Bahrain International Circuit, Wednesday, 11 February

Find out what happened on Day 1 of Pre-Season Testing 1 in Bahrain, and get the thoughts of McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and Chief Designer Rob Marshall.

McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team continued their pre-season preparations with 112 laps of running on Day 1 of Formula 1’s Bahrain Pre-Season Test 1.

The team split their planned running across the day, with Oscar Piastri taking to the track during the morning session and completing 54 laps. Lando Norris then drove the MCL40 in the afternoon, adding a further 58 laps. Both drivers focused heavily on collecting aerodynamic data, rather than traditional continuous runs often seen during pre-season testing. This approach is designed with the objective of maximising learning across a range of aerodynamic setups and providing a broader understanding of the car’s operating window rather than focusing on mileage or lap time. This has been useful and allows us to better understand the car and explore further performance opportunities as the test continues.

Sakhir’s high track temperatures and strong winds provide the team with valuable opportunities to gather important data under conditions significantly different to those experienced at Formula 1’s Barcelona Shakedown last month. The team continues to grow its understanding of the MCL40 as each run provides further understanding on areas such as evaluating straight and corner mode while also continuing to extract greater performance from the power unit.

Lando will return to the MCL40's cockpit tomorrow as the team continues its preparations for the 2026 season.

Lando Norris

"It was good to be back in the car today, we completed a lot of test items which gave us a lot of data to look over, as well as a better understanding of the car. Of course, being in Bahrain in the sun, the conditions are very different to Barcelona, very hot and quite windy, and that was interesting to see how differently the car behaves. Positive day, lots learned, and looking forward to getting back in the car tomorrow.”

Oscar Piastri

"A good first morning back in the car. It all ran smoothly and I feel like I got a better handle of what the car's doing and what it needs. The conditions are very different here compared to Barcelona, so it was good to get some running in a different environment. We’ll go through the data, see what we can pull out from it and how we can improve ahead of getting back on track.”

Rob Marshall, Chief Designer

“A productive first day in Bahrain as we continue our early on-track learning and developments for the MCL40. We have approached this week by prioritising our learning and therefore chosen a deliberate run plan to optimise work that ultimately accelerates the development of our package.

“You can see from Oscar and Lando’s running that they have both completed heavy aerodynamic testing today in conditions that are very different to the ones we experienced in Barcelona last month. With this in mind, we have prioritised data gathering runs over out and out mileage on this first day of the test.

“Everyone is pushing in the same direction, and the drivers’ time invested in test items provides a solid foundation of learning, from which we can build on as we progress through pre-season testing.”