McLaren reveals the MCL35

This is the new Renault-powered MCL35 from McLaren, that will compete in the 2020 Formula 1 season.

At a special launch event from McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, the team revealed the MCL35 car that will be driven by Carlos Sainz Jr. and Lando Norris.

The MCL35 retains the team’s papaya and blue colour scheme from the previous season. But there is a significant block of blue along the side pods, as well on the airbag at the top of the engine cover.

McLaren enjoyed its best season for eight years in 2019 as it finished fourth in the constructors’ championship, heading the midfield teams.

Sainz managed to take sixth position in the drivers’ standings, behind the top five race winners in the championship, and even scored McLaren’s first podium since the 2014 Brazilian Grand Prix.

As for Norris, this will be his second season in Formula 1 and at McLaren. Norris did an impressive job in his debut season last year by scoring 49 point and achieving a best result of sixth in Austria.

Team principal Andreas Seidl is hoping that McLaren will continue to progress well in terms of scoring championship points and is proud of his team’s efforts so far.

“I have to say, it’s simply great to be part of this McLaren team today standing next to the MCL35,” said Seidl at the launch.

“I want to thank every single member of the team for all the hard work.

“Last year we simply kept improving race by race.

“I’m very happy with my leadership team, they are doing a sensational job, they have a clear plan of how we approach the future and now it’s important to keep this positive momentum up and keep improving as a team.”

The McLaren MCL35 car will make its on-track debut at the start of pre-season testing in Barcelona.

3 thoughts to “McLaren reveals the MCL35”

  1. ‘It’s my baby’ – Norris and Sainz on how they helped shape the new McLaren. Article taken from Formula1.com.

    Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz will both begin their second seasons at McLaren in 2020 – and after helping the team to fourth in the 2019 constructors’ championship in cars designed before either had started racing for the team, the pair were looking forward to saddling up the new MCL35, given the input they’ve had into the car’s creation.

    Asked at the MCL35’s launch at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, UK, how much he’d influenced the new car’s gestation, Norris joked that he’d “pretty much designed the whole thing”, before adding on a more serious note: “This car is based [on last year’s car], and obviously everything we went through last year, all our comments and discussions between us as drivers, has been put into this and based around that.

    “So it’s a lot more of my car. We’ve had our input into making this, so it feels a lot more my baby, my car and I can’t wait to go and drive it.”

    Sainz, too, believed that early signs pointed to the MCL35 being a better prospect than last year’s MCL34, a car which gave him his first F1 podium, and McLaren’s first since 2014. “It looks great,” he said, “it looks tighter – it looks just better, I think.

    “With every single member of the team, we’ve managed to put together hopefully a better package, a better car,” he added. “There’s been a lot of work put behind this thing, and I just have the feeling that everything’s coming together a lot better, we’re growing as a team, we have positive momentum going and we want to carry that over for this year.”

    Also present at the launch – which took place six days before pre-season testing begins at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on February 19 – Team Principal Andreas Seidl praised Norris and Sainz’s contributions to the team, adding that he was “optimistic” about what McLaren could achieve in 2020.

    “I’m very happy with what I’ve seen in terms of development of our car over the winter,” he said. “I think we can be quite optimistic going into the new season. At the same time, we need to be realistic as well.

    “I think we’ve done our homework over winter. The drivers have done a sensational job also, together with the engineers. The presence here at the factory [over winter] was really impressive. So I feel ready, together with the team, to tackle next season.”

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