McLaren

McLaren star Oscar Piastri reveals new look ahead of F1 2026 car launch

Kerry Violet Sunday 8 February 2026 21:56

McLaren F1 star Oscar Piastri has given fans a first look at a new design for 2026 ahead of his team's official car launch in Bahrain.

Next week, McLaren and their 10 rival constructors' will take to the Bahrain International Circuit to conduct the first official pre-season tests of the year following January's Barcelona shakedown.

Last month, only 10 teams tried out their new machinery behind closed doors on the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya after Williams announced their testing absence, and McLaren reportedly completed 291 laps thanks to Piastri and his champion team-mate Lando Norris.

Next week will mark the first time fans get to tune in live to pre-season action, with the final hour of each day of the first Bahrain tests broadcast on Sky F1 between February 11 and February 13.

But before McLaren take to the track again, they will reveal their 2026 car in Bahrain on Monday, February 9 at 3pm GMT at the Bahrain International Circuit, and Piastri has kicked off the McLaren design hype by revealing his F1 2026 helmet on social media.

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Piastri unveils F1 2026 helmet

With just one month to go until the first grand prix of the year on home turf for Piastri, the Aussie racer took to Instagram to unveil his new helmet design.

The 24-year-old shared his bright new lid with his followers and even got behind the camera to snap pictures of his new F1 headwear himself, using a mixture of hilarious amaetur photography and much more professional photos to carry out the big reveal.

The individual posts were simply captioned 'My photography' and 'Not my photography' for any followers who may have been confused my Piastri's own snaps of the helmet.

The design itself featured bursts of bright orange stripes and illuminous yellow to keep on theme with the 'Monster' logo, which appeared in prime position on the side of the helmet alongside Piastri's other sponsors.

The McLaren star also proudly displayed the Australian flag on his helmet to the delight of his Aussie fans and even the official Australian GP Instagram account, who commented 'What a beauty' under Piastri's first video reveal.

When does the 2026 F1 season start?

Piastri will be in action when the 2026 season starts at his home race in Melbourne for the Australian Grand Prix. The first race of the year takes place on March 8 at 3pm local time (AEDT), 4am GMT, and 11pm ET. The first round of pre-season tests in Bahrain will kick off before then on February 11 until 13, and the second round continues from February 18 until February 20.

F1 McLaren Oscar Piastri