How McLaren's innovation goes beyond its livery

Back in the mid-1980s, Irishman Tommy Byrne drove for me in Formula 3 with Anson and had a belief that white cars were quicker than black cars. Needless to say, he was driving a black car and his main rival, Ivan Capelli, was driving a white car. Says it all, doesn't it?

It's all very nice that McLaren has a new orange-and-black livery, but the key question is whether the car will be quicker than last year's less brightly-coloured model. I imagine even Mercedes will be keeping a close eye on it during testing.

Like Ferrari, this is a huge year for the underachieving McLaren-Honda partnership. The management has changed completely, with Ron Dennis booted out along with some that were associated with him. In comes Zak Brown, who is highly-rated in F1 but now has nowhere to hide in his role heading up McLaren.

As for Honda, this is now its third year and it's time to perform. The power unit architecture has been changed completely from 2016, and with the token system governing engine development scrapped there is nothing limiting the progress of all the manufacturers other than ideas. At McLaren, it's time to stand up and be counted, for chassis and engine manufacturer alike.

I've been critical of McLaren in recent years, but this car looks good. Maybe it's just the orange, but it would be good to see a team of McLaren's size fighting at the front again.

If it doesn't happen soon, Fernando Alonso will surely get bored and be off, and while Stoffel Vandoorne has time on his side he will know that, like Max Verstappen, it's important to get in there and show what you are made of to avoid ending up like Daniil Kvyat and in a second-string drive.

NOSE/FRONT WING

So far, other than Mercedes, every team has gone for what might be called the 'thumb tip' nose design. This seems an obvious route to take, but only provided all the extra surfaces you are including don't cause any airflow problems further down the car.

The wing-mounting pillars are about as dramatic as we have seen. They have four elements, all with their leading and trailing edges positioned to maximise the airflow into the centre of the car. This is to pull as much flow as possible in between the front wheels.

If it works, it presents a much higher mass flow to the leading edge of the sidepods. Compared to Mercedes, it shows there is more than one way to skin a cat.

The front wing is again the multi-element device that is now de rigueur. In some areas, it has six slot gaps, which means seven elements. It took quite a few years and a few staff changes for McLaren to join the multi-element front wing club properly.

Back in 2013-14 it was still a three- (or at best a four-) element team when it came to front wings. Although that kind of philosophy can create more downforce it is just too sensitive to airflow separation.

On the nose-to-chassis interface, the exit duct from what is presumably an s-duct can be seen. Again, this is to help to keep the airflow attached underneath the droopy nose and to reduce the lift created on the top of the chassis, as the airflow would normally accelerate over the crowned area.

SIDEPOD LEADING EDGE

This is the area that most of the teams have been exploiting because it is the part of the car that has been opened the most in the 2017 regulations.

What McLaren has done in concept is not dissimilar to Ferrari, it's just a bit different and probably not quite as exaggerated. But that is probably because Ferrari's sidepod undercut is massive compared to McLaren's. If you are trying to do something with the airflow, then you need to give it room to work.

Like most other teams, the sidepod doesn't quite go to the maximum width. This means that the Coke bottle area towards the rear of the car will function that little bit better. It doesn't have to pull the airflow around from a wider sidepod, so there is less risk of airflow separation.

The Coke bottle is compact. McLaren says it has gone away from the 'size zero' aero cooling philosophy, but to me this still looks like a size one. It's probably OK for Barcelona, where temperatures will be cool in testing, but for Bahrain or some other hot-weather races cooling compromises might still have to be made.

REAR WING/DIFFUSER

This is the first car where in overhead view we can actually see the dimensions of the diffuser under the new rules, even if McLaren certainly wasn't giving away any true secrets in this area of the car at the launch. It is a bigger device than we have had for quite a few years and is probably the only aerodynamic regulation change that will potentially bring us better racing.

Downforce produced by the underfloor is more robust and can suffer a lot more turbulence before it has a major impact on its overall performance, so in theory the cars should be better in traffic.

The rear wing is what can only be called standard now for F1 2017. As I have said before, this is a bolt on component and changes from circuit to circuit so we will see at Barcelona where everyone ends up.

SUSPENSION

The front suspension is double wishbone and track rod, with pushrod-operated inboard torsion bar.

It looks like McLaren has focused on the suspension geometry as opposed to compromising it solely for aerodynamic reasons. Having bigger and better tyres is a waste of time if you don't create a sensible suspension layout that allows you to get the best from them.

Teams can blame Pirelli as much as they want, but if you don't help yourself then don't expect miracles from the tyres.

Overall, it's difficult to say but the McLaren looks like a step forward from last year.

If Honda has come up with the goods then I wouldn't be surprised to see McLaren fighting for that highly valued and very competitive fourth in the constructors' championship.

About time, some might say.