Celebrations for McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team's 1000th Grand Prix began on Thursday at the 2026 Monaco Grand Prix with a special exhibition run at the Circuit de Monaco.

The M2B, the team's first-ever F1 car, now owned by Richard Mille, was driven by two-time Formula 1 World Champion Mika Häkkinen, before lining up on the grid alongside the team's 1000th GP challenger, the MCL40, for a commemorative moment.

CEO Zak Brown, Team Principal Andrea Stella and drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were joined by multiple McLaren F1 Grand Prix winners from throughout our history for this special celebration, as well as F1 President & CEO Stefano Domenicali, who was also in attendance.

Today's track action saw the special 1000th Grand Prix livery come to life as the MCL40 carried it for laps in the Principality for the first time during Free Practice 1. Despite a stop-start opening session with two Red Flags interrupting proceedings, Lando and Oscar were able to collect valuable data while working through a combined 56 completed laps.

Free Practice 2 saw frustrations with the Number 1 car stopping on track after eight laps through a suspected electrical fault, which will be further investigated overnight. Oscar, driving the Number 81 car, went on to complete 27 laps in Friday's final session, finishing FP2 in P7 behind the expected front runners of Monte Carlo.

It is therefore clear that despite positive steps forward and improvements to the MCL40's setup in the afternoon session, the car is currently not in position to compete with the top three teams this weekend, which would not have been too much of a surprise coming into the weekend. However, the team will work extremely hard overnight and into Saturday's practice session to extract further performance from the car, to put both drivers in a stronger competitive position ahead of Qualifying, which will play a crucial role in Sunday's Grand Prix.

Oscar Piastri: "Today was certainly a tough day for the team. We're not where we want to be, and the gap to the front is larger than we had hoped for. We made some small steps forward between the first and second practice sessions, but we're still a second off the pace, which shows how much work we have to do.

"We need to go through the data and find some answers overnight because, as it stands, we are simply not quick enough. There's no single solution that will turn things around completely, but we will explore every option available to find performance and be in a more competitive position for the rest of the weekend."

Lando Norris: "Tricky day. We're clearly off the pace and need to find time all across the lap. Frustrating to lose track time today, as that's always important here in Monaco. The car simply turned off, so we need to investigate what happened there.

"We'll work hard overnight to try and get more performance out of the car, but realistically it's going to be difficult to compete at the front of the field this weekend based on where we are compared to the competition. It's not necessarily a surprise, but it's not where we want to be, so we'll work hard to understand what we're missing and try to recover where we can for tomorrow."

Rob Marshall, Chief Technical Officer & Chief Designer: "We faced a couple of challenges today. On the performance side, we saw some promising signs in the second and third sectors, but we were struggling for pace in the opening part of the lap. We have a few things to look at, whether it's related to tyre temperature or setup, to unlock more performance. We've brought some circuit-specific updates here, as you always do for Monaco, and we're confident in the fundamental package, but know there is work to do to put us in a more competitive position with the leading three teams this weekend.

"Lando's session was unfortunately cut short by an electrical fault which caused the car to shut down. The team is working hard to diagnose the root cause so we can ensure it doesn't happen again, and to make sure that the focus is on optimising everything for Qualifying."