McLaren’s pre-season will unofficially end on February 13, when Andrea Stella’s team will complete the work dedicated to the 2026 Pirelli tires at Jerez. The English team has already clocked up a good number of kilometers with next year’s prototype tyres.
These new tires are narrower and lighter than Pirelli’s current iteration. McLaren have been very busy with Pirelli in the first weeks of the year compared to other teams – who will be more active in later months.
Pirelli schedules these tests based on the availability of teams. Their aim is to balance their track time with different teams as much as possible throughout the year.
Along with Ferrari, the Woking team concluded two days of testing in Barcelona by testing dry tires for the first time. McLaren’s focus in a previous test in France was wet tire running.
In Barcelona, Norris and Piastri split running with the Pirelli C3- C1 range. In Jerez, together with Alpine and Mercedes, McLaren will have the chance to work on a range of softer compounds. These sessions are fundamental for the Italian tire manufacturer.
McLaren and Ferrari, same goal but different means and aerodynamic configurations
Last September, Aston Martin was the first to test the 2026 configuration tyres, again in Barcelona. The Silverstone team used their 2022 car, with a medium-low aerodynamic load setup, a clear difference from the more unloaded configurations Ferrari and McLaren ran their test days.
As we previously reported, Andrea Stella and Frédéric Vasseur’s teams wanted to use “mule-cars”. These modified cars feature unloaded rear wings, almost neutral, unusual for a track like Barcelona which usually demands the opposite.
Since the return of Venturi channels in 2022, aerodynamicists have generated increasing amounts of load. Last season, it was the front end where engineers managed to unlock the most performance.
It is therefore unsurprising that McLaren ran an experimental MCL60 in Spain – featuring a rear wing specification used in Monza two years ago. However, they also used a visually more loaded front wing than their Maranello competitors who, on the contrary, ran with the least possible load on the front end.
McLaren, therefore, went for an option halfway between the approaches used by Aston Martin and Ferrari. These aerodynamic choices are often informed by the relative progress of teams in months prior
Why Ferrari used a mule version of the SF-24 over the SF-23….
Ferrari decided to take part in the Barcelona test with their 2024 car. This is the most recent car they are permitted to use for Pirelli tests by the regulations. It also generates more downforce than its predecessors.
For this reason, the SF-24 went to track with the most unloaded aerodynamic configuration of any team to test the 2026 tires so car.
McLaren opted to collect data with a specification that is less ‘distant’ to the 2026 cars. Ferrari, as far as we understand, did not want this approach, opting for a different compromise with the “fresher” SF-24.
The old and problematic SF-23 is certainly not the best car to use for data collection. It’s poor operating window, cooling issues and suspension dynamics are all very different from the SF-24.
McLaren, on the other hand, aims to partially reuse components on the 2024 car on the “MCL39” from the start of 2025. This is another reason why Ferrari did not use their ’24 car for these Pirelli tests.
Ferrari’s car, meanwhile, will see 99% of its components changed. This includes a completely revised chassis compared to the SF-24, making it a logical choice to use the 2024 car for these crucial 2026 tire tests.
