McLaren MP4-24

Lewis's new ride has just been launched and it's quite the stunner. The number 1 on its nose doesn’t hurt the look. Mercedes have perfected that fake metal finish on carbon-fibre which recalls images of the original Silver Arrows of the '30s and the 300SLRs of the '50s. And it shows off the primary sponsor’s colors to full effect. You know the one … it's the one they stole from Ferrari and for whom Ferrari changed their shade of red.

Expectation was that this year the cars would be quite ugly -- an opinion formed predominately because of the change to regulations that called for a narrow rear wing. But it hasn't turned out that way. The cars that have been launched so far; the Toyota, the Ferrari and now the McLaren are all quite appealing. The tall small rear wing is strangely balanced with the big wide front one, but overall the effect is not too bad. This year the major unseen bits are the 18000rpm limit, KERS and the ECU that McLaren are supplying to the entire grid.

McLaren have just been voted the world’s most popular F1 team – my vote mustn’t have counted for much as while I was a huge fan of New Zealander Bruce McLaren, and McLaren cars especially during the Can-Am period and am also a devoted Mercedes enthusiast, the pairing for me results in the sum being worth less than the parts. They are a team without soul.

This year Ron Dennis has decided to hand over the reigns of the F1 team to Martin Whitmarsh to concentrate on the McLaren road car division and build supercars to steal market share away from Ferrari. Is there a pattern happening, there was also that other theft, but we won't mention it here.

Rod Halligan

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