McLaren release images of this season's new F1 car with special testing livery

The reigning Formula 1 world champions, McLaren, are in a confident mood ahead of the new season, with Team Principal Andrea Stella insisting they are in the best shape yet during his spell running the team.

Stella, who joined McLaren in 2015 initially as head of race operations, has been the team's principal since 2023 and now won back-to-back constructors' titles.

As the team look to defend both their team's championship title and Lando Norris' drivers' championship success, Stella says the team are in a good position despite the biggest regulation change in the sport's history.

Speaking at the MTC last week, Stella said, "Our attitude is an attitude of we will see where we are. But if anything, I can say that the team keeps evolving, keeps growing.

"I talked last year often about our logic, our mindset is a mindset of constant evolution. And I can see that the team enters 2026 in terms of competencies, capabilities, organisation, culture, if anything, in the strongest position that I could witness since I'm team principal.

"So wherever, independently, respectively, or where we are in testing or race one, we remain very confident that the wealth of capabilities, competencies, and the way we use them, thanks to our organisation and culture, will be a success factor in long-term enough."

Last week, the team's Technical Director of Performance Mark Temple said he felt it was too early to predict whether it was the new chassis regulations and active aerodynamics or the new hybrid power units that would have the most significant impact on the pecking order at the front of the grid.

He said: "There is obviously a reset in both areas, so variations in power units across different manufacturers will, I’m sure, play a significant role. Equally, I think we can expect a reasonable level of differentiation between aerodynamic packages and overall chassis performance.

"Maybe it’s a bit of a cop-out, but the honest answer is that it’s going to be a mixture of both. Exactly how much of each we won’t really know until we’ve completed the first couple of races.”

The team has released the images of a special livery for this week's test in Barcelona; however, the team say they will only use the first day of running for a shakedown, rather than one of its allocated testing days.