McLaren’s 2025 challenger has broke cover at Silverstone this week, after the team ran it for the first time on track.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were given the chance to drive the car for the first time as part of a filming day at the track, in which they completed laps around the Silverstone circuit.
Teams are allowed to complete up to 200km of running during these filming days, which equates to 33 laps of the Silverstone circuit.
The MCL39 adorned a special cameo livery, which Norris said was a ‘fun’ way to draw attention to their car, ahead of the full livery launch at F1’s 75th Anniversary event in London. The team also said they did not want to wrap it in last year’s livery as it could potentially show off any changes to the car.
Although the cameo livery is designed to make it difficult to spot details in the car, F1 technical experts at The Race have been trawling away at the latest photos to find out the main differences to their 2024 challenger.
The main differences spotted on McLaren’s ‘revised’ MCL39
There is a lot of anticipation over McLaren’s 2025 challenger, considering the team goes into the season trying to defend their Constructors Championship title.
McLaren delayed bringing any significant upgrades to the MCL38 at the end of last year, through fears that it might upset their strong car balance they had in the title hunt.
Now it appears they have made two significant changes to their car, with a revised and slightly slimmer sidepod, along with a shorter engine cover, and a new wing mirror configuration.
Their 2025 challenger was always going to be an evolution of what they had last year, given that teams are now free to focus on their 2026 challengers.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri give first impressions of 2025 car
Norris and Piastri completed their first runs in the car at Silverstone and expressed their confidence in the season.
The drivers will next get the chance to drive the MCL39 at F1 pre-season testing in Bahrain, where they will complete three days of running.
READ MORE: All you need to know about McLaren F1 Team from team principal to engine
Every team will be given at least eight hours of track time during each of the three days, providing there is no stoppages or reliability problems.
Team’s usually split the running so drivers get the same amount of time in the car, so each driver either does two seperate full days and one half day, or they each do half a day over the course of the three.
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