IMAGE  CREDITS -McLaren

                                               

The technology used was perfected by McLaren during the past six months and is completely new to Formula One. "A lot of research and months of work have gone into creating this unique chrome finish," explained McLaren Marketing Managing Director Ekrem Sami. "We are always looking at innovative ways to allow our sponsor partners to differentiate their brands from the competition through their partnership with the team and this unique livery is designed to be extremely photogenic. Team McLaren Mercedes had the highest audited 'Share of TV Voice' in 2005 - and we hope that this new identity will contribute to us retaining that status."                                                          Specifications       Engine                                       V8 Mercedes Benz FO 108S       HP      --       Displacement      2400 cc (146.4 cu. in.)       Valves     32 valves, 4 valves per cylinder       Valvetrain     90 Degree V8       Fuel Feed     Fuel injection                                       Fuel Type     Gasoline - Petrol       Gears     7       Drive Wheels     Mid-Engine  "When we created our previous livery in the mid nineties we established what we believed then was an innovative and groundbreaking new identity for McLaren Mercedes," continued Sami. "What we have launched today is as revolutionary and we hope it will be the foundation of the team's livery for many years to come." The team can look back on a lot of success during the nine years of the former 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. The team took the opportunity to show the new livery to McLaren Group and Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines employees this evening. Two of the Groups better known personalities, drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya, were both impressed with their cars' 'new clothes'. "I have only seen illustrations of the new livery until now but they do it no justice," said Kimi. "It looks fantastic and should create a bit of a stir when we drive it on tracks around the world. If we can make the car as fast as it looks then we will be in good shape." 'Visually MP4-21 will look very similar to MP4-20,' said Jonathan Neale, Managing Director of McLaren Racing. 'In addition to the tighter packaging to the rear of the car, people will notice differences to the nose area, which has been lowered, and the aero body work, such as the barge boards and deflectors. The reduction in required cooling for the V8 engine has allowed us to in turn reduce the size of air intakes, this includes apertures in the main chassis, which is beneficial to the overall aerodynamic package. There are a significant number of changes in the cars structure, geometry and aerodynamics as a consequence of 16 months of R&D innovation.