McLaren-Honda – the name evokes stirring memories of the past; of Ayrton Senna battling Alain Prost for supremacy; of classic red and white machines dominating for season upon season; of an iconic team writing one of the defining chapters in the motor racing history books.

Reuniting such an illustrious partnership brings with it the heavy weight of expectation, but all at McLaren and Honda are working to write a fresh chapter in Formula 1, one that respectfully nods to the past, but boldly looks to the horizon.

Today’s reveal of the new McLaren-Honda MP4-30 – McLaren’s first Honda-powered car for 23 years – speaks volumes about the progressive nature of both companies. It is a thoroughly refined evolution of last year’s McLaren, it is the only chassis on the grid to be fitted with Honda’s RA615H Hybrid power unit, and it features an evolved colour scheme that firmly contextualises McLaren’s brand in the 21^st century.

MP4-30 – new technical DNA in the mix

In 2015 McLaren-Honda intends to maintain the momentum it achieved during the second half of 2014, when an intensive technical development programme for the MP4-29 allowed the team to establish a solid position within the chasing pack.

Relatively stable technical regulations between seasons have permitted our engineers to evolve some of the newer philosophies explored on last year’s season-ending car while also adding some exciting new technical DNA into the mix.

Moreover, our restructured and strengthened engineering departments have gained the conviction to embark on a number of changes of direction. With that in mind, the MP4-30 has been developed to provide us with the most effective and practical base package. It is a foundation – offering up a number of new exploratory development paths for our engineers, aerodynamicists and drivers to pursue during the season, and on into next year.

The car has been aerodynamically refined over the winter, and the result is a pretty, elegant car with a refined nose-box solution, slimmed rear-end packaging – particularly around the gearbox – and the incorporation of an all-new power unit under its tightly contoured bodywork.

Honda: a truly bespoke engineering solution

The partnership with Honda is particularly exciting: to achieve success within the technical regulations requires a bespoke engineering solution that can be achieved only in collaboration with a works partner. Honda will provide the know-how, the expertise and the muscle to make rapid progress – and to keep pushing development, on all fronts, during the season. The partnership will be a work in progress, but it will only strengthen over time.

Achieving our ambitious targets will not happen immediately – winning in Formula 1 is a lengthy, iterative process, and one that will gather collective momentum from season to season – but, with the MP4-30 as a base, McLaren and Honda feel they are ready to make quick and efficient progress towards a successful future.

Partners new and old – a formula for success

The team’s preparations for 2015 have drawn upon the considerable resources of ExxonMobil, who have been working with our new colleagues at Honda for two years on developing new technologies and formulations of Mobil 1 engine lubricants for the Honda V6 turbo. In turn, the team’s technology partner, SAP, provides its secure HANA Enterprise Cloud solution which underpins the entire McLaren Group, strengthening and simplifying the way the team runs its data management and modelling.

There are significant milestones to commemorate in 2015: this year marks McLaren’s 30^th consecutive year of partnership with TAG Heuer, while both Johnnie Walker and Hilton Worldwide are celebrating 10 years with the team. Such long-standing relationships underline McLaren’s ability to support and enhance any blue-chip brand’s global marketing programme.

Joining us for 2015 are international news broadcaster CNN and professional services company KPMG, which have both formed important strategic alliances with the McLaren Technology Group. McLaren-Honda is also pleased to welcome back the global coffee brand Segafredo Zanetti, which first partnered the team during the original McLaren-Honda era.

Fernando Alonso will begin on-track testing of the new MP4-30 at Jerez de la Frontera on Sunday February 1^st.

#14 Fernando Alonso

“Although the winter period is a time for rest and relaxation from racing, my motivation could not be stronger for the new season. I’ve done a lot of training during the winter break, to reach my peak physical fitness, and I’ve been working hard in preparation for this new era of McLaren-Honda. I’ve never felt better, or more ready for a new season.

“Of course, we’re prepared for a steep learning curve, but it’s clear to see that inside McLaren-Honda there’s total commitment, and a real change in feeling, as we start this new partnership. We’re all focused on the challenge ahead, and I feel extremely honoured to be part of a relationship that has shared so much history together. My aim is to help write a new chapter in the history of McLaren-Honda. We understand the effort and teamwork required to take McLaren-Honda back to where it should be, at the front of the grid, and all our energy as a team is focused on that goal.

