Reigning Formula 1 champions McLaren have revealed their 2026 livery at a launch event in Bahrain ahead of the resumption of preseason testing this week.
McLaren ran an all-black interim livery during their first week of testing in Spain last month before unveiling its full race livery at an event on Monday.
The new livery continues with McLaren’s now-familiar papaya and black colourway, albeit with more of the papaya orange associated with the team’s earliest F1 cars.
“The iconic papaya continues on the MCL40 as we keep our tradition of carrying Championship-winning liveries through to the next season,” McLaren CEO Zak Brown said.
“Racing performance is also at the forefront of design when exploring creative routes, and we’ve balanced creative direction with aero considerations to create this striking 2026 competitor.”
The team won the constructors’ title and the drivers’ title with Lando Norris in 2025 and is hoping to defend those crowns under a new set of chassis and power unit regulations for 2026.
Norris will continue at the team in 2026 alongside Oscar Piastri, who finished third in last year’s championship despite leading the standings for a large proportion of the season.
Ahead of two weeks of testing in Bahrain, McLaren CEO Zak Brown said it was still too early to know if his team will be able to defend its titles in 2026.
“I think it’s very early days, I think very risky to judge,” he said. “What I would say is we feel like we’ll be competitive.
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“The top four teams all seemed very competitive, so very early days, but there are indications that we will be strong.
“But I think it would be premature to make any predictions beyond an initial few days of testing.
“Obviously, things will start to become a little bit clearer over the next two weeks.”
The opening race of the 2026 season will get underway in Australia on March 8.
