McLaren makes an important decision at the start of the 2026 season

The McLaren team has decided not to follow the approach of most of its rivals and not prepare an update to its 2026 season car for the opening stage of the championship in Australia.

All 11 Formula 1 teams will test for five days in Barcelona next week, followed by two three-day testing blocks in Bahrain before the season opener in Melbourne (6-8 March). For most teams, the important thing will be the speed at which the cars are developed between testing and the first race.

However, McLaren decided not to rush into technical innovations. Rob Marshall, the team’s chief designer, emphasized that the priority now is to fully understand the new vehicle rather than making immediate design changes.

“Between Barcelona and Melbourne, I think you’ll see approximately the same package as we would going into the first race. We’ll direct a significant portion of our efforts towards understanding the machine,” Marshall said.

“We also need to consider what the competitors are doing; we need to be inspired by what they’ve achieved, what they haven’t achieved and what they choose to show. We really need to focus on mastering this car as much as possible. It’s very complex. It’s completely new.”

“There are a lot of things that need to be tuned and perfected, so introducing many new parts too early will only complicate the process. We prefer to understand our platform before we start redesigning, before the car has even completed its first lap.”

Therefore, McLaren is deliberately sacrificing an early update of the car in favor of a deeper understanding of the new technical platform in the face of a radical change in the rules.