“Our first target will be to learn the maximum from the car at the pre-season tests, understand the package, and extract as much performance as possible. That won’t be easy or trouble-free, but we’re ready for that. Why? Because our key focus will be on development. Historically, McLaren has already been characterised by its ability to bring updates to the car quickly, and develop a strong package. It’s going to be a real privilege to be the first person to drive the new McLaren-Honda MP4-30 at Jerez, and I can’t wait to begin what I’m certain will be a very exciting new chapter in my career. I’m as motivated now as I was when I was given my first opportunity at the wheel of an F1 car.

“Last but not least, I’m excited to be sitting alongside Jenson [Button], a great team-mate and a very experienced competitor. Together we’ll push the team forward, to learn, to progress, and eventually to achieve the best possible results together. We are ready for the new era.”

#22 Jenson Button

“The off-season has really brought about a sense of renewal coming into 2015 – continuing my relationship with McLaren, getting married, and now embarking on such an exciting chapter: McLaren’s new partnership with Honda. I’ve trained hard over the winter, and I’m absolutely itching to get going in the new McLaren-Honda MP4-30.

“It’s been interesting to spend time in the factory during the past few weeks: you can really sense a feeling of reignited optimism and positivity around the building. I’ve never seen such motivation amongst the guys – we’re all massively keen to get going in Jerez and to work hard on developing our new car. But we’re under no illusion that it will be easy – there’s a huge challenge ahead of us to try to pull back the gap to our rivals, but we’re certainly up for it. We ended last season with great momentum and clear progress, and I’m determined to carry that forward into 2015.

“I’m also looking forward to working with my new team-mate, Fernando [Alonso], and I’m confident that our joint experience on track will pay dividends in our development race to get our team back to the front of the grid. I’m hugely motivated to make more history in this new McLaren-Honda era.”

Kevin Magnussen – Test and Reserve Driver

“Although, naturally, I was disappointed to not be selected for a McLaren-Honda race seat for 2015, I’ve put it behind me and I’m now fully focused on the year ahead.

“McLaren-Honda evokes so many great memories in race fans all over the world, and I’m really proud to be a part of this team at the restart of such an important and historic partnership. My new role as McLaren-Honda’s test and reserve driver is a really important responsibility, and I’m determined to prove my abilities and show what I can do not only on track, but also behind the scenes in the simulator, analysing the data and giving valuable feedback to the engineers. Our fight back to the front of the grid is our main focus, so it’s going to be down to me to work really hard to develop the MP4-30 and make a real difference to its performance in Fernando’s and Jenson’s hands.

“My aim is, of course, to return to a Formula 1 race seat as soon as possible, so I’ll be giving it 100 per cent, both on track and off it, to build on my last year’s experience, to show what I know I’m capable of, and to reward the McLaren-Honda team’s faith in me by keeping me on board.”

Ron Dennis – Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, McLaren Technology Group

“McLaren Technology Group is driven by the relentless pursuit of technological perfection, and, perhaps more than any other element of our portfolio, Formula 1, which is the remit and responsibility of McLaren Racing, and now McLaren-Honda, most famously epitomises that.

“McLaren-Honda is a partnership focused on performance, technology and innovation, and there’s no better example of that than the results achieved in our first collaboration in the 1980s and 1990s. I was Team Principal all those years ago and, while I don’t tend to like looking back to the past, our previous record of sustained success was certainly instrumental in creating the confidence to make the decision to partner with Honda again. Now, there’s real hunger to demonstrate the capabilities of the huge talent pool we share between us, and I’m totally committed to driving progress and achieving further success.

“Although our renewed alliance began again many months ago, the launch of the McLaren-Honda MP4-30 marks the start of a lengthy journey. We’ve come a long way already and, although there’s a lot of work to do before we can expect to repeat the level of success we enjoyed together 25-or-so years ago, it’s already clear that there’s enormous synergy and potential in our partnership, and I’m positive that, together, we’ll get to where we want to be: winning Grands Prix and eventually World Championships as McLaren-Honda.”

Eric Boullier – Racing Director, McLaren Racing

“The start of the 2015 season is actually the culmination of a period of great change, and change for the better, plus a huge amount of hard work from everyone in our team.

