The McLaren Launch

I duly cleared my hectic and overflowing social and professional diary to ensure that I would be by my laptop this morning to follow the launch of McLaren's 2012 challenger, the MP4-27.

As is often the case with these kinds of events, the anticipation was weightier than what was actually delivered. The white sheet was removed to reveal the shiny new creation, the drivers and team luminaries were interviewed by the assembled press, and sponsors name-checked at regular intervals.

I have always been somewhat ambivalent about F1 "launches" and "unveilings".  For somebody like myself, whose interest in racing revolves less around the technical side than the human and sporting aspects, they can be sterile and superficial. Many of the technological minutiae leave me cold, and the people involved are inclined to be guarded and non-committal.

Even allowing for this, I thought that today's launch was a touch one-paced.  I found the opening portion of it, when the car was unveiled and the drivers interviewed by the compere, to be awkward, and the banter stilted.  One gets the impression that all concerned see the launch as a chore to be performed, almost with gritted teeth.

The F1 circus tends to go through phases and fads when determining how to launch its machines to an expectant world. From the mid-1990s onwards, there was a trend towards employing showbiz gimmicks (pop groups mainly) and using grandiose and prestigious locations.  If we have to endure these ceremonies, my ideal would be the kind of thing we had today, carefully leavened and enlivened with a touch of razzamatazz, but not too much razzamatazz.....

I think it's fair to say that the MP4-27 is quite easy on the eye, and retains one of the most distinctive and effective liveries on the grid.  There is a temptation to equate prettiness with expected performance in F1 cars, even if experience has shown that to be a facile assumption!  However well the car goes, I would expect it to be more visually pleasing than most of its competitors.

When interviewed, Jenson Button seemed as calm, cheerful and confident as ever, these qualities perhaps reinforced by last year's events.  Lewis Hamilton was his usual enigmatic self, but of course it is impossible to gauge likely fortunes for the year ahead from a stage-managed event such as this.

As the launch progressed, and we were introduced to more members of the McLaren "family", my thoughts shifted towards how the organisation might have changed in recent years, both before and after the withdrawal of Ron Dennis from the frontline Formula 1 effort.

Though I would not describe myself as a fanatical "fan"in the modern sense, McLaren has been the team which I have most admired, after my obligatory youthful Ferrari fixation began to fade.  Even if it was to all intents and purposes a different team, I could detect a thread stretching back to the days of James Hunt, Teddy Mayer and Alastair Caldwell in the 1970s.  I was also able to delve beyond the popular perception of the Ron Dennis era, as a dour and soulless operation, and develop genuine respect for the qualities and values which he and others instilled in the team.

How does the current set-up compare?   Well, the structure and basic ethos and culture appear little changed from the previous two decades or so, but perhaps lacking the dynamism and outright passion which was there in the past.  This is not surprising, since many of the personnel are different.  Also, the more mundane aura given off by the team these days is likely more indicative of how the world itself has changed. The true nature and likely path of the "new" McLaren is yet to fully reveal itself.  It might be less overtly interesting than past incarnations, but could prove just as successful.

Martin Whitmarsh has always impressed me, from the days when I remember seeing him in documentaries in the early 1990s.  Very businesslike, and able to act as a protective buffer between the media/fans and team members, even if in a subtly different way than Dennis did in the past.  A calm, and quietly effective figure, if not quite as "hands on", visible or emotive as his predecessor.

Predictions for McLaren in 2012?   It is difficult to see them making any quantum leap forward, or plummeting backwards. Improvements will be incremental, as tends to be the case in F1 these days. We shall soon see whether the team's quiet confidence is justified.