McLaren believe world champions Red Bull will begin the new Formula 1 season still ahead of the field.

Team principal Andrea Stella said after McLaren gave their car its debut: “At the start of the season, my expectation is Red Bull will keep enjoying some advantage.”

He added that his team would be “in a strong position” if they met their targets.

Driver Lando Norris said: “Are they beatable? You have to say ‘yes’.”

He added: “The question is, ‘are they beatable over a season?’ That will be very difficult.”

The new McLaren MCL38 ran for the first time on Wednesday in wet conditions at Silverstone, where Mercedes were also putting the first laps on their new car.

The car is an evolution of the design direction McLaren were following last year.

Norris said it was impossible to form any conclusions about the car in the conditions and without genuine competition.

But he added: “The main thing is I jumped in and felt very comfortable straight away.”

The 24-year-old Briton was the second highest scorer behind runaway champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull in the final 12 races of last year, following a major car upgrade that was introduced at the Austrian Grand Prix in July.

Stella said his belief that Red Bull would continue to set the pace was based on the fact that they did not develop last year’s car very much in-season because it was so fast they did not need to.

“It is reasonable to assume they will have accumulated some development onto the 2024 car,” he said.

“Having said that, if we keep the development rate we had in 2023, that we will add hopefully onto the 2024 car, I think we can be in a strong position.

“Whether that is enough to challenge Red Bull and the other top teams, we will find out.”

McLaren were one of only two teams to beat Red Bull in a race during 2023.

Their rookie driver Oscar Piastri won the sprint race at the Qatar Grand Prix from pole position.

The only driver other than Verstappen and team-mate Sergio Perez to win a grand prix last year was Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz in Singapore.

Stella said that McLaren already had development in the pipeline that was not quite ready to make it onto the car for the launch.

He said McLaren had set their sights on making progress on “aerodynamic efficiency and mechanical grip and to improve interaction with the tyres. We have been able to improve on all these three areas, even though we see there is the potential for further improvements.”

Of McLaren’s other immediate rivals, the Aston Martin, unveiled on Monday, has already run at Silverstone, as has the Red Bull, in a secret test before its official unveiling on Thursday.

The official pre-season test is in Bahrain from 21-23 February, with the first race also in the Gulf state on 2 March.