“It’s almost a year since I arrived in Woking, and, together with Ron and Jonathan [Neale, Chief Operating Officer, McLaren Racing], began an extensive restructure within McLaren Racing. We’re now seeing the benefits of that extensive restructure, and the result is a strengthened, skilled and efficient team, characterised by undimmed commitment from everyone throughout our organisation.

“For a team with such incredible heritage as McLaren, being able to build on our past successes is hugely important to us. It’ll take time to attain the levels of success we aspire to, but you may rest assured that, in concert with Honda, we are totally focused on fulfilling the potential of our exciting new partnership.

“I firmly believe that our team is stronger than ever, and that it’s in the best possible position to push the development of the MP4-30 forward. Progress is our purpose, and we’ve seen firm evidence of that from the very beginning of our renewed relationship. We acknowledge that our journey will require a huge amount of hard work, dedication and application from everyone involved, in both Woking and Sakura, but we’re ready and committed to building on the foundations we’ve already established in order eventually to enjoy the results we crave.

“McLaren and Honda are completely integrated and united in our purpose, and we share a fantastic sense of optimism: that together, in time, we’ll create another legacy of success.”

Yasuhisa Arai – Senior Managing Officer, Honda R&D Co Ltd; Chief Officer of Motorsport

“Today is obviously a very exciting day for me and for Honda. It’s not every day that you’re involved in a launch of a new Formula 1 car and a start-up of a new partnership.

“As you can see with the new MP4-30, we’ve dedicated ourselves as one team with McLaren to creating a new car that compromises on nothing – either power or aerodynamics.

“Yet, in the midst of the excitement, both myself and our engineers are 100% focused in both Sakura and Milton Keynes to prepare for Jerez and beyond. We’re confident that the technology is there, and I’m looking forward to see how it will perform.

“We’re about to commence a long season, with numerous challenges, but Honda is determined to face them head-on. After all, we’re here to drive Formula 1’s technology forward and give our fans a thrilling ride.”

It’s not only the launch of the MP4-30 today; it’s the day when we throw the wraps off our new team identity, definitively revealing ourselves as McLaren-Honda.

And that means the first appearance of the drivers in their new teamwear at the start of a new year. For many fans, that’s one of the defining moments of the new season. You’ve doubtless already seen Fernando and Jenson sporting crisp, black and white teamwear in our enjoyable Back To The Racetrack film, but now you can get your hands on it yourself.

Visit the McLaren online store to pre-order your very own 2015 McLaren-Honda replica teamwear now.

“Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads, but we do need racetracks…” 

McLaren-Honda drivers Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button get ready for the 2015 season with an unlikely encounter with something that looks more than a little reminiscent of one of the movie world’s most famous time machines.

Equipped with a shiny silver McLaren 650S, the duo are faced with the ultimate question on the lips of any racing driver: ‘Would I rather have driven in grands prix gone by, or should I cast my eyes to the horizon and aim for the future?”

The answer, they learn, is clearcut – but can they fit the MP4-30 with a flux capacitor…?

Subscribe to our channel and be the first to watch exclusive content from the Official McLaren YouTube channel: http://ift.tt/1kxjNRr

We are building up to the start of the season and want to give members the chance to get kitted out in style.

McLaren gift vouchers are the perfect way to reward McLaren fans and we have £150 worth to give away. The winner will get £75 in vouchers and 3 runners up will get £25 each to spend on http://ift.tt/MUlMmB

You need to be an official Team McLaren member to enter this competition so remember to enter your membership number. 

For your chance to win simply fill out the form below. Competition closes midnight 6^th February 2015 and winners will be notified within one week of this date. 

As a member of the official Team McLaren membership programme, you are eligible to apply for a place, (with a guest) to tour the McLaren Technology Centre (MTC), the headquarters of McLaren Honda in Woking, United Kingdom.

Our new member tour dates for 2015 are coming soon and will be published here mid-February! So check back then for our full list. We will also announce when this list goes live on twitter @TeamMcLaren.

Tours are decided on a ballot basis and an administration charge applies to those members selected at random for each months visit. 

Next week will see the unveiling of the McLaren Honda MP4-30, surely one of the most eagerly anticipated F1 cars of recent years given the heritage of the combination.

