The two things that surprised McLaren the most in first F1 2026 test
McLaren's Zak Brown points out two things that surprised him the most in the first week of F1 2026 testing.
McLaren boss Zak Brown has singled out Red Bull’s engine and general reliability as the two things that surprised him the most at the first week of F1 pre-season testing.
10 of the 11 F1 teams were in action during a behind closed doors shakedown in Barcelona between 26-30 January as the new-for-2026 cars were run in anger for the first time away from prying eyes.
Mercedes enjoyed a strong test by racking up the most mileage, while Ferrari also caught the eye as Lewis Hamilton produced the fastest lap of the week.
But for McLaren Racing CEO Brown, it was the performance of Red Bull’s first-ever in-house power unit out of the blocks that stood out the most.
“I would say the Red Bull engine, the Ford engine seems very strong. So hats off to them,” Brown told media including Crash.net when asked if anything surprised him during the first week of testing.
“Not only did it seem to be very quick, but also very reliable. And I would say the reliability in general seemed to be very strong for very sophisticated, new, kind of immature regulations that will develop over time.
“I think the amount of running everyone got in was impressive. So I think those are the things that stood out, the Ford engine and the general reliability on what are very sophisticated, new rules.”
Mercedes’ George Russell also admitted he was impressed by Red Bull’s performance during the first week of testing.
F1 is heading to Bahrain for two further pre-season tests on 11-13 and 18-20 February before the new campaign kicks off with the Australian Grand Prix on 8 March.
Asked what McLaren will be looking to improve in Bahrain over the next two weeks, Brown quipped: “Making the car go faster.
“In our first two days, we lacked some mileage. We had what's called some little niggles, nothing that was kind of like design flaw like ‘we got that wrong’, just typical shakedown.
“A thing or two that needed to be fitted a little bit differently, including our driver, Oscar, one day when he first went out, he wasn't happy with the seating position.
“So exactly what you'd expect out of the shakedown. But I think we're more in understanding the car still and then we'll attack the development from it.
"I think it's too early, other than Formula One teams want to make everything better. So that’s what we are working on.”
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