McLaren arrives in Melbourne with a package close to the one seen in testing.

Winner of the manufacturers' title for the past two years, McLaren could kick-start his season towards a hat trick with more good results in Melbourne this weekend. Lando NorrisThe new world champion had won the Australian Grand Prix last year, in difficult conditions, in the rain.

Uncertainty will once again hang over Albert Park on Sunday morning (start at 5am French time), regardless of the weather conditions, since 2026 marks the arrival of new regulations, covering both chassis, which are narrower, shorter and lighter, and engines, whose power must now come 50% from the electric motor.

After nine reliable and competitive days of winter testing, McLaren arrives in Melbourne with a fairly proven package, which should not be different from the one seen on the last day of testing in Bahrain, according to the team principal, Andrea Stella.

“We arrive in Melbourne for the first race of the 2026 season satisfied with the work completed over the last few months of testing in Barcelona and Bahrain, where we completed over 1,000 laps in nine days. This has given the whole team a good understanding of the performance and reliability of the MCL40 at this crucial stage of its development. The car we will bring to Albert Park will be largely the same as the one seen in Bahrain, with a few minor aerodynamic improvements. We will continue to work on key areas such as weight reduction and weight distribution optimization, as well as exploiting the additional potential of the power unit.”

After nine days of testing that offered a glimpse of the pecking order, the tarmac of Melbourne's Albert Park will provide the first definitive answer regarding the hierarchy of the eleven manufacturers involved. Stella is eager to see this initial result: “We are eager to finally show our hand in Melbourne and see where we truly stand as the first races unfold. Everyone at McLaren has played a significant role in the development of the MCL40, but the hard work begins now, and we are ready for the challenge ahead.”

The eagerness to get going is also palpable in Rob Marshall, the technical director of the Woking-based team. It was indeed his teams who had the daunting task of developing the MCL40 while simultaneously securing the Constructors' World Championship in Singapore, and fighting to the very end, successfully, for Lando Norris's title against... Max Verstappen et Oscar piastri.

While the tests in Barcelona and Bahrain have largely helped to refine the technical basis of the carThe pressure induced by a race weekend, with only three hours of testing before qualifying, will mechanically increase the level of involvement of the entire team in order to find the best possible settings.

“We dedicated a large part of our testing program to exploring the performance and capabilities of our car, with each lap providing us with valuable additional insight into the MCL40. Particular attention was paid to the powertrain, with several aspects of the hybrid system requiring refinement, such as the timing of energy recovery and deployment in the various scenarios that a race weekend can present. This required numerous laps, but we are confident in our progress and will continue to explore areas where we can further improve performance. We now head to Melbourne and need to find the optimal setup in significantly less time and under the pressure of a race weekend on a circuit very different from those we experienced during pre-season.”

Can McLaren retain its titles in 2026? The first answers will come this weekend in Australia…

ALSO READ > Pedro de la Rosa admits that Aston Martin "doesn't have time" to sort out its problems before Melbourne