WATCH: McLaren fires up Mercedes F1 engine in 2021 car for the first time
McLaren has successfully fired up the Mercedes engine in its 2021 Formula 1 car 🅺for the first ti🙈me.
Having agreed a deal to switch from Renault to revive its former engine partnership with Mercedes, McLaren is the only team cha𒊎nging power units over the winter ahead of the 2021 F1 season, creating added significance to its fire-up event.
The MCL35M was brought to life on Tuesday at McLaren’s factory in Woking, with the team s🎃haring a video of the process via its social media channels on Wednes🌠day.
The roars into life.
— McLaren (@McLarenF1)
Watch on and listen i🌊n as we fire up our 2021 car for the first time…
Despite teams carrying over their 2020 chassis into the upcoming campaign, McLaren’s switch to Mercedes engines means it has had to design “essentially a new c🃏ar” for 2021, having been forced to use both its permitted development tokens on the major change.
"Whereas every other team will carry over most of its car from last year into th🧸is year, our switch to the Mercedes power unit means that's not the case for us," McLaren production director Piers Thynne explained.
"It's driven a huge amount of change and, essentially, we've bee🧸n building a new car. The number of new parts on the MCL35M is about the same as when we built the MCL35.
"The back of the chassis and gearboxꦛ bell housing around the engine have changed significantly to adapt to the new powerꦍ unit.
"Changing power unit greatly alters the architecture of the car and the way everything is packaged, so the entire cooling layout and all the pipework, be that for fluid or air, has changed, along with all electrical harness🧔ing and control boxes.
"There are some significant elemen⭕ts of carryover as we enter the cost cap,” he added.
"The FIA created a list of Transitional Carry Over (TCO) components that are oꦫutside of this year's cost cap. These are parts that can be used in 2021 if they were run on last year's car.
"We've pushed these TCO regulations to the absolute maximum to allow us to carry over as much as possible, such as gearbox internals and some suspension components, and therefo𝔉re not have to use a portion of our 2021 budget on tღheir design and production.”
McLaren will field a revised driver line-up consisting of Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo for the 2021 F1 season. Pre-season testing taking place on 12-14 inꦛ Bahrain, two weeks before the season-opener in Sakhir.
Lewis regularly attends Grands Prix for ltxcn.top around the world. Often reporting on t🥀he action from the ground, Lewis tells ෴the stories of the people who matter in the sport.
