One more surprise comes in the field of Formula One Motor sports with team McLaren announcing its new car name and thus breaking their old tradition. This is another surprise and new element which has kicked in the F1 sports circuit as with each day something new and exciting is keeping the enthusiastic fans at their knees. Everyone is eagerly waiting what will be a new surprise before the racing seasons kick off next month.
McLaren have announced that their 2017 car will be called the MCL32, breaking with the ‘MP4’ nomenclature that had been in place since 1981. The move follows former chairman Ron Dennis’s departure from the team, the Englishman having brought the MP4 designation to McLaren when his Project Four Formula 2 team merged with the F1 squad in the early Eighties. Dennis was behind the original MP4 name. He was forced out following a boardroom dispute, bringing an end to his 36-year stay. He was replaced by Zak Brown, a former F3 racer from the United States who founded the motorsport marketing company JMI in 1995.
Now, McLaren’s 2017 Formula One car will be a break with the past, and the era of now-departed boss Ron Dennis, the team said on Friday.”2017 is all about change, and our car name is changing too,” McLaren said on Twitter, announcing the car would no longer have the MP4 prefix that has been carried by every McLaren since 1981.
The prefix alluded to Project Four, a team founded by Dennis in 1976 that merged with McLaren in 1980. Dennis was forced out as team boss by McLaren shareholders in November, with American Zak Brown coming in as executive director of the former world champions. McLaren said the new Honda-powered car, which would have been the MP4-32, would now be designated the MCL32. The car is due to be launched at the team’s Woking headquarters on Feb. 24. Formula One is undergoing major change this year, with Liberty Media taking over as the commercial rights holder and American Chase Carey replacing Bernie Ecclestone as chief executive.
On the track, the cars will have bigger tyres and revamped aerodynamics aimed at making them faster, more aggressive looking and harder to handle.
