This is the new livery design from McLaren, as the Woking-based team revealed its 2022 challenger, the MCL36, at a special launch event.
In a live event held at it’s impressive factory featuring drivers Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren became the fourth team to unveil its new Formula 1 car – following the 2022 designs revealed by Haas, Aston Martin and Red Bull’s livery event earlier.
Of the three 2022 designs shown so far, the MCL36 is notable for featuring a third different take on the new regulations regarding rear bodywork – with the car being similar to Aston Martin’s approach in extending the surfaces backwards, as opposed to the Haas team’s narrow and sharply drooping bodywork that leaves more of the top surface of the floor exposed.
Unlike the Aston Martin, the new McLaren’s bodywork appears to be not so tightly packaged around its Mercedes engine.
The MCL36’s colours retain the papaya orange main element, but the blue secondary detail is lighter for 2022.
The car’s colours appear to be much closer to the one-off livery inspired by team sponsor Gulf that McLaren ran at the 2021 Monaco Grand Prix, than compared to the darker blue the team has used for the last four seasons.
In the same event, McLaren also unveiled the liveries of the cars it will enter in the 2022 IndyCar campaign for Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist, as well as for the team it will enter in Extreme E for the first time – all of which take their cues from the colours on the MCL36.
Speaking as the MCL36 was revealed, McLaren CEO Zak Brown said: “I’m delighted to see us launch all three McLaren Racing programmes across the Formula 1, IndyCar and Extreme E championships today.
“This is a first for us as a team, and in the wider world of motorsport, and it’s been fantastic to see how excited the fans have been as they get ready to join us on the next part of our journey.
“Our Formula 1 team continues to make great progress year-on-year with Andreas Seidl [team principal] at the helm, and this new era of regulations represents a real opportunity for the team.
“I’m excited to see Lando and Daniel get behind the wheel of the MCL36 and take it to the competition this year.
“Lando made great progress in 2021, scoring four podiums, and Daniel’s sensational victory in Monza reminded the team what it feels like to win again.
“As we head into 2022, we’re looking to build on that progress and further close the gap to the teams at the front.”
McLaren fans, your #MCL36. ? pic.twitter.com/2zUKH8Gc2B
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) February 11, 2022
McLaren is the second team so far to launch its 2022 season by unveiling a physical car – with Haas opting to only release rendered images of its VF-22 (with the real initial design of the American team set to be revealed with a brief launch event in the pitlane at the upcoming first test at Barcelona last this month) and Red Bull painting an F1 show car in the colour scheme its RB18 will use this year.
James Key, McLaren’s executive director, technical, said his squad “can be proud of presenting a real car because it absolutely is”.
He added: “It’s the car we’ll be taking to Barcelona. Yes, we’ve hidden a few bits and pieces for obvious reasons, there are some sensitive areas, but that will all be seen when we’re running the car.”
This Gulf-inspired livery looks fantastic and the new 2022 rules have certainly make these racing car look faster. Best of luck to the team, Daniel and Lando for the upcoming Formula 1 season.
Official website:
https://www.mclaren.com/racing/2022/car-launch/mclaren-unveils-2022-formula-1-indycar-and-extreme-e-contenders/
Social media:
https://twitter.com/McLarenF1/status/1492220131296088067?cxt=HHwWhsC4ybSTt7UpAAAA
https://twitter.com/McLarenF1/status/1492220731924570117?cxt=HHwWioCzza-2t7UpAAAA
https://twitter.com/McLarenF1/status/1492227166150483973?cxt=HHwWioCzqfKsurUpAAAA
News stories:
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.breaking-mclaren-showcase-bold-new-livery-as-they-reveal-2022-challenger-the.5etd9Tgo3ivFuzQIJFNt5r.html
https://the-race.com/formula-1/mark-hughes-mclarens-unconventional-2022-suspension-explained/
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/mclaren-monaco-gulf-livery-colour-tweak/8084627/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/60333393
https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/12539418/mclaren-launch-formula-1-2022-car-with-aggressive-new-look-and-hopes-of-acing-rules-reset
Ricciardo: I didn’t know my strengths before 2021 struggles. Motorsport.com provides the story.
Daniel Ricciardo says he “didn’t really know my strengths” as a Formula 1 driver prior to his 2021 McLaren struggles that forced him to dig deep and adjust his style.
Ricciardo experienced a rollercoaster first season with McLaren in 2021 that saw him initially struggle to match teammate Lando Norris for pace, enduring a difficult run to the summer break.
But Ricciardo took a memorable victory at Monza as he scored McLaren’s first win since 2012, leading Norris home for a 1-2 finish.
The Australian’s driving style did not appear to suit the McLaren MCL35M at points, making the rule changes and new generation of cars from 2022 a chance to reset.
