FIRST LOOK: McLaren unveil new livery for 2026 season

McLaren have unveiled their new livery for the 2026 season in a live event broadcast from the Bahrain International Circuit.

With just two days to go before the first official pre-season test begins, the Woking-based outfit headed to the track early to showcase their striking livery, maintaining the papaya colour palette that adorned last season's championship-winning MCL39.

Their unchanged driver line-up of reigning World Champion Lando Norris and team mate Oscar Piastri spoke alongside Team Principal Andrea Stella and CEO Zak Brown at the launch event, while Chief Marketing Officer Lou McEwen and Chief Designer Rob Marshall showcased the new livery.

McLaren have historically carried over a successful championship-winning livery through to the following campaign and this year is no different after the Teams' and Drivers' Championship successes last year. Alongside the familiar papaya the design continues to have anthracite and small hints of teal.

This design also carries over onto the drivers' overalls for the season, with Norris and Piastri donning an all-papaya fronted fire suit.

“We’re delighted to present our 2026 challenger’s livery from our second home, Bahrain," said McLaren CEO Brown. "The iconic papaya continues on the MCL40 as we keep our tradition of carrying championship-winning liveries through to the next season. 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.

“Thank you to all our committed shareholders and partners, without whom we simply wouldn’t be able to go racing, to our fans for their continued support, and to our team of people who have worked tirelessly to get us to this point in the exciting new era of Formula 1. We’re all excited to see it hit the track.”

Team Principal Stella, added: “It’s fantastic to reveal the livery for our 2026 challenger, the MCL40, as we reach an important milestone in our team’s incredible work and dedication before we begin racing this year.

“2026 marks a new challenge as we take on a new era of Formula 1 regulations. We also go into the season as an independent challenger facing five top manufacturers who all want to beat us. While we have the benefit of the lessons learned from our success in the past few years, the whole grid is restarting from zero and our past achievements count for nothing.

“Our objective is to hit the ground running, and we have the best combination of team, driver pairing, collaboration with Mercedes HPP, partners, and fans to be able to do this. We will continue to focus on creating the conditions to succeed as we approach our biggest challenge to date. It should be a fantastic season of racing for the fans, and we’re excited to get going.”

The MCL40 made it's on-track debut at the recent Barcelona Shakedown, sporting a muted black and grey one-off livery as they put the Mercedes-supplied power units through their paces ahead of the brand new season.

Norris has also elected to compete with the number 1 this year after he beat Piastri and Red Bull's Max Verstappen to the 2025 title, but any upcoming defence will face the additional hurdle of the new rules for 2026 as every team up and down the grid try to master the regulation changes as early as possible.

McLaren's 2026 livery will make its first appearance on track from February 11-13 as all 11 teams set out to gather as much data as possible during the first official pre-season test in Bahrain, with a final testing opportunity coming at the same track on February 18-20.

“It's good to be back in Bahrain to reveal the livery for this season," said Norris. "The design looks great and I'm excited to continue racing in the colours which were part of our huge success last year.

“To win the Championship with the team I've been with since the beginning was incredible. We're coming into this year as World Champions and I'm excited to see what we can achieve in this new era of Formula 1.

“A big thanks to everyone who's played a part in designing and building this car to get us to this milestone. A shoutout to all of the fans who show up week in week out and thank you to our partners for their support. I'm ready for this year and I can't wait to get back on track and keep pushing forward.”

Oscar Piastri added: “The new livery on our MCL40 looks excellent, and it’s great that we have carried through our championship-winning design from 2025. It’s always fun to race in a papaya car. Thank you to everyone back at the factory, our fans and our partners for their support.

“We’ve got a big challenge ahead with the new regulations, but I come into this year with a lot of positivity and ready to tackle this new era of Formula 1 head on. We’ve taken a lot of good learnings from last year, so I am feeling stronger than ever, and I look forward to seeing what we can achieve this year – let’s do it!”