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Championship race is on

Yesterday the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula One team revealed their new car for the 2008 F1 Championship, hours after arch-rivals Ferrari released their car. The McLaren MP4-23 will be powered by the Mercedes-Benz FO 108V engine, which is based on the flawless 2007 FO 108T. Last season's engine did not experience any failures during the 17 race weekends. The 2008 engine specifications will now be frozen until the end of the 2010 season, just like all the other 2008 F1 entries.

The new rules set by the FIA of course include the new Electronic Control Unit (ECU), developed by McLaren Electronic Systems for the FIA, which eliminates driver's aids such as traction control.

The 2008 season will also include the first night-time race, it will be driven in Singapore and Lewis Hamilton is looking forward to it. He said: “I think it will be wicked. In all my years of racing I have never competed in a night race, apart from indoor karting, so it will be something new for all the fans to watch and definitely exciting for the drivers.”

New-to-the-team Heikki Kovalainen responded in regards to the Singapore race: “It’s a good thing to do as long as everything is safe and the lights are very good, Formula 1 is quite different to football and it will have a much bigger effect if a light fails.”

The first race of the season will take place in Sydney, Australia in March 2008.

Press Release

The Formula 1 engine regulations for the 2008 World Championship season represent a continuation of the basic rules which were introduced for 2006 based round the fresh concept of 2.4-litre 90-degree V8 power units succeeding the 3-litre V10 engine regulations which had been in force for 11 years.

The new Vodafone McLaren Mercedes MP4-23 will be powered by the Mercedes-Benz FO 108V, which has evolved from last year's engine. However, under exacting rules in place since 2007 the engine specification has now been homologated by the FIA to a substantially fixed level, which will be frozen until the end of the 2010 season. The final specification of the new FO108V engine has been based on the FO108T, which was very reliable, as reflected by the fact Vodafone McLaren Mercedes did not experience any engine failures during the 17 race weekends which made up the 2007 season.

New to the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes MP4-23, as well as to any other cars competing in the 2008 Formula 1 World Championship, will be a standardised Electronic Control Unit (ECU) for powertrain control and data logging. This ECU has been developed by McLaren Electronic Systems together with its Technical Partner Microsoft on behalf of the FIA and must run FIA-approved software. One of the main technical features of the new ECU is the elimination of all driver aids, including traction control, which allowed maximum traction without wheel spin. Without traction control the driver’s abilities to control the car become even more significant.

Other engine regulations have remained unchanged. The 19,000rpm operating limit for the engines has been effective since 2007. Since then, basically anything which is inside the FIA seals cannot be changed, but ancillaries outside, for example the fuel system, airbox or other elements of the engine which will affect its packaging in the chassis can be altered. So there is still a degree of scope within which Vodafone McLaren Mercedes can operate from the standpoint of engine development. Also the rule requiring one engine to be used on two consecutive race weekends remains in place for the 2008 season.

The present engine rules place tight restrictions on the manufacturers in terms of dimensions, materials and components. Mandatory are: the V-angle of the cylinders (90 degrees) and the use of a maximum of two inlet and exhaust valves each; an engine minimum weight of 95 kilograms; a maximum cylinder bore of 98 millimetres; the position of the engine's centre of gravity and crankshaft centre-line. Alloys for the manufacturing of engine components are also defined tightly and specifically.

Norbert Haug, Vice President Mercedes-Benz Motorsport: "The development process of the new Mercedes-Benz FO 108V V8 engine for the 2008 Formula 1 World Championship started on 16th April 2007 and on 29th November the engine’s first run on the dyno took place. The FO 108V has a good heritage as our 2007 engine was running without any failure throughout the season. The engine rules restrict the possibilities for further development to an absolute minimum and there is only a small scope for exploiting a performance edge with regard to improvements from air intake, fuel injection, exhaust system, lubricant from our partner ExxonMobil and auxiliaries which our specialists have been pursuing energetically. Vodafone McLaren Mercedes’ target for 2008 is very clear – we want to do one better than last year.”

MP4-23 Specifications: