New car presentations: McLaren MCL38

McLaren presented its new car – MCL38, simply by publishing material on the official website. On the same day the car was run in at Silverstone as part of a filming day with the participation of both drivers, and will be tested in Bahrain next week.

Zac Brown, CEO of McLaren Racing: “It is a great honor for me to present our new season car, the MCL38, today at Silverstone. It’s great to see the car in its 2024 livery on track, as its appearance was the result of intense teamwork from everyone in the team.

The great thing about Formula 1 is how competitive the sport is, so we have to remain realistic that every team will progress in the off-season. The real test of whether we have taken steps in the right direction will be qualifying in Bahrain.

We are all excited to be racing again, but we have a long season ahead of us, with a lot of work to do to build on the progress we made in 2023.”

Andrea Stella, Team Leader: “Our team is happy to present the MCL38, and today we see it on the track for the first time. As we prepare for 2024 we look to build on the momentum we built last season, but remain realistic as we know all teams are improving and their new cars will be competitive.

McLaren has completed an infrastructure upgrade, has excellent specialists and the team has a special working culture, so we will continue what we started, we will continue to work to return to the top.

There is still a lot to be done before the races start, including pre-season testing in Bahrain to test what the new car is capable of. The team has done a good job over the winter period and we are confident that everything will go well, but we understand that there are still some important tasks to be completed before the start of the season.

The MCL38 includes a number of innovative solutions, but not all of the areas we focus on were completed by the time the first version of the chassis was introduced. We will continue to work on these areas as the season progresses with the car modernization process already underway.

We thank the entire team, both the race crew and everyone at the Woking base, for their tremendous efforts in preparing the car for today’s presentation, and our colleagues at Mercedes for their continued collaboration. Now it’s time to turn our attention to the long season ahead and we’re already looking forward to the tests in Bahrain, starting next week.”

The composition of the team remains the same; this year Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri drive a car in the recognizable ‘papaya colours’.

Lando Norris: “I’m really looking forward to getting behind the wheel of the MCL38 and trying it out. Externally the car looks great, it’s great that I can go out on the track today.

I look forward to the start of testing in Bahrain. I have confidence in the team that we will continue to make progress after a successful last season, but we will only be able to judge the balance of power based on the results of qualifying for the first Grand Prix.

A few weeks ago I returned to our base and did a lot of simulator work with the engineers to ensure we were fully prepared for next week.

Thanks to everyone at the track and base for their hard work. I really want to come to Bahrain and race as soon as possible.”

Oscar Piastri: “It’s great that I’m going to test the car on the track today. MCL38 is an important milestone in our development, I think the color scheme is very nice and the balance of power can only be judged during the first Grand Prix.

We have done everything we can to prepare as best as possible, working on the simulator and communicating with the specialists who designed, built and will operate the car.

I’m looking forward to a busy few weeks to start the busy season. Many thanks to the team for the preparation. I am very excited to start my second season in Formula 1.”