The McLaren F1 team has officially unveiled the first images of its 2016 F1 car, the MP4-31, in an online launch.
The Woking-based outfit showed off the car’s new livery, with fewer red accents compared to last year, and new sponsors like Richard Mille and Chandon.
The MP4-31 is the second McLaren machine to be powered by Honda’s V6 Turbo power unit. The car features a number of "all-new innovations" despite a high level of continuity with the regulations. It will run for the first time at the opening winter test, from the 22-25 February.
McLaren suffered a tough 2015, with reliability problems plaguing its season. The team finished ninth in the constructors’ standings with 27 points and will be desperately hoping for a more improved campaign this year.
T-minus zero. Science and art converge. Introducing the McLaren-Honda #MP431: https://t.co/dRbocPVEP3 #TheF1Effecthttps://t.co/euv7rYCLWW
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) February 21, 2016
"First of all, we must recognise the very hard work performed over the past few months by everyone in Woking, Sakura and Milton Keynes,” said racing director Eric Boullier. "The guys have shown intense dedication throughout the winter period, and the result is that they’ve successfully kept our aggressive build and development programmes on schedule.
"As such, all our team members are a credit to McLaren-Honda, and consequently we’re incredibly grateful to everyone involved in the development of the MP4-31. But we’re never satisfied, which is why we’ve continued to strengthen our engineering team in recent weeks and months, and we’re confident that the changes we’ve made will improve and accelerate our car-development progress in the future.
"So the two Barcelona tests will merely herald the continuation of the huge collaborative task that all departments have been engaged in during the off-season. We’ll be aiming to spend the four days of the first test carefully and methodically: extracting the maximum from the time available, and concentrating our efforts on proving out our central systems, operational procedures and electronics checks.
"We’ll need to verify our work in the garage before we can expect any miracles on track – essentially, to ensure we walk before we can run. After all, testing is just that: testing. But be assured, we’re motivated and determined, and we’re pulling together."
