McLaren has unveiled its new MP4-26 car and hopes will challenge his team;s drivers Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton to win again F1 World Championships in 2011. Although most teams unveilled their 2011 cars in Valencia during the pre-season testing, McLaren held back and rushed to Berlin overnight for a strangely orchestrated launch of the McLaren MP4-26A at the spectacular Sony center in Berlin. By waiting as late as possible, the team hopes it has given itself as much time as possible to be ready for the first race. 
It will be no surprise that many of the new regulations and the re-introduction of KERS (Kinetic Recovery System) have had an impact on the design of the MP4-26 as most of the teams have decided to use similar design patterns: a very high pitched, long and flat nose, a slender and clean rear section with the adjustable rear wing, a complete new front wing design, and a new airbox. The new McLaren design is no exception and features the same patterns. Still the team made one more innovative steps as the side pods have a revolutionary sculpted "L" design and a novel engine-cover featuring two air inlets. Although "L" shaped sidepods is believed to cause more aerodynamic resistance in quick circuits, team's new technical director Paddy Lowe hopes that the British Silver Arrow will eventually produce more downforce in the technical "slow" circuits having a similar performance to the one RedBull Racing had in 2010 season.Here's a more thourough analysis by Graig Scarborough
Front wing as well has several flaps on either side of the wing. The center of the wing guides the airflow to the front of the floor of the car, while the flaps and wing endplates are aerodynamically sculpted to optimize the air flow around the front wheels.
McLaren also seems to use a construction which generates downforce from the floor under the car. Although it was rumored that will follow a Lotus-Renault exchaust approach, the exhaust pipes are actually in the rear of the car. The McLaren MP4-26 is as usual powered by the Mercedes-Benz client engine, and they use a hybrid KERS system, which was developed together with Mercedes. It is a single integrated unit, and it is mounted under the fuel tank in comparison with 2009 when it was housed in the side pods. 
Team Principal Martin Whitmarsh was, as usual, very enthusiastic about the new MP4-26. "The MP4-26 is the result of an incredible amount of hard work, innovative thinking and dynamic teamwork. Under the leadership of Paddy Lowe, Tim Goss and Neil Oatley, our design department is more integrated than ever: in fact, I'm particularly proud of the contributions made by our project engineers, many of whom have taken on leadership roles for the very first time and who have worked so well together to create this very striking and individual-looking car." Drivers were quite laconic in their comments. Lewis Hamilton commented: "We've seen it in the wind tunnel but this is the first time we've seen it all together and it looks even better in full size. Jenson Button added: "This is our new baby. [It's] the car we hope will take one of us to the drivers' championship and the team to win the constructors'. It's beautiful." 
