McLaren has announced it will reveal its 2019 car on February 14th, becoming the fourth team to confirm a launch date for the forthcoming season.
The Woking team will unveil the MCL34 the same week as Renault (February 12th), Racing Point (February 13th) and Ferrari (Ferrari 15th), with the first pre-season test getting underway in Barcelona the following Monday.
Much of the speculation ahead of last year’s McLaren launch centred around the colour scheme of the car. It looks like the ever-popular papaya is set to stay for 2019, as the team posted a graphic on social media showing two orange helmets.
While the livery may be the same as last season, it will be an all new driver lineup for McLaren this year as Carlos Sainz joins the team from Renault and Lando Norris is promoted after a season as the team’s reserve driver, during which time he also finished second in the F2 championship. They replace Fernando Alonso, who is stepping away from F1 to focus on his Triple Crown bid, and Stoffel Vandoorne, who has moved to Formula E after two seasons with the team.