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Lando Norris voices 'special moment' as McLaren eye improvement
racingnews365.com·

Lando Norris voices 'special moment' as McLaren eye improvement

Lando Norris has said that running the #1 on his car across the five-day Barcelona test was a “special moment” for the entire team, which has already identified "areas to improve". It was a mixed week of running at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for McLaren, which opted not to run until Wednesday. From the get-go, it was not smooth running for the Woking-based outfit, which encountered a fuel system issue on Thursday that saw Oscar Piastri lose an entire afternoon of running. Thankfully for both drivers, the final day of running went smoothly for McLaren, with Norris setting the third-fastest time of the test overall. Across his running, the reigning world champion completed 163 laps, allowing him and the team to outline where improvements are needed ahead of the next test in Bahrain. "[Friday] was a valuable day of learning, and it felt great to be back in the car," said Norris. "I’m grateful to the entire team for their hard work and support.  "It’s a pleasure to drive another McLaren this year, and running the No.1 for the first time was a special moment for all of us throughout the Shakedown. "We’ve identified opportunities and areas to improve, and we’re excited to see what we can do back in Woking as we prepare for Bahrain.  "We have plenty of additional things to learn this week in the simulator, alongside our Simulator and Development Drivers, and I'm looking forward to getting to work on those.  "These cars definitely require a new way of thinking and driving and the more time spent working on those, the better prepared we will be for the start of the season."

Oscar Piastri confirms McLaren 'working hard' on fix to avoid Friday F1 test no-show
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Oscar Piastri confirms McLaren 'working hard' on fix to avoid Friday F1 test no-show

Oscar Piastri has confirmed that McLaren is "working hard" to fix a fuel system issue that triggered an early end to running on Thursday, in order to avoid missing the final day. Piastri was unable to run in the afternoon on Thursday at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya due to the problem, restricting him to just 48 laps in the morning session. It represented a setback for the Australian driver’s preparation ahead of the new F1 season, with both he and the team lacking significant mileage. The Woking-based outfit has only the final day of the test remaining in Barcelona, putting pressure on McLaren to complete an overnight fix to the issue. According to Piastri, despite the limited running, McLaren has already identified areas it can improve, something it hopes to build on during the final day. "It was nice to be back out today, especially in the new car," said Piastri. "There’s a lot of challenges this year up and down the grid, so it was good to get stuck in.  "We had a fuel system issue, which cut our day short, but the team’s working hard to get that fixed and back out tomorrow. "These cars are completely different to what we’ve had the last few years. That’s part of what this test is about. We’ve already identified a few things that we can try to improve on the car to make it feel a bit nicer.  "We have one more day of running tomorrow. We’ll continue to get used to the car and get a good read on how different things feel. Then we’ll find a good direction to make the car quicker and feel nicer."

McLaren 'exploring envelope' in Barcelona after avoiding F1 'nasties'
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McLaren 'exploring envelope' in Barcelona after avoiding F1 'nasties'

McLaren chief designer Rob Marshall has asserted the team is treating the Barcelona test as a true shakedown and is not focusing on extracting pace from the MCL40 challenger. The Woking-based squad made its on-track debut with the car on Wednesday with reigning champion Lando Norris behind the wheel. Norris tallied 76 laps across the day as McLaren got its first eye in on its new car, which it hopes can repeat its double title success from 2025. Marshall asserted it was a smooth day for the team as no unexpected difficulties arose from the outing. "The car ran pretty well today, we're quite happy with it, no nasties, no really scary things went wrong," he said.  "There are obviously little gremlins here and there but we ironed those out during the day.” Norris' team-mate Oscar Piastri jumped behind the wheel on Thursday as he got his first experience of the new car. However, there is little to no focus on getting the car in a competitive window during the days ahead, which instead is set to be the focus at the Bahrain test next month. "We really treat this week as a shakedown, so this is for us to get the car reliable, running, and make sure it'll run in all the conditions we want it to run in,” he said. “We're going all the way around the envelope trying every single bit we can and then when we get to Bahrain we'll try and dial the car in a bit better.  “The conditions here are so cold that doing representative lap times is obviously going to be very difficult.”

McLaren unveil F1 livery for Barcelona shakedown test
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McLaren unveil F1 livery for Barcelona shakedown test

McLaren has unveiled the livery it will use during the Barcelona shakedown test this week. The test offers teams a chance to gather some initial data on their new 2026 cars which have been built under a brand new set of technical regulations. McLaren enter the year looking to defend its double championship success from last year, triumphing in both the drivers' and constructors' standings. The Woking-based squad is due to reveal its season livery on February 9, ahead of the following test in Bahrain. In Barcelona, McLaren will run a black-inspired livery, offering little hints into what its true design for the year ahead may look like. However, it is once again likely to be papaya coloured, which has become traditional for the team in the modern F1 era. McLaren will field Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri for a fourth consecutive year, making it the joint-longest uninterrupted line-up on the grid alongside Aston Martin. The MCL40 car will hit the track for the first time in Barcelona this week, although McLaren is yet to confirm its run plan as teams are required to select three out of the five available days to operate the car. View images of the McLaren test livery below!

Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar complete Red Bull seat fitting
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Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar complete Red Bull seat fitting

Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar have both completed their seat fittings for Red Bull’s new RB22, ahead of next week’s official shakedown test in Barcelona. The Milton Keynes-based outfit posted two images on social media showing its drivers in the new car for the first time, before setting off to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Next week’s five-day test, in which each team can run for three days, will mark the first running of Red Bull’s new car, with a decision having been made not to perform a pre-Barcelona shakedown. It is a decision that has also been made by McLaren, with the Woking-based outfit not set to begin testing in Spain until either day two or day three. Check out Red Bull's social post below! https://x.com/redbullracing/status/2015379121560293445?s=20 Seats, fitted ✅ Ready for Shakedown 👊 #F1 || #RedBullRacing pic.twitter.com/h8gHlvfmgY — Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) January 25, 2026

McLaren address questioned car development approach after Max Verstappen title fight
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McLaren address questioned car development approach after Max Verstappen title fight

McLaren chief designer Rob Marshall has addressed the development approach of last year’s Formula 1 car, insisting it did not suffer from the team switching focus to 2026. The Woking-based outfit dominated the first half of the F1 season last year, on its way to a second consecutive constructors’ title and Lando Norris becoming world champion. Despite both championships being secured, Max Verstappen and Red Bull made staggering strides on McLaren in the latter stages. Due to its dominance, McLaren switched complete focus to its 2026 car before Red Bull, while the latter introduced major upgrades to the RB22 late in the season. This saw McLaren’s huge performance advantage completely disappear, to the extent that Verstappen reduced his title deficit from 104 points to just two in the closing rounds. As a result, questions arose over whether the British squad had aborted development of its 2025 car too early, in favour of preparing for the new power unit regulations. Marshall has insisted that this was not the case and that McLaren is confident it chose the right approach for the final year of the ground-effect era. Asked how its 2025 title pursuit impacted development of the MCL40, Marshall told select media including RacingNews365 : "In terms of the development of last year’s car through the season, obviously it gets to a stage where you need to tail off the design and think about the new car. "And that probably started earlier than it would have in a normal year because of the regulation changes. But equally, we had started this car so much earlier than we normally would that a lot of the initial prep and groundwork was already done. "So yeah, we lifted off on last year’s car to focus on this. But I wouldn’t say it suffered. I think clearly there was an interesting race at the end of last year. "You could argue that others maybe kept pressing on with its ’25 car longer than we did, but I think we probably did the right thing in the end."