Posted on 24th February 2017
This morning the McLaren-Honda team has their 2017 car, MCL32 Formula 1 car that it will race during the 2017 season.
In an online launch this morning, their drivers Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne pulled of the covers to reveal an-all new black, orange and white livery during a presentation at the McLaren Technology Centre.
The switch back to the colour, long associated with McLaren and its early days in motor racing, has been rumoured and teased for months since Zak Brown took over as CEO following the departure of Ron Dennis. The break from the Dennis era goes further than the livery, with the ‘MP4’ prefix (which stands for Marlboro Project Four and used for its F1 car names since Dennis’ arrival in 1981) dropped in favour of the all-new MCL.
The MCL32 car itself features the long sharkfin which has become a characteristic of the new 2017 cars. McLaren is entering the third year of its partnership with Honda, but the team has been unable to recreate the glory days of the late 1980s and early 1990s and both parties have not scored a win or a podium since Honda returned in 2015.
Fernando Alonso remains at the team for a third season and is joined by 2015 GP2 champion and junior driver programme graduate Stoffel Vandoorne, who had a one-off debut at Bahrain last year when he deputised for the Spaniard and finished ninth.
After languishing in ninth in the constructors’ championship in the first year of its Honda reunion in 2015, McLaren moved up to sixth last year. With McLaren and Honda hoping for improvements in reliability and performance from each other, coupled with a chassis McLaren believed was one of the best on the grid, enabled the alliance to fight towards the front of the midfield. Both parties are expecting a further step forward for 2017.
All I can say is that she's a beauty and has a McLaren fan (incase you didn't know), I hope this car is the step forward back to competitive ways and gives the results the team deserves and also its drivers as well.
Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa
