The McLaren MP4-27 presented with fake exhausts
Martin Whitmarsh confirms that the MP4-27 was presented with plastic elements that will not be part of the final version of the latest creation from Woking, while Ferrari's F2012 is also expected to undergo significant changes before the first Grand Prix of the season in Melbourne.
In 2011, during the presentation of its MP4-26 in Berlin, assembled piece by piece by fans, McLaren used plastic components to hide some of its technical choices until testing, especially those concerning the exhausts. During the presentation of the MP4-27 in Woking, many observers believed that McLaren had once again hidden its game, which Martin Whitmarsh confirms in Auto Motor und Sport: « The exhausts were plastic, you will no longer see these components in this form. The car will look different in Jerez from how it appeared last week, and even more different in Australia » states the Team Principal of the British team, before adding that his team had already been able to evaluate a series of parts « that were not on the car presented in Woking » during straight-line tests conducted this weekend in Idiada, Spain.
For its part, Ferrari, which unveiled its F2012 last Friday, did not hide, from its launch in Maranello, that the car of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa was not presented in its final version: « This car is bound to change a lot before the first race. We have worked in the wind tunnel and in our design offices on the development of aerodynamic evolutions, but we also have some very important experiments that we want to conduct during our first tests, in order to finalize the configuration of the car for the first race » explained Nikolas Tombazis, designer of the F2012.
Most of the single-seaters were presented with their front and rear wings in their 2011 configuration, but for Otmar Szafnauer, COO at Force India, the top teams have hidden their game more: « The big teams have the budget to manufacture this kind of component, just for the presentation. The car we unveiled at our launch is probably much closer to its final configuration than the McLaren or the Ferrari. »
Whatever happens, and while Charlie Whiting, the FIA technical delegate, might be present in Jerez to verify the legality of certain cars, all the vehicles will still evolve significantly during the three winter testing sessions awaiting the teams in the coming weeks, in Jerez and then in Barcelona.
