McLaren reveals 2024 F1 car

McLaren has revealed its car with some clever images that don't actually show us an awful lot. The front wing looks to be a place holder, while the floor has little to no actual detail on it. The front on image also looks to have been edited to make sure we can't see any of the secrets below the sidepod inlets, which suggests to us there's probably something quite interesting going on.

The car will be on track for the first time on 14^th February, with drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri sharing driving duties for the team's filming day at Silverstone.

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown said: “It’s awesome to be able to launch our 2024 competitor, the MCL38, at Silverstone today. It’s great to see our new car in its 2024 livery on track and see the hard work and dedication of the team come together.

“The fantastic thing about this sport is how competitive it is, and therefore we must remain realistic as every team will have made progress in the off season. The true test of whether we’ve made steps in the right direction will be qualifying in Bahrain. We’re all excited to go racing again, but we know there’s a long season ahead of us and a lot of work still to do to ensure we build on the progress we made throughout 2023.”

McLaren had quite the season in 2023. After arriving at the first race in Bahrain with the slowest car on the grid, the team turned it around in stunning fashion to become the closest challenger to Red Bull through much of the second half of the year.

"Going into this year, we look to build on the momentum of last season but are realistic in the knowledge that every team will have made progress and found competitiveness for their 2024 cars," said Andrea Stella, McLaren's Team Principal.

"The team has done a good job over the winter, and we are confident we can hit the ground running, but we know we have important tasks at hand before the season starts. There are a number of innovations on the car, but not all the areas we want to address have been completed for our launch-spec car. Those areas now become the focus of our in-season development, which is already in progress."

McLaren 2024 F1 livery

Papaya is once again the prominent colour, although this year it has been complemented with sections of a colour McLaren is calling ‘Anthracite’ which bears a shocking resemblance to bare carbon-fibre.

Among the details to be found on this year’s new McLaren, we have the return of chrome driver numbers on the nose of the car, which have been retained after their brief cameo at the 2023 British Grand Prix. The Google Chrome styled wheel covers are also back.

Aside from the dominance of Red Bull, McLaren were the outstanding performers of 2023. After a horrible start to the season which saw them arrive in Bahrain with the slowest car, a stunning rise up the order culminated in Oscar Piastri picking up a Sprint victory in Qatar, and together with Lando Norris finishing the season as regular podium contenders.

“I’m looking forward to shaking the car down in Bahrain. I have full confidence in the team that we’ll continue pushing forward off the back of the turnaround last season. However, the true test of our progress is coming up when we put the car through its paces in testing, ahead of then qualifying and racing for the Bahrain Grand Prix," Norris said.

“Over the past few weeks, I’ve been back at the MTC putting a lot of work in on the simulator with my engineering team to ensure that we’re fully prepared ahead of next week."

Piastri added: “The 2024 livery looks really cool and I'm looking forward to racing in the iconic colours of McLaren for a second season. I made some special memories with the team in my rookie year, securing two podiums and a Sprint win.”

“We won’t know where we stand in terms of competitiveness until we go racing in Bahrain, but we’ve been preparing as best as we possibly can by spending time in the simulator, working closely with everyone who’s designed, built and will run the car to ensure we’re ready to start strongly."

After the team's initial shakedown, the MCL38 heads to Bahrain for F1's pre-season testing, which takes place on 21^st-23^rd February. The first race of the season gets underway a week later on Saturday 2^nd March.