McLaren set to miss F1 testing date

Photo: © IMAGO

McLaren set to miss F1 testing date

McLaren will miss one of the 11 days of testing

By Sam Cook.

Thursday 22 January 2026 17:03

McLaren F1 boss Andrea Stella has suggested that McLaren will miss the first day of testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya later this month.

Teams are being given 11 days of pre-season testing this year in order to help them get used to the new regulations.

The first five of those 11 days of testing comes in the shape of a private shakedown event for teams at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya next week, with the event taking place between January 26-30.

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But now McLaren team principal Stella has revealed that his team will miss the first of those five days in Barcelona, and will instead start their preparations for the season on the second, or maybe even third day of the Barcelona shakedown.

"We plan to start testing either in day two or day three, so we will not be testing in day one," Stella revealed in an interview with BBC Sport.

"If you are early on track you will have the reassurance of knowing what you need to know as soon as possible. But at the same time it means that you might have committed to the design and the realisation of the car relatively early, so you will have a compromise against development time and ultimate performance."

Will McLaren be challenging for the championship in 2026?

The rules reset makes it impossible for us to predict at this stage where exactly each team will be in the pecking order, but McLaren are likely going to find it tougher going in 2026.

McLaren dominated the 2025 season, winning 14 of a possible 24 grands prix, and claiming both championships in the year.

The upcoming rules overhaul may well see a shake up in the competitive order in F1, and that can only be bad news for the team who had the fastest car in 2025.

But they will hope that they have done enough over the last 18 months in preparation for these new regulations to be competitive once more, and have their supremely talented driver lineup of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri regularly challenging for race wins once more.

On top of this, they are using Mercedes power units once again, and Mercedes are the team who are rumoured to be best placed to master the upcoming power unit changes.

F1 McLaren pre-season testing Andrea Stella