McLaren became the first team to run their 2025 challenger, with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri giving their first impressions.
The team carried out a filming day at Silverstone in the MCL39, which adorned a special cameo livery ahead of their full livery launch at the F1 75 event. All the teams must save their official 2025 livery for the event, which marks 75 years of F1 and will take place at the O2 Arena in London.
McLaren completed laps as part of their ‘filming day’ activities allowed in the regulations, which permits 200km of running (or up to 33 laps of Silverstone).
Both drivers ran in the car, meaning they have got a taste of their 2025 challenge ahead of F1 pre-season testing, which begins at the end of February. Norris and Piastri gave their thoughts on the filming day in an official release by McLaren.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri give thoughts on MCL39 after ‘exciting’ Silverstone run
McLaren is hopeful that they can pick up where they left off at the end of 2024 with this years car, having won the Constructors’ Championship and challenged for the Drivers’ title with Norris.
The early signs seem positive, with Norris commenting: “It’s exciting to hop in the MCL39 for the first time and see what it can do on track, ahead of pre-season testing in Bahrain. The camo livery is a fun one and it’s great to be able to showcase something different ahead of our full livery reveal at the official F1 75 launch.”
Piastri also ran in the car during the morning and gave his take on how everything went: “It’s great to get behind the wheel of the MCL39 for the first time ahead of us putting it through its paces in Bahrain. I have been working hard in the off-season to ensure I am ready for the season ahead.”
Fans of the team took to social media to express their excitement, with some also providing thoughts on the special one-off livery in the photo posted by McLaren.
One fan commented: “Can you please keep this livery, car looks awesome!” while another said “OMGGGGGG so rareee…looks like tiger from far!”
Another fan was indifferent about the livery change: “the suit is fire!.. but the camo? Idk.” Fans were also keen to make digs at rivals: “We present the 2025 world championship winning car!”
McLaren renews contract of key ex-Red Bull engineer
Along with the hype surrounding the new season, McLaren also announced they had renewed the contract of a key former Red Bull engineer in their personnel.
Peter Prodromou has been one of the key architects of the team’s revival in the last two years, and the 56-year-old has just had his contract renewed on a multi-year deal from the 2025 season.
Prodromou was noted for being ‘unleashed’ by team principal Andrea Stella, who changed his role from chief engineer to one of the senior leaders of the technical team.
Stella identified his expertise as being a key ingredient to their success, after they started off the 2023 season at the back of the grid and with an unreliable car. The MCL39 is expected to be an evolution of the MCL38, which took six wins in 2024.
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