL40 is intended to take part in the final three days of the test, with McLaren confirming its testing plans late on Tuesday evening.
“With track testing for the 2026 season underway and the permitted running time limited to three days over a five-day period, the McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team has approached this week’s Barcelona Shakedown utilising the full flexibility of the programme,” a spokesperson confirmed.
“We plan to run on track for the final three days of testing, while the opening days have provided an important opportunity for the full car to be assembled and checked.”
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Why did McLaren not test before Wednesday?
With several teams having carried out initial shakedowns of their new cars via filming days, McLaren’s MCL40 is one of the last cars to make its track debut.
At the time of writing, and assuming the car does take to the track on Wednesday, only Aston Martin and Williams will arrive later – Aston Martin intends to take to the track on Thursday, while Williams hasn’t been able to be ready on time for the Barcelona test.
Last week, Stella explained that the reason for McLaren’s slower start to the year has been out of a desire to maximise development time, rather than any delays in its preparation.
“We wanted to give ourselves as much time as possible for development,” he said.
“You are allowed to test three days over the five that are available in Barcelona. We will start from either day two or day three, and we will test for three days.”
This situation, he said, had always been the first plan of action.
“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,” he said.
“So 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.”
Given that almost half the grid had carried out filming days as a way to iron out any initial technical gremlins that could compromise the limited testing time, Stella suggested that committing to components of an earlier specification may be the compromise those teams have had to make.
“If you are early on track, you will have the reassurance of knowing what you need to know as soon as possible,” he said.
“But at the same time, it means that you might have committed to the design and the realisation of the car relatively early, so you will have a compromise against development time and ultimate performance.
“Obviously, there will be updates pretty much, 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 and configuration.
“That’s why we pushed all the timing to the limit, but within a very manageable limit.
“We didn’t feel any urge to plan for testing on day one.”
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