McLaren will reveal their 2009 car at their UK factory midway through next month. The MP4-24 - the machine in which Lewis Hamilton will defend his Formula One drivers’ title - will be unveiled at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking on January 16.
The team have already tested several elements of the new machine, which will embody 2009’s radical rule changes, including slick tyres, reduced aerodynamics and a Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS).
While McLaren and Mercedes engineers busily prepare for the 2009 season in Woking, Brixworth and Stuttgart and the test team readies two cars for December outings at Jerez and the new Autodromo Internacional do Algarve circuit in Portugal, Hamilton and team-mates Heikki Kovalainen, Pedro de la Rosa and Gary Paffett will head to western Finland for a five-day pre-season training camp at the Kuortane Sports Institute.
The centre has helped train some of the world’s top athletes and Hamilton acknowledges that, not only does it provide the McLaren team with a useful distraction from the usual pressures of F1, but it also acts as a useful team-building exercise with mechanics and engineers joining the drivers for group exercises and tests on the Kuortane campus.
“It’s certainly not an easy week. Finland in the winter is cold and icy and we’re pushed hard for day after day. We spend the first part of the week doing tests to monitor our core strength and flexibility and spend the rest of the time building on specific exercises that will help us once we’re back in the car,” the Briton admitted.
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