McLaren boss Andrea Stella has insisted his team's non-participation at the first day of Formula 1's pre-season testing event in Barcelona has been planned to allow maximum development time for their 2026 car.
The 11 teams have arranged a private five-day testing event at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya that begins on Monday as they seek to shakedown their radically new cars for the new season, with the introduction of new power units and chassis combining for what many believe is the biggest regulation change in the sport's history.
Each team is only permitted to go on track for three of the five days in Barcelona, before two further official three-day testing events arranged by Formula 1 follow in February in Bahrain.
Speaking on Tuesday in his first media appearance of the year, McLaren team principal Stella confirmed that reigning world champion Lando Norris and his team-mate Oscar Piastri won't drive on Monday.
"We plan to start testing either on day two or day three/ We will not be testing on day one," Stella said.
"We wanted to give ourselves as much time as possible for development. We will start from either day two or day three, and we will test for three days."
McLaren, who are seeking a third successive Constructors' Championship in 2026, won't be the only team that are absent on Monday, with Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur having also confirmed his plans to wait until Tuesday to hit the track.
Meanwhile, Williams have confirmed they will miss the entire event having failed to get their car ready.
Unlike Ferrari and several other teams, McLaren have not used one of their two permitted filming days for the year to shakedown the car ahead of the Barcelona event.
Stella explained: "This was always going to be plan A. There's also so much of a change that we don't need to be necessarily the first on track.
"We wanted to give as much time as possible for development because every day of development, every day of design was adding a little bit of performance.
"This also means that if you are early on track, you will have the reassurance of knowing what you need to know as soon as possible. But at the same time, it means that you might have committed to the design and the realisation of the car relatively early. So, you will have compromised against development time and ultimate performance."
After the Barcelona event, the two official tests are scheduled to take place from February 11-13 and 18-20 at the Bahrain International Circuit, before the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on March 8.
Stella added: "Obviously, there will be updates pretty much, I guess, for every car between at least testing in Barcelona and the first race, but we thought that in the economy of a season, it was important to start and launch the car in the most competitive package and configuration.
"That's why we pushed all the timing to the limit, but within a very manageable limit. So at the moment, we are on plan to be testing on day two and we didn't feel any urge to plan for testing on day one."
It remains to be seen how the weather in Barcelona could impact teams' plans, with rain currently forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday.
Given teams would favour running in dry conditions, Monday, Thursday and Friday would appear to be the most desirable days to be on track, but teams not ready for Monday will not have that option.
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