TEAM McLAREN MERCEDES MP4-20 TESTS IN BARCELONA
For Immediate Release: The Team McLaren Mercedes MP4-20 Formula One
car took to the track for the first time today at the Circuit de
Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain, with Kimi Raikkonen at the wheel. The
track debut of the teams 2005 challenger marks the start of an
intensive five-day test session, which will see Kimi joined by
team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya later this week.
A lot of time, effort and work has been invested in the new car,
with the engineers working more for us than ever before, said
Kimi. My first impression after these few laps is a good one,
however, the work for me and my driver colleagues starts only now.
The Finn will continue to drive MP4-20 until Thursday, when Juan
Pablo will take the wheel.
Since MP4-20 was fired up for the first time at 02:30am on the
morning of Thursday 20th January at the McLaren Technology Centre,
the anticipatory atmosphere of the cars initial run within the
team has been building and we are pleased to have completed its
shakedown this morning, said Ron Dennis, Team Principal, Team
McLaren Mercedes. Todays unveiling is the first tangible
demonstration of the teams preparations for the 2005 season, a
year that has the potential to be exciting and positive for all the
teams, our Partners and the fans alike. There is feverish work
taking place across the team to achieve the best possible result
for this year
The design of the MP4-20 has been heavily influenced by significant
revisions to both the sporting and technical regulations that
govern Formula One in four key areas: engine lifespan, limitations
on tyre use, aerodynamics and race weekend format particularly for
qualifying.
A Formula One car is a fully integrated machine, commented Martin
Whitmarsh, CEO Formula One, Team McLaren Mercedes. As a
consequence, regulation changes to the extent we have seen ahead of
the 2005 season, have had a major impact on the configuration of
the entire package. The revisions created an interesting challenge
for our design team under Adrian Newey, Mike Coughlan and Neil
Oatley, and the result is a car that looks quite different from
last year. Mercedes-Ilmor on the engine side has to cope with
similar technical and timescale challenges.
The aerodynamic modifications have led to the most visible
differences on the car, to the design of the chassis, which has
been exclusively developed in the design office and wind tunnel
facilities at the McLaren Technology Centre. These include the
raising of the front wing by 50mm, restricting the height of the
diffuser to 125mm and bringing the rear wing package forward by
150mm.
McLaren Racings Technical Director Adrian Newey added, With the
regulations, particularly on the aerodynamic side, being set
comparatively late resulting in even harder and more dedicated work
from all members of the team to get MP4-20 on track today. This has
seen positive collaboration with all our Technology Partners,
particularly Michelin in adapting to the extended use requirements
of tyres for the coming season, when they have to last the entire
race distance. The spec for MP4-20 was set in May 2004 and this saw
the start of wind tunnel work at the McLaren Technology Centre. The
timescales have been challenging but that is all part of the
excitement of Formula One.
Norbert Haug, Vice President Mercedes-Benz Motorsport, said:
"Formula One of generation 2005 creates a host of new challenges
for all the engineers involved, as well as bigger cuts and
restrictions overall than ever before during the last decade. The
engines lifespan is doubled due to a change in the regulations,
which allows the engines to be replaced only after two races. This
modification was announced extremely late, putting even bigger
strain on the engine people. Additional strain was caused by the
demand that performance be maintained despite the doubling of the
lifespan. The new rules concerning the aerodynamic limitations and
the use of only one set of tyres per race are no less challenging;
it was therefore an interesting and busy winter not only for our
engine technicians but also for the team's chassis engineers. With
the West McLaren Mercedes MP4-20 we hope to have created a powerful
package of chassis, engine and tyres, which will enable us to
resume the performance and results which our team scored in the
second half of the year and particularly in the final third of the
season with last year's MP4-19B."
Of course, everyone within our organisation was looking forward to
the initial laps and results of the MP4-20 on the first test day,
Martin Whitmarsh continued. The focus in these early stages will
be systems, aero and component evaluations before we start looking
at more comprehensive programmes towards the end of the week. We
have an intensive schedule to complete before the cars leave for
Australia on Wednesday 23rd February, which will see us test at
Valencia, Jerez and back to Barcelona. By the second week in
February at Jerez, we will have the second MP4-20 chassis in
attendance, with the third due to come on line in the following
week.
Pedro de la Rosa will test alongside Kimi today in the MP4-19B,
evaluating components and systems alongside the programme for the
2005 car, sharing driving duties during the week with Alex
Wurz.
MP4-20 FACTS
Development of MP4-20 began May 2004
The first wind tunnel work on MP4-20 also began in May 2004
Approximately 3,600 hours of wind tunnel work has been conducted
with MP4-20
The Mercedes-Benz FO 110R V10 engine has been running on the dyno
for about half a year
The Team McLaren Mercedes team has completed approximately 11,000
testing kilometres since the 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix.
So far in testing since the end of the 2004 season, the Team
McLaren Mercedes team has used approximately 8,000 litres of Mobil
Unleaded fuel, supplied by Technology Partner ExxonMobil
Over 4,500 drawings have been created in the design process for
MP4-20
There are approximately 10,800 components that make up the
MP4-20
