McLaren launches new car ahead of Silverstone shakedown
McLaren has revealed the first photographs of its new vehicle, the MCL38, ahead of its track debut at Silverstone on Wednesday.
Though the MCL38, which looks to be an improvement over last year’s car, had not been spotted until recently, its orange and black livery had been made public in January.
Wednesday marks the end of the car’s 200-kilometer filming day at Silverstone. After that, it will be shipped to Bahrain to participate in a three-day preseason test that is scheduled for February 21–23.
McLaren CEO Zak Brown stated in a statement, “It’s awesome to be able to launch our 2024 competitor, the MCL38, at Silverstone today.” “Watching our new car on the track with its 2024 livery and witnessing the team’s hard work and dedication coming together is fantastic.”
“This sport is great because it’s so competitive, but we still need to be realistic because every club will have improved during the off-season.
Bahrain is where the real litmus test for whether or not we’ve made progress will be. While we are all eager to start racing again, we are also aware that the season will be long and that much work needs to be done to guarantee that we build on the gains we made in 2023.”
After a sluggish start to the 2023 season, McLaren had a boost in the Austrian Grand Prix that helped it move up the grid and into consistent podium contention for the remainder of the season.
The MCL38 is the first McLaren to use the team’s newly constructed wind tunnel, which it began utilising in September. However, according to team principal Andrea Stella, certain development work has not been finished in time for the car’s introduction.
“We have a lot of work ahead of us, including testing the MCL38 in Bahrain prior to our competitive sessions on the track. We know we have critical things to complete before the season begins, but we are certain we can start strong because of the team’s strong performance over the winter.
Although the car has many improvements, not all of the areas we wish to improve have been finished for our launch-spec vehicle. Our in-season development, which is now underway, will now centre on those areas.”
Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris will remain in McLaren’s driver lineup since they have both agreed to long-term contracts that expire in 2026, when Formula One will transition to new technical regulations.