McLaren is to skip the opening day of next week's 'private' test at Barcelona, while fans will miss the first week of the Bahrain test.

Next week's test is being held behind closed doors over the course of five days, with each team allowed three days track time.

McLaren team boss, Andrea Stella has revealed why the Woking day will skip the first day of the test next Monday.

"We plan to start testing either in day two or day three," he told reporters. "So we will not be testing in day one.

"We wanted to give ourselves as much time as possible for development," he explained. "You may know that you are allowed to test three days over the five that are available in Barcelona and then we will start from, either day two or day three and we will test for three days.

"This was always going to be plan A," he insisted, "there's also so much of a change that we don't need to be necessarily the first on track. We wanted to give, like I said before, as much time as possible for development because every day of development every day of design was adding a little bit of performance.

"If you are early on track, you will have the reassurance of knowing what you need to know as soon as possible," he admitted, "but at the same time it means that you might have committed to the design and the realisation of the car relatively early. So you will have a compromise against development time and ultimate performance."

At a time only two teams have given a glimpse of their 2026 contenders, the Italian admits that the cars seen in Melbourne will differ from those witnessed in Spain and Bahrain.

"Obviously there will be updates pretty much I guess for every car between testing and at least testing in Barcelona and the first race," he said. "But we thought that in the economy of a season it was important to start and launch the car in the most competitive package and configuration that's why we pushed all the timing to the limit - but within a very manageable limit. We are on plan to be testing on day two and we didn't feel any urge to plan for testing on day one."

Meanwhile, at a time the teams are using social media to whip fans into a frenzy, it has been revealed that in addition to being 'locked out' of the Barcelona test, there will be minimal coverage of the first test in Bahrain.

In fact, at the end of each of the three days fans will get just one hour of live coverage, which will include highlights of what happened earlier. the second test, which runs from 18 - 20 February, will be covered in full.

The decision to give scant coverage to the opening test is seen as a slap in the face for the same fans that the teams are consistently praising, while some see the decision to effectively make the first Bahrain test a closed test like Barcelona, as a case of 'what are they hiding', or 'what do they fear might happen'.

After months of building anticipation it seems a very strange move.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Celtic Tiger, 2 hours ago

"I imagine the restriction is a nervous FIA covering its a*se from embarrassment, since the last time a new engine came around in 2014, they got a copious amount of egg on their face over the sh*te sounding engines that no one liked."

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2. Posted by Laps, 4 hours ago

"I suspect that FIA are aware that the 2026 are far from being a balanced mechanical/electrical package and they are hoping that the Teams can do some ‘polishing-of-the-excrement’ before us great unwashed get to see this. "

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3. Posted by Batman, 6 hours ago

"I bet the fear teams will have is that fans may be able to see drivers running with kneeboard “how stuff works” notes."

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4. Posted by Anthony, 6 hours ago

"It does indeed seem very odd to restrict coverage to this extent unless it is expected that the cars will be very unreliable….."

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McLaren to miss first day of Barcelona test

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