McLaren has released the first pictures of the eagerly awaited MP4-30, the first car from the Woking team to feature a Honda power unit since 1992.
It's also the first to feature the input of former Red Bull Racing aero chief Peter Prodromou, who rejoined the team late last year, and holds the title of chief engineer.
The other key players behind the new car are technical director Tim Goss, director of engineering Matt Morris, and director of design and development programmes, Neil Oatley.
The livery of the car had been the subject of much speculation, but despite the split with Mercedes the team has stuck with silver. McLaren noted that “it features an evolved color scheme that firmly contextualises McLaren’s brand in the 21st century.” No major new sponsors appear on the car.
The team says that “in 2015 McLaren-Honda intends to maintain the momentum it achieved during the second half of 2014, when an intensive technical development program for the MP4-29 allowed the team to establish a solid position within the chasing pack.”
Ron Dennis says that the MP4-30 represents only the start of a “long journey” for McLaren and Honda, whose engine is called a RA615H Hybrid.
Dennis was keen to refer to the success the two partners achieved last time around.
“McLaren-Honda is a partnership focused on performance, technology and innovation, and there’s no better example of that than the results achieved in our first collaboration in the 1980s and 1990s,” said Dennis. “I was Team Principal all those years ago and, while I don’t tend to like looking back to the past, our previous record of sustained success was certainly instrumental in creating the confidence to make the decision to partner with Honda again.
“Now, there’s real hunger to demonstrate the capabilities of the huge talent pool we share between us, and I’m totally committed to driving progress and achieving further success.
“Although our renewed alliance began again many months ago, the launch of the McLaren-Honda MP4-30 marks the start of a lengthy journey. We’ve come a long way already and, although there’s a lot of work to do before we can expect to repeat the level of success we enjoyed together 25-or-so years ago, it’s already clear that there’s enormous synergy and potential in our partnership, and I’m positive that, together, we’ll get to where we want to be: winning Grands Prix and eventually World Championships as McLaren-Honda.”
