McLaren launch new MP4-27 car

PanARMENIAN.Net - McLaren have unveiled the car Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button hope will win one of them the drivers' title.

Hamilton described the MP4-27, unveiled at the team's Surrey base, as "the finest-looking car we've had for some time".

The car features a notably tightly packaged rear end, after the fashion of the Red Bull that has dominated Formula 1 for the last two seasons.

Lewis Hamilton won the drivers' world title in a McLaren in 2008, with Jenson Button winning the championship in a Brawn a year later. But Red Bull have won the last two constructors' championship, with Sebastian Vettel securing the drivers' title in both seasons. McLaren have not won the constructors' title since 1998.

Team principal Martin Whitmarsh said: “It will be close, it's a massively competitive championship. No-one in my view is going to run away with it.”

“We don't like losing, coming second in the last two years has been frustrating. We want to win races and world championships. We have two great racing drivers, everyone can see the chemistry between them but they want to beat each other.”

"There are some very strong competitors out there but we are feeling at the moment as if we are in a good place and we're looking forward to getting to Melbourne and competing for championships," BBC Sport quoted him as saying.