Lando Norris eased out of the pit lane in Barcelona on Wednesday knowing this was no ordinary test day.
The McLaren was new, the air was cold, and the regulations had turned the sport on its head. But it was the bold orange digit on the nose of his car that really stopped him in his tracks.
For the first time, Norris was driving as Formula 1’s reigning world champion – and the sight of the number ‘1’ on his McLaren MCL40 made the moment hit home in a way no trophy ever could.
A Champion’s Number, a Surreal Reality
McLaren waited until the third of Formula 1’s five shakedown days at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya to roll out its 2026 challenger, maximising its allowed running while easing into life with a radically new machine.
When the car finally appeared on Wednesday morning, it was Norris who was handed the honours.
Clad in McLaren’s understated black-and-grey testing livery, the Briton completed 77 laps on a cold Catalan circuit, swapping his familiar #4 for the traditional #1 worn by the reigning champion.
“It was just nice to be back, nice to see a number one on my car - pretty surreal still,” Norris said.
“I saw it on the timing screen; I still find it just unbelievable. It's still a crazy thing to see. Now it's really the first time I get to see it on my suit, on the car, on timing screens, all of these things, and it looks good.
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Barcelona test – Day 3: Mercedes and Antonelli on top“It's the first time that everyone gets to see the car in one piece, it's literally not been built until this morning. It's an incredible thing, nice to see it all come together, nice to see all the hard work that everyone does.”
For Norris, the day was less about lap times and more about first impressions – both emotional and technical – as McLaren’s title defence officially began.
Learning a Very Different McLaren
The MCL40 represents a clean-sheet design under the 2026 rules, and Norris admitted the focus was on understanding the basics rather than pushing the limits.
“Today was really just a first understanding of the whole car, understanding just how it works really, going through the manual of everything,” he added.
“So a productive day, but it's one that's really about figuring stuff out, making sure things are working as they should.”
Lower downforce levels, active aerodynamics and a heavier reliance on electric energy deployment have transformed how the cars behave, and Norris immediately felt the contrast compared to the title-winning machine from 2025.
“It's pretty different. It's a step slower in terms of cornering speeds,” he reported.
“In terms of acceleration and straightline speed, it probably feels quicker than it did last year, you get to 340, 350 quite a bit quicker than we did in previous years.
“But then you have a bit more to understand from the battery, the power unit, all of those things are in some ways more complicated and just different. And whenever something's different, it always takes a bit of time to figure out the best way to manage it.”
Early Reassurance from the Pit Wall
While Norris adjusted behind the wheel, McLaren’s engineers were watching closely from the garage – and team papaya’s chief designer Rob Marshall liked what he saw.
“The car ran pretty well today, we're quite happy with it, no nasties, no really scary things went wrong,” he said. “There are obviously little gremlins here and there but we ironed those out during the day.
“We really treat this week as a shakedown, so this is for us to get the car reliable, running, and make sure it'll run in all the conditions we want it to run in.
We're going all the way around the envelope trying every single bit we can and then when we get to Bahrain we'll try and dial the car in a bit better.
The conditions here are so cold that doing representative lap times is obviously going to be very difficult.”
McLaren was back in action on Thursday morning in Barcelona, with Oscar Piastri at the wheel, while the Aussie and Norris are expected to share driving duties on Friday, the final day of F1’s week-long test.
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‘It still looks crazy’: Norris reacts to running No.1 on his McLaren F1i.com.
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