McLaren have pulled the covers off their 2026 Formula 1 car. In a live-streamed event from Bahrain on Monday, drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were present along with team principal Andrea Stella and chief executive Zak Brown as they showed off the livery of the MCL40 ahead of this week’s block of pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit, which begins on Wednesday.
Reacting immediately to the livery on the live stream, Australian racer Piastri said he was pleased to see even more colour than usual when it comes to the bright orange cars that this modern iteration of the McLaren team like to race with. “I think it looks great, obviously with a bit more papaya this year, especially at the front, which is nice,” he said.
“Obviously, it’s in-keeping with the livery that has been very successful for the past few years. Just a small tweak, but it’s good to see that there is more papaya on there.” Piastri was, of course, referring to McLaren’s status as constructors’ champions in each of the last two F1 season.
And his team-mate Norris is the defending drivers’ champion, having beaten Max Verstappen to the crown last year. The Brit said of his new car: “Similar things, some small tweaks like Oscar said. The main thing is that we’ve kept the papaya and that we haven’t changed things too much. As much as I loved the [all-black] test livery that we had, this is the one that will be better throughout the course of the season on TV.”