McLaren focus on reliability for new car

On the back of the reliability issues that wrecked Kimi Raikkonen's title challenge in 2005, despite the MP4-20 being the fastest car for much of the year, McLaren are determined to make sure there is no repeat of such troubles in the new season.

The MP4-21 is expected to hit the track for the first time later this month and McLaren's managing director Jonathan Neale has made no secret of where the team's priorities lie with the new car. The team resume testing with their interim car next week.

"Following the pre-Christmas tests, we are currently planning to test every available week in the run-up to the Bahrain Grand Prix starting in week two in Jerez," he said.

"Once the new car has been released, our primary focus will be durability testing, proving the software, the systems and the 11,500 car components, 90% of which have changed from MP4-20. Then we will start to look at phasing in upgrade packages onto the car.

"For example the aerodynamic specification was set in late October, early November time and since then the aero team has been working on a series of performance upgrades to bring on line and this will take place before the cars leave for the first Grand Prix in Bahrain and then continue throughout the season."