McLaren chief reveals the ‘helpful’ trick they used to counter F1 rivals during Barcelona test

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F1 engineers have been working out of a completely new rule book ahead of the upcoming season of racing, and the different aerodynamic concepts that each team turned up to the shakedown in Barcelona with are fascinating.

In the case of McLaren, all eyes were on them on Wednesday morning after Lando Norris left the British constructor’s garages in his #1-adorned MCL40 for the very first time.

The reigning world champion managed to clock in a decent amount of mileage on the opening day of the three that were allocated to them, before Oscar Piastri’s maiden voyage was scuppered by a fuel system issue on the following day.

The lack of running meant that McLaren engineers were only able to gather data from the 291 laps that were completed by the new MCL40.

That tally put them seventh in the leaderboard of the number of laps run by each F1 team over the week-long test, nearly half of the 502 that Mercedes completed.

• READ MORE: Martin Brundle thinks Toto Wolff is ‘desperate’ to beat one of Mercedes’ main F1 rivals this season

Barcelona shakedown complete ✅ Which team has surprised you the most? 👇

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McLaren director admits they took ‘lots of photos’ of rival F1 cars to understand different development routes

During an interview with F1 in the Circuit de Catalunya pit lane, McLaren’s technical director of engineering, Neil Houldey, touched upon how important the week of testing was for the reigning world champions.

When asked how valuable the data that they have gathered will be, he replied, “For us, for every team, it’s brilliant, the amount that you get from the telemetry and from running the car itself.

“There’s a lot to take back to the simulator. We can improve simulator realism because the drivers have now taken on the real thing, so we can develop the simulator a little bit more effectively.

“We’ve got a lot of aero work done, we’re just doing some flow vis at the moment, and that will be really useful for the aerodynamicists to continue developing the car and understand where the development opportunities are.

“We’ve got lots and lots of pictures of everyone else’s cars, and again, it’s just useful to have that, see what other people have been up to. It just gives you a few more ideas about the next development direction to take.”

While getting images of the different concepts that the teams across the F1 paddock are using is common practice, it isn’t often explicitly revealed by team personnel.

As alluded to by Houldey, the images can now be scrutinised to see where McLaren’s rivals may be gaining an advantage on them, and they can plan future upgrades to the MCL40 accordingly.

• READ MORE: Gary Anderson tips McLaren rivals to look at one ‘exciting’ part on Oscar Piastri’s 2026 F1 car

Lando Norris says that he is now entering the 2026 F1 season with ‘less pressure’

Following McLaren’s second consecutive constructors’ title feat last season, they are now eyeing a three-peat heading into the 2026 term, and Norris is looking to defend his drivers’ title for the very first time in his F1 career.

Martin Brundle shared how Norris has made a ‘wonderful’ change to his demeanour since securing his maiden title last season, and even the Briton has noticed a change in himself ahead of the new campaign.

Norris says that he is now feeling ‘less pressure’ ahead of the upcoming term due to the fact that he has already accomplished his main goal of becoming a world champion in the sport.

With this new mindset, the reigning world champion is hoping to be able to thrive even more and cement his name even further into F1 history by becoming a multiple-time world champion.