McLaren launch their new car
McLaren have revealed their new car for the 2011 Formula 1 season in a ceremony held at the Vodafone’s headquarters in Berlin today. The ceremony was attended by both drivers Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button as well as all the McLaren team officials.
McLaren used a unique way of showing the car to the media rather than the conventional curtain removing. The car was assembled in front of the people. The new car will make its track debut next week in Jerez and Hamilton will get the honour of driving it
first.
The new McLaren has some changes regarding the new FIA rules including a long flat high nose, high L-shaped side-pods, and air box tweaks. These changes will provide McLaren with a competitive edge during the new 2011 season.
McLaren’s strategy was to use the Valencia testing session to get the perfect combination of the new Pirelli tyres and optimum fuel load. They put their 2010 car, the MP4-25 to the test and drove 279 laps with it to check the degradation and balance of Pirelli
tyres.
Gary Paffett set the third fastest time on the grid and said that the tyres were performing well on the first day of testing. Hamilton put the fourth fastest time and completed 83 laps on the second day. Button jumped in on day three with 105 laps.
McLaren were second on the Constructor’s Championship last year and their drivers Hamilton and Button were ranked four and five with 240 and 214 points respectively.
The noticeable thing about McLaren’s strategy of going in to testing with the 2010 car was highlighted by the fact that during the three days, there were no problems with the car and it ran like new. While the Championship contenders Ferrari, Mercedes and
Red Bull have had all sorts of problems with their new car during the testing sessions.
Jenson Button backed the McLaren’s idea of using old car as he said, ”For us it was the best situation to go to Valencia with the old car and to drive the new Pirellis, and it is good because we can compare the tyres - and you can get lost if there is so
much going on.”
The teams that used the new cars in Valencia test will have more time to get to know the new system and resolve their problems.
McLaren’s new car will take the competitive stakes even higher than before, a point their competitors will try not to miss.
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