Formula 1 world champion McLaren has completed a successful first fire-up of its 2026 car, The Race can reveal.
With just more than one week to go before the first pre-season test takes place at Barcelona, it has emerged that McLaren brought its new MCL40 to life at its Woking factory on Friday.
Team principal Andrea Stella joined a gathering of staff to oversee a key step in its build programme for the new season, as personnel from the squad and engine supplier Mercedes ran through the planned initial programme of checks.
Hitting its target to have the car ready in advance of the Barcelona test comes after a 2025 campaign when the team fought for the championship until the final race in Abu Dhabi.
It had to juggle efforts on securing last year’s title double without compromising the design for the complete rules revamp that is coming for 2026.
Even though McLaren's new car is ready for the first test, it is not clear when the public will get an initial glimpse of the challenger that will be raced by Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
McLaren is not planning to launch its car until an event that takes place in Bahrain on February 9 – which is just two days before the first open test begins in Bahrain.
In the meantime, McLaren is set to run in the private test that takes place at Barcelona between January 26 and 30. Teams are allowed to run for three of the five days of action.
McLaren secured a world title double last season, capturing its second successive constructors’ championship with Norris taking his maiden drivers’ crown - McLaren's first since 2008.
While it proved that it had mastered the previous ground effect rules, Stella has declared faith that his team has the strength in depth to keep at the front of F1 despite the regulations overhaul.
“This is one of the strongest technical departments that I have been part of in my career, 26 years in F1,” he said at the end of last year.
“This means that while the specifics of the current regulations will not necessarily apply onto the future, the working way, the standards, the approach to the development of the car, to the objectives from a technical point of view, they do carry into the future.
"And this makes us optimistic for the 2026 season.”
McLaren's Friday fire-up came on the same day that Ferrari did the same in Maranello, with its event overseen by Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.
New era. New sound 🔊 pic.twitter.com/wykLpAtBif
— Scuderia Ferrari HP (@ScuderiaFerrari) January 16, 2026