Ricciardo felt there were plenty of lessons he could take from his difficult moments last year, revealing that they helped teach him what his particular strengths were as an F1 driver.
“There’s a lot I can use from that moving forward, simply because yeah, it kind of occurred to me that I didn’t really know my strengths,” Ricciardo said at the launch of the McLaren MCL36 on Friday.
“I knew that I could be very fast – but I thought maybe because I have got bigger balls in the high-speed corners and I just care less! I don’t know.
“But going through it, I realised OK, this is what made me fast in years past. This is what actually gives me confidence in the car, and this is actually where I’m better than others, in this part, and that was at times when I couldn’t do it in the car, so that’s kind of how I discovered that.”
Ricciardo explained how he went through the process of figuring out why he was struggling to adjust to last year’s McLaren, and that helped highlight more of his own racing characteristics.
“I was trying to get the car to do that, like, this is what got me to the dance so to speak, let me do this and I’ll do well,” he said.
“But then there’s the reality of things not being an overnight fix, and I need to work on myself and adapt my style to get it going.
“I definitely learned my strengths. I think my weaknesses I guess became more apparent, but it was really the weird one figuring out why I was quick, why I’d been quick.”
Following his arrival at Woking last year, Ricciardo was able to influence the characteristics of the new MCL36, and said he was banging the drum “pretty loudly” to iron out the elements he struggled with last year.
“From very early on, from when I first got into the car, I was relaying information on this is what is different to the Renault or the Red Bull, so I was already kind of feeding information,” Ricciardo said.
“As we were more races deep in, I was still kind of not doing as well as I thought, so I was beating it a little bit louder. The positive was that Lando was also in agreement to that, and he would have like to have these attributes as well in the car, and what we could do with it.
“There’s a lot of emphasis on that for this year’s car, but it’s also a whole new car so we don’t know if that is also the best way to drive this car.
“I was beating [the drum], but the team also acknowledged that this is a strength of Daniel, he’s proven to be very fast, so we also want to give him this so we can also get the most out of Daniel.”
‘It’s definitely a big opportunity’ says Norris as McLaren reveal 2022-spec MCL36. Formula1.com article:
Lando Norris was one of the stars of the 2021 season. And despite a major regulations overhaul this season that could disrupt the competitive order, Norris said he was confident of taking another step in 2022, as he launched McLaren’s new MCL36 alongside team mate Daniel Ricciardo.
Norris took four podiums and a career-best sixth in the drivers’ standings in what was a coming-of-age 2021 season for the Briton. And speaking at the launch of the all-new McLaren MCL36 – built to 2022’s sweeping new technical regulations – Norris said he was looking to kick on again this season.
“It’s definitely a big opportunity,” said Norris, who earlier this week signed a contract extension with McLaren that will keep him at the team until at least the end of 2025. “As a driver, personally, there’s going to be a big opportunity, and to come out of the blocks strong will always be a good thing, especially when, or if, you’re going to have to change your driving style and so on.
“Potentially you could probably make a bigger difference than you could in previous years, if you understand how to drive the car and so on. So definitely a big opportunity for us as drivers, rather than just the car being the opportunity for us to make the most of it.”
Asked, meanwhile, whether he felt the new regulations – which put a large onus on ‘ground effect’ to generate downforce – would suit his driving style, Norris replied: “That’s a question I don’t know just yet. We obviously have some ideas from the simulator and so on, but till we actually get on the track, and see what it’s like and so on, that’s a question that has to be answered.
“I kind of hope it suits my driving style and everything’s groovy but there’s definitely going to be things no matter what that I have to adapt to and change to and I think that will be the case with everyone.
“But of course, there are opportunities for me to continue last year’s progress and I’ll try and make that next step.”
Asked, meanwhile, what his personal goals were for in 2022, Norris said he was targeting greater “consistency”, as he rued missing out on big points-scoring opportunities in 2021 – most notably when he came within an ace of taking his maiden Grand Prix win in Russia, having secured his maiden pole position the day before.
“The more basic thing is to increase consistency just that little bit more,” said Norris. “I think it took a very good step from two years ago to last season. And to not have these little mistakes that were very costly.
“Just a couple of things along the way that led me to not score the points when I should have done, and I think that was only maybe on two occasions or so, but a few when maybe I was eighth and I should have finished fifth or sixth, and made that bigger step to gain us more points. So consistency, just making sure I’m in Q3 when I have every opportunity to be in Q3… And just being there when it counts.
“I look forward to continuing how I did last year hopefully,” he added. “Feeling confident in myself, confident in my driving, and I feel like I can lead the team… I feel like I can be in a place where I can lean on the team if they need to help me, and I can help the team if [they need].”
Norris will hit the track in the new MCL36 at a shakedown in Barcelona, ahead of pre-season running at the track on February 23.