McLaren MCL60 Car Launch

With two car launches happening today - McLaren were up first, launching the MCL60 in honour of their 60th year.

To celebrate this anniversary we were shown a montage of the team’s history, going from the day Bruce McLaren started the team to Lando’s podiums over the last few seasons. If you want to make a montage of F1 events, ask whoever put that one together to help as they got it spot on.

New and familiar faces

For the first time, we got to see both drivers, CEO Zac Brown and new Team Principle Andrea Stella together. The driver pairing of Oscar and Lando will be the youngest on the grid next season but is also set to be one of the most dynamic. With Lando being arguably one of the best drivers in the sport right now and Oscar having won the championship in F3 and F2, given a good car these two would be fighting for wins. However, McLaren’s last season did not finish the way they would’ve wanted, losing their expected P4 in the Constructor’s Championship to Alpine. With the loss of Andreas Seidl to Alfa Romeo, there are question marks over how this season will turn out for the papaya team. In the short interview with new Team Principle Andrea Stella (it’s going to get confusing), he explained how the team are setting themselves realistic expectations for the short term however, going forward they have improvements in the pipeline and are optimistic for the future. The team also admitted that work took place over the winter to improve aerodynamics on the car, specifically in terms of interaction with tyres. While they say they are not entirely happy going into the season, they are expecting to take a step forward soon. Being a McLaren fan myself - I’m hoping for the best!

The team are sticking closely to last year’s livery with some extra carbon fibre on show to save weight

The MCL60

Now onto the car itself. While there were mixed responses to it last season, I was personally always a big fan and am glad to see them stick with a very similar livery this year. There are a few small changes which you can only assume have been made with weight restrictions in mind - this being the extra black on the car which, similar to the Alfa Romeo, is exposed carbon fibre.

The front view of the MCL60 - this season with less papaya on the livery to save weight

What do you think of the MCL60? Follow us on Instagram @thefastestlapofficial and let us know!