McLaren has made its intentions clear before the MCL40 has even turned a competitive wheel: don’t expect a flurry of upgrades to be implemented on its new car during Formula 1’s pre-season build-up.
Instead, the reigning world champions are betting that patience, precision and deep understanding will pay bigger dividends than an early development race.
With its official launch pencilled in for 9 February – notably after its first on-track running – the Woking squad is already setting the tone for how it plans to approach the opening phase of the season.
Pre-season track action begins in Barcelona from 26–30 January, with three days allocated per team. McLaren will sit out at least the opening portion of that programme, opting to finalize its preparations until the last hour while rivals begin gathering early data.
Despite that, the team has already lifted the lid on its thinking during a gathering with the media this week in Woking focused not only on the all-new MCL40, but also the broader direction of Formula 1 as it heads toward the sweeping 2026 technical overhaul of chassis and power units.
A Measured Start to a Brand-New Era
At the heart of McLaren’s approach is a conscious decision to resist the temptation of early upgrades. Chief designer Rob Marshall made it clear that continuity – at least initially – will be the priority.
“Between Barcelona and Melbourne, I think what you see is probably pretty much what we'll bring to the first race,” Marshall said. “A lot of our effort will be into understanding this.
McLaren chief designer, Rob Marshall.
“Also, we need to take into account what the opposition are up to. We need to be inspired by what they may or may not achieve and may or may not show us.
“We really are going to have to be very focused on getting our heads around this car. It's very complicated. It's all new. There's a lot of stuff that we need to dial in and tune in.
“So, I think bringing a lot of new stuff to it early doors would complicate stuff. I think we're better off understanding our platform before we get too keen on redesigning it before it's turned a wheel, if you see what I mean.”
The message is clear: McLaren believes that truly knowing its baseline package will unlock more performance than rushing changes before the fundamentals are nailed down.
Correlation Questions and Cautious Optimism
There’s another layer to McLaren’s conservative early-season stance – uncertainty. While the team’s simulator-to-track correlation has been a strength in recent seasons, the introduction of a fresh regulatory framework brings new variables.
Technical director of performance Mark Temple acknowledged that confidence in the tools will only come once the car hits real asphalt.
“In terms of whether or not the aerodynamic packages will translate directly from our tools to delivering on track, of course we hope they will,” Temple said.
“But there are some aspects of the new regulations that make the aerodynamics more complicated and, I'm not sure if ‘unpredictable’ is the word, but let's say harder to kind of predict on track.
“Part of that is because we're still relatively early in the reg cycle, so until we go on track and we see, ‘Okay, where are the deficiencies between what we predict in our tools and what we observe on track?’, it's hard to have confidence.
“But of course, a big part of the process in Formula 1 and why I think we're all quite excited to get on track is because, finally, we can see where those gaps are, get some certainty around the things that maybe are known unknowns at the moment, and then figure out how we incorporate that into our development and our process going forward.”
Read also: McLaren to skip opening day of testing in BarcelonaAs rivals chase immediate gains in testing, McLaren is choosing a longer view – one rooted in learning first, evolving later.
Whether that restraint proves inspired or overly cautious will only become clear once the lights go out in Melbourne next March. But for now, the MCL40’s early story is all about understanding before upgrading.
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