What's the news?

McLaren has unveiled its new P1, a car many are touting as the successor to the F1. Frustratingly, details are rather thin on the ground at the moment, but what we can tell you is the new P1 looks much more aggressive and exciting than the MP4-12C. As McLaren's ultimate car, we'd hope it'd be pretty quick as well.

Exterior

The P1's looks have been dictated by the aerodynamics required to make it stick to the road, McLaren claiming it has been designed with the emphasis on function over pure style. There's five times the downforce found in the 12C road car, and similar levels to that found in the 12C GT3 racer. On a racetrack the active rear wing can extend rearwards by up to 300mm as well as acting as an airbrake under hard deceleration. On the road that movement is limited to 120mm and the car uses a form of Drag Reduction System (DRS) like the F1 cars to adjust the pitch at high speed. Flaps mounted under the body in front of the wheels alter the downforce further.

Interior

There's a distinct lack of detail to be found here; in fact everything we tell you is pure guesswork since McLaren hasn't shown any of us the inners yet. What we can surmise is that it'll likely continue the function-over-form ethos, and be Ron Dennis-pleasingly minimalist.

Mechanicals

So, yes, it appears the firm is only using the Paris show as a design reveal, despite the fact the whole world and his mother have seen pictures on the internet already. In fact McLaren is even being bullish enough to suggest that this P1 in front of us is merely a design study and the production model is due to make its debut next year - probably at the Geneva Motor Show in March. Believe us though when we say that, for all intents and purposes, this is the production model.

So what else can we tell you? Well McLaren claims this will be the quickest and most rewarding series production road car on a circuit, and the idea is you can drive it there and back before playing. However, MD Antony Sheriff also said the firm's aim was not necessarily to be the fastest in absolute top speed. So a Veyron's going to be quicker in a straight line then. Still the promise of over 600hp per tonne should ensure that the gap between the pair won't be particularly insurmountable.

There's no word on engine or drivetrain, but we'd hedge our bets on the P1 using a development of the 12C's V8 bi-turbo engine and seven-speed 'Seamless Shift Gearbox'.

Anything else?

A lot of use of the word 'downforce' might be worrying to some, as it could conjure up an image of a car that is tricky to drive unless pedalled at nine tenths and above by someone with oversteer-gathering hands as quick as two hamsters on one wheel. Turns out that'd be fretting over nothing though, as while the P1 will undoubtedly dance when under the control of someone talented it's also been designed to be easily accessible to all. In fact one of the key targets was to get great loads of downforce at low speeds. We might even be talented enough ourselves...

Graeme Lambert - 1 Oct 2012