The guidelines for the new single-seater were already drawn up at Easter 2024, and now the car is in Austria, at a company that has sophisticated dynamic test benches. More important than track testing: it won’t be running on the first day in Barcelona

If anyone had any doubts about the actual scope of this year’s regulatory revolution in F1, the technical panel organized by McLaren at the McLaren Technology Center in Woking, composed of team principal Andrea Stella, technical director Rob Marshall, and technical performance director Mark Temple, removed any remaining doubts. In fact, it emerged that the planning at the design level, but above all the initial evaluation of the MCL40 solutions, are the basis for building a competitive season. This is the team’s vision, with Rob Marshall revealing that the first lines of the single-seater’s design were drawn around Easter 2024, allowing them to progressively enter into the design of every single element, down to the last bolt or bearing, different from the previous car, without underestimating any aspect.

Essentially, starting well in advance, especially in the design of the mechanical packaging, more specifically of all the elements that contribute to the functioning of the power unit, characterized by a larger battery than last year, albeit counterbalanced by greater simplicity in terms of packaging around the turbine, without the MGU-H, as per the regulations. The design, testing, and assembly deadlines were met, with the team completing the first MCL40 a few days ago and then sending it to AVL’s headquarters in Austria, a company specializing in sophisticated dynamic test benches where, at this moment, they are trying to refine the basic setup with which the team intends to present itself in Barcelona.

SHAKEDOWN POSTPONED—  The optimization phase of the car’s dynamic and aerodynamic setup is considered crucial, even more important than the moment when the car will take to the track at Montmelò. In fact, the technicians led by Rob Marshall and Mark Temple have long planned not to debut on the track on the first day of the Catalan session, postponing the shakedown of the MCL40 to the second or even third day. This decision is not based on any problems or critical issues in the design or construction phase, but rather on the awareness that everyone will have to not only collect a huge amount of data on the track, but above all learn how to manage battery energy, find the best ways to recover energy, and effectively find the right settings in terms of active aerodynamics. In essence, while in 2025, the technical regulations, now mature, had allowed for convergence in performance, but above all in technical choices, now, the paths, especially in terms of optimizing performance on the track, are completely unexplored. Based on this consideration, it is expected that, much more than in the past, it will be difficult to understand the potential level of competitiveness at the outset. Rob Marshall and Mark Temple have confirmed that the car that will take to the track in Barcelona, albeit with some differences, will be a fairly accurate preview of what we will see in Melbourne.
One step at a time—  In practice, the idea of proceeding aggressively with developments, even during testing, has been discarded or, at least, is not the “plan A,” with the preference being to have clear feedback, unclouded by the introduction of new components on the car. McLaren believes it is first necessary to be sure that everything is under control and to understand how to exploit the car in terms of PU mode and set-up. This brings us back to 2024 when, from Miami onwards, with the introduction of a comprehensive development package, created only after clearly identifying the vulnerabilities of the MCL38, the Woking team laid the foundations for an unstoppable climb to the top. In short, if anything, in the uncertainty generated by the new rules, can be considered a useful legacy from the past, it is the broad-spectrum analytical approach with which McLaren is starting the new season.