Mclaren MCL40

[Stu]

Even the bargeboard thingy looks the same as those in the renders.

The ‘bargeboard’ in the render is not as simple as everyone seems to think.

[Fred]

Sidepods look like the renders? Floor looks like the renders too? Very basic barge area. No obvious diffuser hole.
https://i.postimg.cc/WzHXtgJx/Ska-rmavb ... -01-38.png

It looks identical to the renders. I wonder if they’re just running that variant for now since these tests are more for the engines and to make sure the cars are running, which would allow them to hide these more sensitive components for now? Maybe at the next tests they’ll start looking to learn more about aero correlation and that’s when we’ll see the final parts? That or maybe this is the first spec, but I find that very difficult to believe.

[Emag]

Sidepods look like the renders? Floor looks like the renders too? Very basic barge area. No obvious diffuser hole.
https://i.postimg.cc/WzHXtgJx/Ska-rmavb ... -01-38.png

It looks identical to the renders. I wonder if they’re just running that variant for now since these tests are more for the engines and to make sure the cars are running, which would allow them to hide these more sensitive components for now? Maybe at the next tests they’ll start looking to learn more about aero correlation and that’s when we’ll see the final parts? That or maybe this is the first spec, but I find that very difficult to believe.

They confirmed that what you see here will be pretty much what they will run australia with. Up to anyone's guess what they include in that "pretty much".

[CjC]

The front wing end plate wing is huge, nearly the full width of the front tyre.

It looks like the most complex front wing we have seen so far.

The triple element rear wing looks different to the others as well.

[bananapeel23]

Hopefully we get photos of the car that aren't in bigfoot quality soon. I'm sure the car will have a lot of interesting things going on like the other top teams.

[Nicktendo86]

Looks very tight at the rear, coupled with the high rake looks like a red bull of a few years ago which is pretty much what I expected with Rob Marshall as chief designer.

[Badger]

Sidepods look like the renders? Floor looks like the renders too? Very basic barge area. No obvious diffuser hole.
https://i.postimg.cc/WzHXtgJx/Ska-rmavb ... -01-38.png

It looks identical to the renders. I wonder if they’re just running that variant for now since these tests are more for the engines and to make sure the cars are running, which would allow them to hide these more sensitive components for now? Maybe at the next tests they’ll start looking to learn more about aero correlation and that’s when we’ll see the final parts? That or maybe this is the first spec, but I find that very difficult to believe.

I guess. But if this is just a pre-season spec I don't know why they were in such a time crunch.

Looking closer it does seem like some development has gone into the floor and the barge area, but nothing like the other teams. This to me seems like a "no risk" car, and then they will perhaps try to follow the concept that works best in the first few races.

But maybe it will work. That sidepod concept worked very well in the previous gen and there's nothing yet to suggest it won't be good again. It's just the other top teams have changed more.

[Peter Ian Staker]

Fully expect the car to look a lot different in Barcelona.

Well scratch that...

[Darth-Piekus]

Hopefully we get photos of the car that aren't in bigfoot quality soon. I'm sure the car will have a lot of interesting things going on like the other top teams.

Will this help? It doesnt look like the render in either the front wing which is the best in my opinion so far or the floor and there is a little wing behind the back brake also.

https://i.postimg.cc/63NqRpZG/17695947297275.webp

[Watto]

Fully expect the car to look a lot different in Barcelona.

Well scratch that...

Just tell everyone you meant the race in Barcelona.

Looks very basic I wonder if they are looking at a very basic package and looking more at cooling before they add anything make sure they have their correlation in check and who knows it could be very effective so wait and see,

[WardenOfTheNorth]

Sidepods look like the renders? Floor looks like the renders too? Very basic barge area. No obvious diffuser hole.
https://i.postimg.cc/WzHXtgJx/Ska-rmavb ... -01-38.png

It looks identical to the renders. I wonder if they’re just running that variant for now since these tests are more for the engines and to make sure the cars are running, which would allow them to hide these more sensitive components for now? Maybe at the next tests they’ll start looking to learn more about aero correlation and that’s when we’ll see the final parts? That or maybe this is the first spec, but I find that very difficult to believe.

They confirmed that what you see here will be pretty much what they will run australia with. Up to anyone's guess what they include in that "pretty much".

Isn't the quote from Rob Marshall "Between Barcelona and Melbourne, I think what you see is probably pretty much what we'll bring to the first race"

That to me suggests that they won't have anything new for Melbourne, but that we'll see new parts in the tests between now and then.

[Emag]

Sidepods look like the renders? Floor looks like the renders too? Very basic barge area. No obvious diffuser hole.
https://i.postimg.cc/WzHXtgJx/Ska-rmavb ... -01-38.png

It looks identical to the renders. I wonder if they’re just running that variant for now since these tests are more for the engines and to make sure the cars are running, which would allow them to hide these more sensitive components for now? Maybe at the next tests they’ll start looking to learn more about aero correlation and that’s when we’ll see the final parts? That or maybe this is the first spec, but I find that very difficult to believe.

I guess. But if this is just a pre-season spec I don't know why they were in such a time crunch.

Looking closer it does seem like some development has gone into the floor and the barge area, but nothing like the other teams. This to me seems like a "no risk" car, and then they will perhaps try to follow the concept that works best in the first few races.

Agreed. Looking at this gave me the same feeling of "thats it?" as when I saw the RB13 for the first time back in 2017.

[bananapeel23]

Hopefully we get photos of the car that aren't in bigfoot quality soon. I'm sure the car will have a lot of interesting things going on like the other top teams.

Will this help? It doesnt look like the render in either the front wing which is the best in my opinion so far or the floor and there is a little wing behind the back brake also.

https://i.postimg.cc/63NqRpZG/17695947297275.webp

That's an incredibly cool front wing. Also interesting to see such a clearly downwashing canard. I wonder what it could be doing. I never even imagined the possibility of seeing a canard with a positive angle of attack.

Also the main elements are extremely focused on the edges near the endplates, with a very low profile near the nose.

Isn't the quote from Rob Marshall "Between Barcelona and Melbourne, I think what you see is probably pretty much what we'll bring to the first race"

That to me suggests that they won't have anything new for Melbourne, but that we'll see new parts in the tests between now and then.

On another note, the wing is beautiful and looks enormously more complex than any other 2026 wing I've seen so far. I guess this tracks with it supposedly being the spec they will bring to Melbourne, while many other top teams will likely bring new specs to Bahrain and Melbourne.

[Darth-Piekus]

That's an incredibly cool front wing. Also interesting to see such a clearly downwashing canard. I wonder what it could be doing. I never even imagined the possibility of seeing a canard with a positive angle of attack.

Also the main elements are extremely focused on the edges near the endplates, with a very low profile near the nose.

On another note, the wing is beautiful and looks enormously more complex than any other 2026 wing I've seen so far.

From what I see on this picture the car looks nothing like the render. The floor and floor endplates seem to be different, the front wing seem to be different, the rear wing has differences and there are small wings in the back brakes. But we need clearer pictures to be sure.

[HungarianRacer]

Not to be a party pooper, but what makes this front wing "enormously more complex than any other 2026 wing" exactly? The massive downwashing canards?
In 2022, the Mercedes W13 launched with exceptionally outboard-biased front wing cord lenghts too very similar to this, yet "boring", evenly-loaded wings ended up the winning concept, just saying...