The McLaren F1 Team have become the latest team to launch their new car for the 2018 Formula 1 season – unveiling their highly anticipated papaya orange and blue challenger.
This will be the first year in McLaren’s illustrious fifty-two year history in the sport with a Renault Sport power unit for the team after they parted ways with Honda midway through 2017 after three years of reliability issues and significant power deficits.
The biggest talking point is the MCL33’s radical new colour scheme – papaya orange that is a nod to McLaren’s history with pops of electric blue. This marks a step-away from last year’s orange and black livery and was highly requested by the fans. It is the same colour (‘Papaya Spark’) that Fernando Alonso ran on his car in 2017’s Indianapolis 500.
In terms of the car itself, the ‘engineering philosophy of the MCL33 follows the roots established by its predecessor‘, with many of the changes and improvements coming as a result of data collated throughout last season. The biggest changes are inevitably the introduction of the halo and also, building a car that optimises the packaging of the new Renault engine.
The driver line-up remains the same as the previous year, with Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne hoping for more luck and success than 2017. Lando Norris is the official reserve driver for the team for 2018.
McLaren will conduct a shake-down and filming day at an unnamed Spanish track today before official testing starts next Monday at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