Some 27 years ago, we awaited the first Honda-powered McLaren, the MP4/4 with a similar sense of expectation. The big difference is that, back then, Honda was already well established after five years with Williams and Lotus. This time around, the potential of the Japanese power unit is a huge unknown, not least because the whole Honda operation has been revamped since its last F1 foray in 2008. Nevertheless, there are clear parallels between the situations then and now.

It was at the 1987 Italian GP that McLaren confirmed that it would use Honda power in 1988, and that Ayrton Senna would be joining Alain Prost. The disappointing ’87 season thus proved to be the last for the venerable but mighty TAG Turbo, which had lost any advantage it once had.

McLaren now had its hands on the best engine, and without a doubt, the most exciting driver combination of the era. In addition former Brabham wizard Gordon Murray had joined as technical director in 1987, filling the void left by the departure of John Barnard.

In fact, the team seemed to hold all the aces. With so many assets onboard, team boss Ron Dennis was struggling for the most appropriate name for the team. I still remember sitting in Ron’s office while he sat at his desk arranging and rearranging three scraps of paper that read simply, ‘McLaren’, ‘Marlboro’ and ‘Honda’. Ron couldn’t find a configuration that worked, needing to both satisfy his title sponsor and his new engine partner. I leant over the desk and placed them in what I felt was the most obvious order – and so ‘Honda Marlboro McLaren’ came to be.

It may not have been the most elegant of names, but all the pieces seemed to be falling into place. There was one big question mark, however. The sport was moving to normally aspirated engines for 1989, and the ’88 season would be the last for the turbos. The transition had begun a year earlier, but only a handful of teams had opted for the non-turbo route. Now, for ’88, some top teams – including Williams – made the switch, and it seemed to be a good idea to do so.

On paper, it looked fairly clear-cut: the turbos would be severely handicapped with maximum boost dropped from 4.0 to 2.5 bar, and a reduction in fuel tank capacity (no refuelling stops in those days) from 195 to 150 litres. There was also a hefty 40kg weight handicap relative to cars running the new engines.

The general idea was that these restrictions would handicap the turbos, and indeed the FIA’s ever-colourful president Jean-Marie Balestre was convinced that they would have no chance of enjoying a winning swansong season before the normally aspirated engines became compulsory in 1989.

History relates that it didn’t quite turn out that way…

To speed up the ‘getting to know you’ process, McLaren did just what it did at the end of last year – the team created an interim B-spec car out using the old chassis fitted with the new engine, in order to go testing and give Honda the best possible opportunity to adjust to the rule changes.

In fact, McLaren built two MP4/3Bs, because there was a requirement from Honda to send one to Japan for winter running at Suzuka, where new test driver Emanuele Pirro would eventually complete thousands of kilometres. One car was converted from 1987 race spec, while the other was the final unraced monocoque, and could thus be properly adapted during the build process.

It wasn’t simply a case of slipping the Honda into the space where the TAG had once sat, despite the two engines sharing fundamentally the same 80-degree V6 architecture. In reality they were quite different, and there was very little compatibility between their systems and ancillaries. Outwardly the car looked similar to the standard 1987 machine, although the large Honda logos on the engine cover gave the game away! Underneath, aside from everything around the engine itself, there was also a new gearbox casing and oil tank.

“In many respects it was similar to the TAG engine, with an 80deg vee, the same sort of size,” recalled project leader Steve Nichols. “It was not quite as pretty aesthetically, you might say, it looked a bit bigger in some areas so there was going to be a problem mounting it. For instance the TAG engine had a heat exchanger for the oil cooler on either side, this had it on only one side so that would have to be accommodated. But overall it looked like a viable package, something we could easily integrate.”

The car ran for the first time in Prost’s hands at a chilly Silverstone in December, and later in the winter Senna took the wheel for his first ever experience of a McLaren since his famous test with the team in 1983. Honda’s work focussed on optimising the new engine at lower boost, while improving fuel economy to deal with the smaller 150-litre fuel tank. It was a major challenge, but one that the Japanese engineers tackled with relish.

“The engine was good right from the beginning,” said Nichols. “Although it was hard to evaluate because the TAG engine had been 4.0-bar and the first Honda engines were 2.5, so there was never any direct comparison between the two. Working with the Honda people was very good, there were a lot of them, and they were very, very competent. They had somebody to do each job.”

