McLaren launches new Mercedes engine for 2021 F1 car

The Woking-based team had had a busy winter preparing their new car for the campaign after switching from Renault Power.

The changes to the car to accommodate the Mercedes powerplant were extensive and required a lot of adjustments to the chassis from last year.

The team had to use up their development tokens, which are allowed to change any outfits against their 2020 challengers, in order to do the required work.

Earlier this week, McLaren’s director of production, Piers Thynne, said that while most of the teams had carried over their chassis from last year, his team essentially had to build a brand new car.

“While every other team will take over most of their car from last year this year, this is not the case with us when we switched to the Mercedes engine,” he said.

“It made a huge change and essentially we built a new car. The number of new parts for the MCL35M is roughly the same as when building the MCL35.

“The rear of the chassis and the bell housing around the engine have changed a lot to adapt to the new engine.

“The change of the unit changes the architecture of the car and the way everything is packed, so that the entire cooling layout and all piping, be it for liquid or air, as well as all electrical wiring harnesses and control boxes have changed.”

The cheering for the McLaren in its factory in Woking was supervised by team principal Andreas Seidl and CEO Zak Brown.

Images McLaren released of the fire did not reveal any design details of the new MCL35M other than the traditional papaya orange color scheme and the fact that the team keeps a number of its current sponsors.

McLaren will start this season with a new line-up of drivers following the departure of Carlos Sainz to Ferrari.

Lando Norris remains on board with McLaren for his third season, while Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo joins the squad.

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