McLaren’s MP4-21 was been given a striking “chrome-look” colour scheme ahead of the team’s four-day test in Valencia this week. Moreover, Mercedes has updated the car’s 2006-spec V8 engine, which hadn’t performed to expectations in pre-season tests.
McLaren’s MP4-21 was been given a striking “chrome-look” colour scheme ahead of the team’s four-day test in Valencia this week. Moreover, Mercedes has updated the car’s 2006-spec V8 engine, which hadn’t performed to expectations in pre-season tests.
The new 2,4-litre V8 Mercedes-Benz FO 108S engine is said to produce “more than 522 kW” at “more than 9 000 r/min” and weighs just 95 kg, but during recent testing the Woking-based team struggled to keep pace with the Renaults, leading Kimi Raikkonen to claim that McLaren’s Mercedes engine was its “weakest link.”
“On the engine side we have a lot of work to do. (Mercedes) are not where they should be and they need to improve. We have been testing for a long time but we have not been able to make progress,” Raikkonen was quoted as saying.
Although the engine in McLaren test driver Pedro de la Rosa’s car expired in a cloud of smoke at Jerez last Friday, Spaniard said Mercedes’ redesigned V8 engine, which reportedly produces up to 45 kW more than the old unit, “was an improvement”.
“I did feel an improvement,” the 34-year-old confirmed. “I do believe that we are on the right track. In the coming tests, the focus will very much be on collecting much more mileage”.
Meanwhile, the MP4-21’s striking new livery has an innovative surface coating, which achieves a high level of reflectivity and makes the largely composite machine appear chromed.
“A lot of research have gone into creating this unique chrome finish,” said McLaren marketing managing director Ekrem Sami. “The livery (was) designed to be extremely photogenic”.
The team can look back on a lot of success during the nine years of the former black and grey livery. At the very first race after its introduction in Melbourne in 1997 the team won and since then it has taken nearly 30 per cent of all Grands Prix victories.
“I have only seen illustrations of the new livery until now but they don’t do it justice,” McLaren driver Kimi Raikkonen said. “It should create a stir when we drive (the car) on tracks around the world. If we can make the car as fast as it looks… we’ll be in good shape.”
“Wow,” Raikkonen’s team-mate, Juan-Pablo Montoya, added. “What a beautiful looking car. I have obviously been testing the MP4- 21 quite a bit, but seeing the car like this is something else.”