McLaren Development and F1 Reserve Driver Leonardo Fornaroli made his official Formula 1 event debut this afternoon, completing a successful Free Practice 1 programme at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in place of Lando Norris.

With the young Italian taking the Number 67 MCL40 to track at the 2026 Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, this fulfills one of the four rookie FP1 session required in the 2026 Formula 1 regulations.

Leonardo completed 22 laps in total, experiencing the 2026 challenger on track for the first time, working through a number of objectives, including valuable rake work to collect data for the team, before moving onto Soft tyre runs for the final block of his scheduled programme.

Away from the 2026 Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, Leonardo will continue to perform regular sim work in Woking throughout the season, alongside further Testing of Previous Cars (TPC) running, starting with a fourth MCL60 TPC Test at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza next week.

Oscar Piastri and Lando also successfully completed their individual programmes today, with the Australian finishing FP1 in P2 with 29 laps, before driving a further 24 laps in this afternoon's Free Practice 2 session to finish P3. Lando, who took the MCL40 to track in FP2, topped the timing sheet with a 1m15.426s lap time and 30 laps to his name.

This provides positive momentum with the team running closely with the current leaders in both of Friday's sessions on track. However, the true picture is still hard to fully read due to the variable fuel loads and run plans of these competitors, as is always the case after Free Practice on Fridays.

Nevertheless, with lots of data gathered from all three McLaren Mastercard drivers today, there are pleasing signs for the team to work with overnight in order to extract further performance, before heading into Saturday's Free Practice 3 and then the afternoon's important Qualifying session.

Lando Norris: "Today was a reasonable Friday, not perfect, but a step in the right direction. The heat and wind made it tough for everyone, so no one's feeling completely comfortable out there, but our baseline is stronger than it has been at previous events. We've come to a circuit that certainly suits us better, and the car is operating in a very different window, which is encouraging.

"Going into Qualifying tomorrow, we feel we're up there with the teams we want to fight. It's hard to read others' fuel loads and run plans, and there are still areas of the car I'm not happy with, so we need to keep improving. We'll work hard overnight to find more, and if we do, we should be in a good place to maximise tomorrow."

Oscar Piastri: "It was a pretty good Friday for us. We're pleased with the progress we've made, and the pace is a lot better than last week, which is a positive step. We seem to be in the fight at the front, which is a much more satisfying position to be in.

"The key now is to maintain this momentum into tomorrow. While the initial signs are encouraging, there's still plenty to learn and a lot more performance to find. We will keep working hard to see what more we can extract overnight ahead of Quali."

Leonardo Fornaroli: "It was an incredible feeling to complete my first official session in Formula 1. I felt good in the car and fully focused on the job ahead, looking to deliver clean runs and execute the aero program. The pure lap time wasn't our target today, even though we finished P5. The priority was to give the team all the data they needed, and I'm really happy with the work we did together.

"From here, I'll keep supporting the team in my Reserve Driver role, continue the sim work throughout the season, and look forward to more TPC running ahead of further FP1 opportunities later in the year."

Randeep Singh, Senior Racing Director: "After a couple of challenging events, it's encouraging to see we're back on the pace and seemingly in the mix with the other top teams. The characteristics of this circuit and the hotter conditions are playing a different role compared to recent races and we've shifted from trying to switch the tyres on to managing overheating and degradation, which seems to suit us better at this early stage.

"While it's too soon to say if we've fully recaptured the tyre management strengths we had last year, we are optimistic. The key for the race on Sunday will be managing degradation effectively and sustaining good, consistent pace throughout the stints. It's always difficult to be certain on a Friday, but the initial signs are positive and put us in a good position."