Motorsports
McLaren has unveiled the new 2022 MCL36
Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris’ new car for the 2011 F1 Championship was unveiled by McLaren at its Woking, UK plant. The two drivers have set themselves the clear goal of returning to victories and championships in three years.
While McLaren doesn’t claim at first glance that the MCL36 unveiled tonight is the essential race car it will have at the first winter development tests in Barcelona on February 23-25 - rather than a base model with a simple color presentation and team sponsors.
Now adding black to its classic orange and light blue and bearing the signature of the team’s intelligent technical director James Key, the MCL36 appears to have a cleaner and less refined design than the Aston Martin, also unveiled in race specs yesterday. .
Regarding the upcoming season, Ricciardo and Norris kept a low profile, arguing that the team’s goal is to take another step forward after the positive 2021 and continue to develop with the goal of winning and championships from 2024 onwards.
“During the tests, it’s important to know the car, so maybe at some point experience will help.” said Ricciardo. “We have to be open-minded because some things we expect from the car and others are new. We also have to experiment to see what he likes. Personally, I need to be consistently at a higher level and take another step towards 2024 and ’25.
Lando Norris added: “Our goal is to get to the top in 2024 and ’25 in particular. There are many unknown parameters for this year, but we should definitely improve compared to last year. “As far as the car is concerned, the experiences we have from the simulator are the only ones we have so far.”
Speaking about adapting to MCL35, Ricciardo added: “I think the drivers are good enough to adapt immediately. In the course of the year we will harmonize in parallel with the evolution of the cars. I think we’ll get along well with the two-three days of testing and it helps that the first race is a week later in Bahrain. In a way, the first three days of racing will be like an extensive test for all of us.”
At today’s presentation of the MCL36 in Woking, McLaren gave a detailed presentation of the remaining racing programs for American IndyCars, Extreme E and eSports. Development testing of the winter F1 cars will take place in Barcelona from February 23rd to 25th and in Bahrain from March 10th to 12th, where the first GP of the new season will take place on March 20th.
Jessica Martinez is an author at Sportish, a publication dedicated to sports news and analysis. She covers various topics related to sports and provides insightful commentary on the latest developments in the world of sports.