Without the restrictions that are imposed these days – last year’s MP4-29H was in essence built just to run in the post-race Abu Dhabi test – the team logged a huge amount of priceless mileage. However, there were some problems. Inevitably the test car was a compromise, and its behaviour on track reflected that. That made it hard to accurately predict the potential of the definitive 1988 package.

Nevertheless, all the information that was gleaned was ploughed back into the design of the MP4/4, a process that had not commenced properly until after the Honda deal was finally signed off in September. It was to be a clean sheet of paper incorporating all the lessons learned from the testing, while also reflecting the philosophy of Murray, who was keen to produce a ‘lowline’ car, something he’d tried with the bold but hopelessly slow Brabham BT55 two years earlier.

Crucially, the interim car allowed McLaren to hold back the test debut of the MP4/4 until the last possible minute, and the team used every available day for its development. From the outside, we wondered if that really was the right strategy – surely it would have been wiser to get the actual race car out running early, just like everyone else? However, McLaren had kept us guessing before and it had paid off, so we gave the team the benefit of the doubt.

The MP4/3B was used at the major winter tests of 1988 at Estoril, Jerez and Rio, and still there was no sign of the new car. At Imola, the final European test before the Brazilian GP, journalists waited in vain for it to appear. Some gave up and went home.

However, after a superhuman effort back in Woking the prototype was dispatched by cargo plane just in time to catch the final day at the autodromo – talk about cutting it fine! It arrived late on the Tuesday night, and after final preparations it took to the track on Wednesday, just nine days before the first day of practice and qualifying in Brazil. The race team joined the test mechanics, who had been working for weeks with the unloved and now redundant MP4/3B.

“While we were there with this awful car the race team arrived with MP4/4,” recalled test team manager Indy Lall. “And it just looked the bollocks. We were knackered, and we were just sort of shovelled into the corner because Ayrton and Alain didn’t want to know about the old car any more – and you can’t blame them.

“But it gives me goose bumps to this day when I think about what happened next. The MP4/4 went on track and the lap times just went quicker and quicker and quicker. It was getting dark – and Ayrton didn’t want to stop. It was an absolutely amazing experience.”

In Senna’s hands the car was an astonishing two seconds faster than its nearest rival. Clearly the irrepressible Brazilian had never heard of the concept of sandbagging! Indeed, it was immediately obvious to both the media and McLaren’s shell-shocked rivals that Murray, Nichols, Neil Oatley and their design office colleagues had got their sums right – and so too had Honda.

“It was a very good package, and the drivers were great,” Ron Dennis would say a few years later. “Within two hours of first testing the car at Imola, it was apparent that it was really good. When you’ve been working in racing a long time, you can get a damn good idea on the first day whether the car will perform or not…”

Had there been a major weakness or a problem to be addressed at this stage, then the 1988 season might have turned out very differently. Instead the team came away from Imola knowing that it had a winner on its hands. The homework done with the MP4/3B had paid off, and in 1988 McLaren experienced the most successful season that any F1 team had ever enjoyed, winning 15 of 16 races.

So what of 2015? McLaren and Honda took a lot of flak after various problems kept the MP4-29H in the garage in Abu Dhabi in November, and inevitably the policy of putting all that effort into creating a test car came under scrutiny. However, while Stoffel Vandoorne might not have run many laps it was crucial that those issues emerged in November, and not at Jerez in February with the brand new car. In that respect, the test car project will have quietly paid dividends.

Of course, this time the new McLaren-Honda will made its debut at the same time as its rivals, so there will be none of the brinkmanship of 1988, and that famous last-minute shakedown. Now we just have to wait and see how competitive it is out of the box…

We interrupt the busy pre-season work of McLaren engineers Tim Goss, Matt Morris and Peter Prodromou to find out just what makes 2015’s MP4-30 car tick, and to understand what it takes to design a Formula 1 to the 2015 technical regulations.

To reflect McLaren-Honda’s roots, which began back in the 1980s, our trio of engineers found inspiration in the strangest of places – firstly, they were let loose in the closed confines of McLaren’s Formula 1 windtunnel; secondly, they got to let their hair down after discovering a diverse collection of iconic ’80s’ toys that were just ‘randomly’ left in the tunnel, including a selection of spaceships, Slinky springs, BMX bikes and toy cars.

Using those unlikely props, the trio attempts to explain optimum ERS placement, the new-for-2015 nosebox regulations, and that eternal F1 conundrum: how to balance downforce vs drag…