McLaren finally joined Formula 1’s test in the third morning at Barcelona on Wednesday with its new MCL40 completing its first installation lap.
The world champion team had already committed to a late start on-track to take advantage of the unusual nature of the Barcelona test, which is taking place over five days and teams are permitted to run on three of them.
McLaren wanted to give itself as much time as possible for development so opted not to shake down its car on a filming day before Barcelona or hurry to be on track at the start of the test.
It had mooted running on Tuesday but opted against that, taking more time to get its car and final preparations ready. This decision was aided by Tuesday being disrupted by rain.
However, to maximise its participation in the test, McLaren did need to be good to go on Wednesday - and will have to run its car on three consecutive days, which no other team needs to do.
McLaren released renders of the MCL40 on Monday morning but as it seemed a fairly simple design, the real thing is expected to look different given how much McLaren emphasised developing as possible.
Rolling out the MCL40 for the first time EVER! 😏🍿 pic.twitter.com/9DKhbrpICf
— McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team 🧡 (@McLarenF1) January 28, 2026
Running a black testing livery, the car was on track shortly before 11am with Lando Norris at the wheel. It means McLaren missed the first couple of hours of track time but a large chunk of this was interrupted anyway by red flags caused by Audi and Haas, pausing the session for around 40 minutes in total.
Norris took the car round for an installation shortly after the session resumed following the stoppage caused by Haas.
Wednesday is already looking much busier in terms of team participation. Mercedes, Racing Bulls, Alpine, Audi and Haas all hit the track early when the test began at 9am while Cadillac should be rejoining the test on Wednesday morning too.
With the exception of McLaren, each of the teams running on Wednesday had all taken to the track on Monday.
Red Bull ran on Monday too then reappeared on Tuesday - joined by Ferrari - but is unsure when it will run again at this test after a crash for Isack Hadjar late in the day caused extensive rear-end damage.
Aston Martin is joining the test delayed and intends to run on Thursday and Friday although there are suggestions it will appear on-track late on the penultimate day.
Williams withdrew from the test entirely due to delays in the build of its new FW48.
There has been speculation that the car is extremely overweight and yet to pass crash tests that it has repeatedly failed although as reported by The Race last week, the chassis itself had cleared FIA homologation tests.
A nosebox test was said to still be required as of last weekend but this was not the cause of Williams missing the test. If so, it suggests Williams considers that a formality and there was a bigger priority to address first.
