McLaren unveil innovative new car

by Adam D Fri Feb 04, 2011 3:53 pm

McLaren have unveiled the new car that Englishmen Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button both hope will make them world champions for the second time.

McLaren decided not to have the car ready for the first test this week to spend more time designing it.
Button said: "This is our new baby, the car we hope will take one of us to the drivers' championship and the team to win the constructors'. It's beautiful."

"We'll be quite a bit more competitive than we were last year," said Hamilton.

McLaren hope the extra design time they have devoted to the car will give them a crucial advantage when the season starts in Bahrain on 13 March.

And the car features a number of intriguing aerodynamic design innovations.
The bodywork is extensively sculpted and there is a novel engine cover design, featuring two air inlets, and the front wing features a series of very dramatic shapes.

The air intake on the sidepods - the bodywork that sticks out either side of the driver - is also a shape never seen in F1 before, double the height on the outside of the car than it is where the intake meets the cockpit beside the driver.

McLaren said the L-shaped sidepod front was an attempt to get more airflow to the rear wing, thereby increasing aerodynamic downforce.
The second air intake is to aid cooling of the gearbox and hydraulics, according to director of engineering Tim Goss, at a time when McLaren have packaged the car as tightly as possible for optimum aerodynamic performance.

source BBC Website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/9387578.stm