McLaren-Honda Debut 2017 MCL32 Formula 1 Contender
The Formula 1 Field Will Be A Bit More Colorful This Year As The MCL32 Returns To McLaren’s Legendary Orange Livery
If the striking new livery doesn’t get your attention, the details of the all-new McLaren-Honda MCL32 will. Debuting during the week of other reveals from Ferrari and Force India, the MCL32 initially bucks the trend of McLaren’s normal “MP4” naming scheme.
The Honda powerplant has been revised, with the latest RA617H V6 hybrid unit advancing and progressing into its third year of partnership with McLaren. Honda’s Executive Chief Engineer, Yusuke Hasegawa, comments the following:
“The main areas of change that we focused on has been to decrease the weight and lower the centre of gravity, so as to improve the balance of the car, while generating more output from the internal combustion engine”
World Champ Fernando Alonso also believes there’s a lot of potential in the new car, including innovative ways to tackle the 2017 technical regulation changes. He’ll be driving along side Stoffel Vandoorne, however Fernando stays humble in knowing the prowess from the likes of the leading rivals.
“We still think the start of the season will be a challenge – we can’t ignore the fact that we’re still coming from a significant step behind the current front-runners – but I’d like to think we can target the second half of the year as a time when we’ll really be able to start making useful performance steps.”
The biggest change though for McLaren-Honda comes from the executive level. Zak Brown takes over as Executive Director, ensuring McLaren-Honda can continue to prosper in Formula 1 by cementing long-term existing partners, and gaining new partnerships for the 2017 season. Two new partners for this season include Castrol and Stratasys.
Technical details and pre-season testing forthcoming, the general takeaway from McLaren-Honda is that they have their work cut out for them, especially given the results of the past two seasons. However, starting with a brand new car, in the MCL32, there’s a way to start things fresh, and put them back up front, where they belong.
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