Category: Motor Racing

The famous Formula 1 team and motor manufacturer are reunited for the upcoming season. This is the new McLaren-Honda MP4-30 which was unveiled on the team’s social media network.

The Woking-based outfit hopes that progress in its design structure, as well as its new relationship with Honda, can help Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso move back to the competitive end of the grid.

The silver, red and black race car features a long low nose design without the thumb extension seen on the Williams FW37 – and a tightly packaged rear end around the new power unit.

It also features a split roll-hoop inlet. The MP4-30 has been heavily influenced by chief engineer Peter Prodromou, who arrived at McLaren from Red Bull Racing.

Honda is returning to Formula 1 after a six-year absence, and is renewing a relationship with McLaren that delivered multiple victories and world titles from 1988 to 1992.

Honda’s motorsport chief Yasuhira Arai said that the design of the MP4-30 was one of no-compromise as the Japanese manufacturer bid to make a success of its return.

“As you can see with the new MP4-30, we’ve dedicated ourselves as one team with McLaren to creating a new car that compromises on nothing – either power or aerodynamics,” he said.

“Yet, in the midst of the excitement, both myself and our engineers are 100 per cent focused in both Sakura and Milton Keynes to prepare for Jerez and beyond. We’re confident that the technology is there, and I’m looking forward to see how it will perform.

“We’re about to commence a long season, with numerous challenges, but Honda is determined to face them head-on. After all, we’re here to drive Formula 1’s technology forward and give our fans a thrilling ride.”

With Fernando Alonso back to McLaren after a period with Renault (2008-2009) and Ferrari (2010-2014), the double world champion hope that this car can deliver that third title. As for Jenson Button, this is a great opportunity for him to remain commitment to the sport despite the off-season rumors of retirement.

It’s going to be a fascinating to see if this experience world champion partnership, along with the Honda engine, will return back to the glory days. Huge expectations is on everyone at McLaren to succeed and win that elusive championship this season.

Lotus F1 became the third team to unveil their 2015 challenger by releasing images of the new Mercedes-powered E23 Hybrid via social media.

The Enstone-based outfit are hoping that this new car will a be more competitive following a disappointing 2014 championship. A switch to a new engine manufacturer is certainly a positive step.

In addition, Lotus has spend much of last season consolidating its finances and restructuring its technical organisation so as to ensure that it returned to form this year.

The E23 Hybrid looks very beautiful, especially the front nose. This is a major contrast to that ugly and now-outlawed twin-tusk concept in 2014.

Lotus technical director Nick Chester described the car, which will be powered by Mercedes’ V6 hybrid turbo, as “a massive step forward”.

“It’s no secret that we struggled with last year’s car so we’ve targeted every area that caused us an issue,” he said. “We’ve made strong progress in the wind tunnel as well as in areas such as packaging and cooling.”

“We expect the E23 to perform far, far better than its predecessor.”

Chester said the new power unit “looks to be the one area of the car which could bring us the greatest performance gain”.

“It’s not just performance, but reliability and driveability as well as packaging and cooling too,” he explained.

Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado have been retained for another season while the first shakedown of the new car will take place at Jerez, as part of pre-season testing.

Fingers crossed the E23 goes as quicly as it looks at the race tracks this season.