McLaren reveal 2006 car livery

The MP4-21 marks the first livery design for McLaren with no tobacco title sponsor, after West pulled out of the sport in August last year.

McLaren have no title sponsor for 2006, with Vodafone filling the void in 2007, but their primary sponsor decal on the car is whiskey brand Johnnie Walker.

But the most distinctive feature of the new livery is the highly reflective chrome coating surface.

"A lot of research and months of work have gone into creating this unique chrome finish," explained McLaren Marketing Managing Director Ekrem Sami.

"We are always looking at innovative ways to allow our sponsor partners to differentiate their brands from the competition through their partnership with the team, and this unique livery is designed to be extremely photogenic.

"Team McLaren Mercedes had the highest audited 'Share of TV Voice' in 2005 - and we hope that this new identity will contribute to us retaining that status.

"When we created our previous livery in the mid nineties we established what we believed then was an innovative and groundbreaking new identity for McLaren Mercedes," continued Sami.

"What we have launched today is as revolutionary and we hope it will be the foundation of the team's livery for many years to come."

"I have only seen illustrations of the new livery until now but they do it no justice," said Kimi Raikkonen.

"It looks fantastic and should create a bit of a stir when we drive it on tracks around the world. If we can make the car as fast as it looks then we will be in good shape."

"Wow," said Juan Pablo Montoya. "What a beautiful looking car. I have obviously been testing the MP4-21 quite a bit already but seeing the car like this is something else."