F1 | McLaren faces early challenges as MCL40 shows major issues. After the Barcelona tests, McLaren’s MCL40 has revealed some issues that could complicate the early races.

After the days of testing in Barcelona, several issues have emerged that could make life difficult for McLaren in the early races of the 2026 Formula 1 season.

The new season has started on a slightly uphill path for the team that dominated last year. At McLaren, some problems have surfaced that could make the first Grands Prix of 2026 a bit challenging for Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, the current F1 world champion.

Is the MCL40 fast? Insights from the shakedown

Even though it is too early to draw conclusions about the relative strengths of the teams in this new era, we can already get a first impression from the Spanish tests while waiting for the Bahrain sessions. It is true that McLaren arrived under pressure, but the encouraging aspect — and the one that still raises concern — is that once the car hit the track, it performed without major issues, except for a small fuel pump failure.

Both drivers were able to complete as many laps as possible, getting acquainted with the new generation of cars and putting significant mileage on the engine. Starting next week, as preparations continue at the Sakhir circuit, the MCL40 will begin testing itself directly against all rivals, trying to replicate the performance of last season.

McLaren issues: a challenging start to the season?

Despite this, however, according to Autoracer.it, the new car appears to have a significant problem that has also been observed by other teams. The 2026 McLaren seems to be carrying substantial extra weight. To address this, engineers in Woking are already working on solutions, and updates aimed at reducing the car’s weight are expected after Melbourne.

A similar problem has affected Williams even more significantly. The team with Carlos Sainz and Alexander Albon, in fact, had to modify their chassis after failing the crash test, which pushed their car 20 to 30 kilograms over the weight limit.

The technical battle to reach the minimum weight limit has become the first major hurdle of the 2026 era, and McLaren’s ability to address this “overweight” issue will likely determine if Lando Norris can successfully defend his crown in the early part of the year. As the teams head to Bahrain, the scales may be just as important as the stopwatches in defining the early-season favorites.