McLaren has taken to the track for the first time in the MCL60 F1 car during a shakedown run in Bahrain.
The Woking-based squad is the 10th outfit to release its current car onto the track ahead of the 2023 Formula 1 campaign.
Teams are permitted to have two runs outside of official sessions per year, with running limited to 100km and non-race-spec tyres being mandated.
McLaren launched its MCL60 car on February 13, but opted to wait until it arrived in Bahrain ahead of testing to conduct its shakedown.
The team ended the 2022 season fifth in the Championship standings, losing out to Alpine.
McLaren admitted at the launch that it wasn’t entirely happy with its launch car, but is confident that in-season upgrades will aid its pace.
“[It’s] always difficult to translate what you see over the winter in terms of development into where you’re going to be in terms of pecking order,” said team boss Andrea Stella.
“But, we try to relate this to ourselves and, as I said before, I think while we are happy with the development of the car in most of the areas, there is some areas which we realised a little late into the development some really strong directions.
“So, not necessarily we will be able to capitalise these directions in the very short term, and that’s why I also talk about the developments coming just after the start of the season.
“So in this sense, I just invoke realism. In a way, it’s more relative to ourselves but it’s such a competitive game that I would be surprised if – normally you need to be totally happy and totally at the top of what you can do to achieve your targets let’s say – that’s why we talk about realism.”
The car will be back on track later this week during pre-season testing, which runs from Thursday to Saturday at the Bahrain International Circuit.
McLaren is fielding Lando Norris alongside rookie Oscar Piastri for the upcoming campaign.
