Jenson Button enters his fifth season with McLaren, registering eight wins
with the team so far, and finishing second in the drivers’ championship in
2011.
The launch of the 2014 MP4-29, amid some of the biggest regulation changes to
the cars in a generation, comes just a week after Martin Whitmarsh’s
position at the helm of the team was effectively ended. It is thought
Whitmarsh has not been at the team’s Woking base since Ron Dennis regained
control of the Formula One operation last week.
Ron Dennis, who stood down as team principal in 2009 after nearly 30 years in
the role, replaced Whitmarsh as group CEO.
He told staff at Woking that “there will be change” and “we will win again”,
and Telegraph Sport understands there will be further announcements
on the leadership of the team next week. Whitmarsh was also absent from the
press release announcing Belgian driver Stoffel Vandoorne as the team’s
reserve driver for 2014.
There has been speculation that former Ferrari, Brawn and Mercedes team boss
Ross Brawn, 59, will take over as team principal, but he is currently on a
sabbatical and said at the end of last year he wanted to take a prolonged
break from the sport. It is believed Dennis does not want to return to the
pit wall.
For the upcoming season there are a raft of technical changes to the cars. The
principal change is the introduction of new 1.6 V6 turbo-charged engine,
which make extensive use of energy recovery and electrical energy, after the
cars ran with 2.4 litre naturally aspirated V8s in 2013.
There are also major changes to the front wing to improve safety, which is
thought to prompt “anteater” front noses, as shown on Williams’ FW36,
revealed on Thursday.