It's a new dawn 
It's a new day 
It's a new life 
For me 
And I'm feeling good 
I'm feeling good…  

We ripped the covers off our latest Formula 1 challenger at McLaren HQ on Monday, officially unveiling our new-look team of Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, and Team Principal Andrea Stella.

They had their say on what we can expect from 2023, gave their thoughts on the MCL60 and provided an insight into the future of McLaren Racing. Whilst it’s highly unlikely you missed our Team Launch, we appreciate your attention may have been firmly glued to our shiny new car, so we’ve gathered together the key quotes from the team. Here’s what they had to say…

On the season ahead…

Zak: Andrea is now running our racing team. He has been with us for nearly a decade and so he is a familiar face to the team. He has been running the racing team for some time, so I am very much looking forward to working closely with him. Then, we have our veteran driver Lando back in our race car and our new rookie driver, Oscar, which is going to be quite exciting.

We will be celebrating our 60th anniversary right throughout the year across all of our racing series, celebrating our success and our history, whilst trying to create some new history moving forwards.

Oscar: I am feeling inspired. It is the 60th year for McLaren, so I can look at a lot of history there - a lot of winning history. I am excited to finally be on the grid and to be in papaya, so I am looking forward to getting out there and getting stuck in.

Lando: I am excited. This is my fifth season, and it has been a long journey, although it doesn’t feel like it has been four and a half years. This is another new season, another new car, and a new teammate, so there will be a lot of new challenges.

Andrea: In terms of preparation, this is a key milestone as we launch the new car. There is so much work going on behind the scenes of our Formula 1 car, so I would like to take this opportunity to thank the whole team of 700 people. In particular, I want to mention James Key, our Technical Director, Piers Thynne, our Director of Operations, and I would also like to mention our colleagues at HPP, who supply the power unit and are part of the project.

On what they’re most excited for…

Lando: There are many places that I look forward to. I am British, so my home race, Silverstone is always my favourite. Vegas is on the calendar as well and I think if you ask any driver on the grid, they would say that Vegas was the one to look forward to the most, but for me, Silverstone is always the most special and I am looking forward to being back home.

Oscar: The same as Lando, my home race in Melbourne. I am a Melbourne boy and I grew up around 10 minutes away from the track, so it really is a home race for me - I am looking forward to going home. Vegas as well, I think that is on everyone’s wish list. Those two, and I like Spa as well, so I am looking forward to going back there. I think all of the races will be pretty cool - there is a lot of them this year.

Zak: A lot of excitement and a lot of activity. The most exciting part will be seeing the Formula 1 car out on the race track.

On the new car…

Andrea: In terms of performance expectations, we remain realistic for the short term. We will see where we are in Bahrain at the first test and at the race. Independently to that, we have good developments in the pipeline, so we remain optimistic for the season ahead.

Lando: Beautiful. It’s lovely to see the evolution from last year. Subtle things, but all to try and help us move in the right direction and take things forward. It looks good. The real question is answered in a few weeks when I get to be behind the wheel.

Oscar: It looks great. Like Lando said, it is an evolution of last year’s car. I get to call this my first Formula 1 car, which is pretty special. It looks good.

On the future…

Zak: Our future is looking strong. A lot of our technology projects are coming to fruition now, we can see them and touch them and will be active with the wind tunnel and the simulator later on in this year. Then, of course, we have got the world’s greatest fans, and we are supported by the world’s greatest companies – Google, OKX, Cisco. Most recently, we have had DP World join us, and they join an illustrious group of companies that support us, who give Andrea and the racing team the tools they need to go faster.

Andrea: The biggest challenge will be to keep improving as a team, as we move towards the front of the grid, and we can do it. To do it, we have to deliver our projects from an infrastructure point of view, keep strengthening the team, elevate the standards - as we say internally – and focus on performance.

On how hard we have worked over the winter break…

Zak: I want to thank everyone. As I mentioned earlier, this is a true team effort. We have almost 1000 people inside McLaren Racing, the strong majority of those on Formula 1. 100s of millions of papaya fans, and our wonderful corporate partners, who we wouldn’t be racing without. That is team McLaren, and I am excited to get this show on the road.

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