Andrea Stella says developing McLaren's MCL40 like building an aeroplane while flying

Ahead of the private Barcelona shakedown, McLaren announced that they will not arrive at the venue on the first day as their MCL40 will not be ready.

They claimed that was due to their plan to stretch the design phase till the last moment possible, which consequently affects the parts production and assembly of the car.

However, the 2025 F1 Champions managed to put in three days of running, and while they faced some reliability issues, in particular with the fuel system.

Reflecting on the test in a Q&A session on McLaren's website, Stella explained: "Of course, we would have liked to have done more laps, but even the difficulties that slowed us down on the first two days were important in helping us to better understand how to operate the car.

"We were well aware that by pushing the design phase to the limit, we would arrive at this shakedown very tight in terms of preparation, but thanks to the work done on the track and at Woking, we managed to make up almost all the lost time: it was a bit like building an aeroplane while in flight, but we did it," he added.

The MCL40 will be the machine with which Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri defend McLaren's constructors' title while Norris defends his own crown.

Given the dominance of its predecessor, the MCL39, the MCL40 will have some big shoes to fill.

Asked whether the McLaren 2026 car behaved as expected during running at the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya, Stella said: "What we saw on the track was in line with expectations and, above all, with the simulations.

"What emerged clearly is that the learning curve is very steep for everyone—drivers and teams alike—which means that every lap teaches you something useful in terms of performance. After all, it was natural to expect such a scenario, considering that these cars are totally new, from A to Z.

"We know that the MCL40 is a good starting point," the Italian claimed, "but now we have to work hard to develop it and, through our knowledge the car, improve the overall performance of the package, both for the immediate future and to further define the development lines during the season."

And when quizzed on which area the team needs to focus on during development, Stella responded: "Although these are very preliminary indications, I believe that one of the areas where there is great room for improvement is in exploiting the new power unit and all the options available to the driver.

"There is also a lot of potential to be extracted in terms of managing the variable aerodynamic configuration, referring to the alternation between Corner and Straight Mode.

"That said, it is obvious that this generation of single-seaters is at a very early stage of development: four years ago, when ground effect cars made their debut, we were in different circumstances because the power unit and tyres were essentially unchanged from the previous year," the McLaren boss explained.