McLaren gets the jump on its rivals by becoming the first team to reveal its 2025 car.
Eschewing the (sadly) recent practice of revealing its new car in a darkened cellar, the 2024 world champions released a number of images this morning that appeared to have been taken by a paparazzi with a telephoto lens.
While one can understand the need not to give anything away to its rivals, the distant shots of the MCL39 are ridiculous and no doubt indicate the lack of genuine insight next week's official season unveil is going to offer.
The car took to the track at Silverstone sporting a geometric camo design in shades of papaya and black as part of a promotional filming day which saw Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri sharing driving duties.
The team will reveal its F1 75 Live on Tuesday, the design of which will feature some of the world's biggest brands and organisations as the team's partners continue to support it both on and off track.
"Today is a big milestone in our journey in the fight for the 2025 title," said Zak Brown. "It's great to get our Championship challenger, the MCL39, on track for the first time and to launch the culmination of the team's hard work.
"We must be realistic that every team will have made progress over the winter," he added. "Last year highlighted just how much the grid has closed up, which is a brilliant thing for the sport. We believe we have made further steps forward since the Championship-winning MCL38 but we won't know where we sit in the standings until we get into Qualifying in Australia.
"We're a team that never stops racing and we'll be giving it our all to bring both Championships back to Woking."
"We are excited to see the MCL39 hit the track for the first time," added Andrea Stella. "Whilst we finished last year as Champions, 2024 highlighted how highly competitive the grid is, which is something that will carry through to this year's Championship. We therefore must keep focused to compete at the front in this tight field. It's going to be an exciting but incredibly challenging year ahead.
"The team have worked extremely hard to prepare as best as possible for the start of the season. We learned a lot from our battles last year, so we take this and use it to push our goal for the year.
"My thanks go to the entire team for their work to get the car ready for today, as well as our colleagues at Mercedes HPP for their continued collaboration. We now focus on the work ahead to ensure we maximise our time in testing before the first competitive session in Australia."
"It's exciting to hop in the MCL39 for the first time and see what it can do on track, ahead of pre-season testing," said Norris. "The camo livery is a fun one and it's great to be able to showcase something different ahead of our full livery reveal at the official F1 75 launch.
"Thank you to the entire team for their work in getting us to this point. This year will be more competitive than ever, so we've got a lot to do to be able to retain our Constructor's title and go for the Drivers' as well.
"I've been back at the MTC prepping for the season ahead and the mood is feeling positive but focused. We're all looking forward to getting the car on track in Bahrain ahead of our competitive debut in Australia and to see where we net out amongst the other teams. It's shaping up to be an exciting season."
"It's great to get behind the wheel of the MCL39 for the first time ahead of us putting it through its paces in Bahrain," added Piastri. "The camo livery looks cool and I am excited to showcase what we'll be racing in this season at the official livery reveal next week.
"I have been working hard in the off-season to ensure I am ready for the season ahead. The margins at the top are likely to be incredibly tight but I'm excited by the room for growth after two seasons in the sport. Winning grands prix early in my career has given me the taste for success and I want much more.
"As a team, we can take great momentum into 2025 after such a brilliant year in 2024. A big thank you to everyone back at base and trackside for all the hard work that's been done so far."
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