McLaren tease brand-new MCL40 car design for F1 2026

McLaren have teased a silhouette image of their new MCL40 F1 car for the 2026 season.

The reigning world champions head into 2026 looking to defend both the constructors' and drivers' world titles after sealing a stunning championship double in 2025 as Lando Norris clinched his maiden F1 crown.

McLaren are set to release the first images of their 2026 challenger on the eve of the first week of pre-season testing in Barcelona, before holding an online season launch event on 9 February.

But the Woking squad have dropped a teaser image depicting the outline of the MCL40, while keeping its design secrets hidden.

McLaren chief designer Rob Marshall has confirmed the team will not make big design changes between pre-season testing and the opening race in Australia.

"Between Barcelona and Melbourne, I think what you see is probably pretty much what we'll bring to the first race,” Marshall told media including Crash.net.

"A lot of our effort will be into understanding this. Also, we need to take into account what the opposition are up to: we need to be inspired by what they may or may not achieve and may or may not show us.

"We really are going to have to be very focused on getting our heads around this car. It’s very complicated. It's all new. There's a lot of stuff that we need to dial in and tune in.

“So I think bringing a lot of new stuff to it, early doors, would complicate stuff. And I think we're better off understanding our platform before we get too keen on redesigning it before it's turned a wheel.”

‘Everyone starts from zero’

McLaren have decided against running their new car on the first day of the first pre-season test in Spain next week in order to maximise development time and performance.

Team principal Andrea Stella described the amount of work McLaren have had to do to prepare for F1’s rules reset as “unprecedented”.

"There's been so much work behind the design, the realisation, the build of the 2026 cars that, for what I can remember is almost unprecedented, because never before has there been such a huge and simultaneous change of chassis, power unit and tyres,” the Italian explained.

"But even the sheer volume of redesigning that went through the last 20 months at McLaren has been probably the biggest design, or in general, dealing with a new car project that I was a part of.

"This all makes it extremely interesting to see how the cars will perform, how the competitiveness order will be somehow mixed up. We are champions, but we don't carry being champions into 2026. Everyone will start from the starting blocks - everyone will start from zero."