In the week when the newly reformed McLaren-Honda partnership announced its driver lime-up for the 2015 Formula 1 season, the team have announced that their 2015 car has already passed the mandatory FIA Crash Tests.
With testing not due to begin until February 01st at the Spanish circuit of Jerez, the team are the first to confirm that their car for 2015 has passed the tests, although McLaren have yet to announce the date when their MP4-30 will be launched.
It is a different story than what occurred ahead of the 2014 season, when the MP4-29 only passed its mandatory tests a week before the first pre-season test after initially failing to pass them; the car was launched just three days later.
Recently tightened regulations dictate that cars must pass these tests before taking to the track at all, rather than before the first race as it had been.
McLaren announced that Fernando Alonso would partner Jenson Button in the team for the 2015 season, with Kevin Magnussen stepping down to the role of reserve driver, while Stoffel Vandoorne has declared that he is still a member of the McLaren team but will be focusing on taking the GP2 Series crown.
