McLaren MCL35 launch, 2020

First pictures: McLaren reveals its new F1 car for 2020

2020 F1 season

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McLaren has presented the MCL35, its new car for the 2020 F1 season, at the McLaren Technology Centre.

“This is an important moment for the entire team,” said team principal Andreas Seidl. “Yesterday evening, after many months of hard work from all the men and women at McLaren, our people were the very first to see the MCL35, before we showed it to the world today.

“Every team member has invested a great deal of time and energy during this pre-season in designing, engineering and producing the MCL35 ready to take to the track for the first time at pre-season testing.”

Carlos Sainz Jnr and Lando Norris, who joined the team last year, remain for a second season.

“Carlos and Lando showed real grit and determination last season and have continued to work hard in preparation for testing and the season beyond,” said Seidl. “We look forward to building on what was a very positive first year with them behind the wheel.”

Pictures: 2020 McLaren F1 car

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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28 comments on “First pictures: McLaren reveals its new F1 car for 2020”

  1. Looking forward to next year…

  2. Matt orange?

    Nice!

    1. Obviously I meant matte!

      1. It’s orange, mate!

  3. Interesting nose (very thin, like RB this year) and front wing (outwash!).

    1. Actually RE front wing, release pics and this live pic are very different. Intriguing.

      1. (outwash!)

        Eh? It’s inboard loaded as hell.

        1. …and what inboard loading helps to?

          1. Yeah I don’t know what to make of this comment ;-)

  4. Can you be in love with a car. Looks nice and that blue/orange combo works even better this year

  5. The blue sidepots and the top of the engine cover are not very fortunate. Tha back of the car kind of ruins the overall impression, livery-wise. Apart from the nose there is very little to talk about, clearly an evolution of last year’s car and I suppose the main changes will concern the area of suspensions.

  6. Hot.

    Some big improvements over the launch spec MCL34 especially in the bargeboards and sidepods, not to mention the continued change of direction for the front wing.

  7. As with the RB16, the front looks narrower than that of the predecessor, and there’s also more black than on the MCL34.

    1. I would say there’s more exposed carbon fiber than last year.

      Boy, they’re really counting pennies when it comes to car weight. It is a good sign, in my opinion, when a team goes from fighting for seconds, then for tenths, and now for hundredths.

  8. I like it. The only problem is that the way they have styled the paint job this year highlights how ridiculously long this generation of cars are. Stupidly long. The cars of 10-15 years ago looked so nimble on track. I remeber Schumi crossing the line in france to win the championship and violently sawing at the steering wheel in celebration and the car looking like a waterboatman skimming across a pond. I cant imagine this generation of cars being able to do that.

  9. Is it just me or does it seem like the roll hoop inlet has been moved further aft on a couple of the cars this year? Perhaps it’s just a trick of the eye but it looks like the inlet on this as well as the Ferrari have been moved rearward compared to last year. Are they both running a longer wheelbase?

    1. Ferrari wheel base is a little longer this year but tbh these studio shots always make the cars look even more ridiculously long than they are and are not that accurately representative of the overall dimensions imo.

  10. I like it, a nice evolution of last year’s orange and blue (now with some black bits as well).

    I wasn’t a fan of the orange halo when I saw the first screencap from the reveal, but seeing this gallery makes me realize what the designers were going for – a nice long orange streak through the length of the car, bounded by black and blue above and below.

    The one thing I don’t like is the black pattern where the driver’s legs are situated (see the side profile). I wish there was some blue in there as well.

  11. Overall looks like they have shrunk the body a little in various areas (sidepods are TINY), narrow nose seems to the a prominant trend this year with RB, possibly Renault and now McLaren too, makes sense tbh I don’t know what the reasons are for Ferrari keeping their wide nose, more air is more air surely but they know better than I do! Rear end packaging on the McLaren looks quite simplistic at first glance, maybe a consequence of conservative packaging for an off the shelf engine, I thought the same of the Red Bull.

    Livery looks cool, body coloured halo is definitely a way to go and matte is also a growing trend. I wonder if the paint is a couple of mg lighter or something, I seem to recall Ferrari saying something to this effect last year if i’m not mistaken.

    Looks like a P4 car at first glance!

    1. Serban Bobiceanu
      13th February 2020, 15:31

      “Looks like a P4 car…”, that remark cracks me up, thank you!

      1. Lol it wasn’t intended as an insult just mean it looks like a very well developed midfield contender 😩😂

  12. Carlos for the title this year!

  13. So… new James Key front suspension? Good. Very good.

  14. Are my eyes (or camera angles combined with non-natural lighting) playing tricks on me, or does this car combine (1) an elongated, somewhat flattened top of the back end of the engine cover with (2) the back end of the sidepods swooping inwards and downwards, thus forming an intriguing aerodynamic concept?
    No, honestly, I am not sure, but my curiosity has been tickled awake here.
    Have other teams done this lately and I simply missed it, or is this a new trick?

    1. I thought the same, the coke bottle shape looks to go under a top deck making the back by the wing look very flat and wide, not seen anything like that on another cars I’ve seen photos of so far, maybe McLaren found a clever trick form this year.
      But as you say could all be an optical illusion.

  15. Does anybody know why Unilever isn’t featured on the car (yet)?

  16. They might beat Ferrari with this one.

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