If you have been following the world of Formula 1, you will know that McLaren is not exactly having a great season in 2015. Changing their power plant from Mercedes to a Honda power unit, McLaren is struggling to even finish a race as reliability is still a big issue for them. But even with the pain endured by the team, that has not stopped them to conceptualize how F1 is going to be like in the future.
Introducing the MP4-X. Some sharp-eyed readers might immediately point out that this roughly looks like Red Bull’s X1 which we agree. But the MP4-X was done by the guys at Woking themselves and not by any independent designers. “With the futuristic McLaren MP4-X concept race car, we wanted to peer into the future and imagine the art of the possible,” said John Allert, Group Brand Director of the McLaren Technology Group.
McLaren describes that the MP4-X is “designed to harness alternative power sources”. While that is interesting, they also said that the chassis will shape-shift to adapt to various aerodynamic demands and even “talks” to the driver if there is a problem!
But what interests us the most has got to be the idea of having a closed cockpit for a Formula 1 car. The idea has been around for long to lessen the chances of injuries in the event of an accident. “We have combined a number of F1’s key ingredients – speed, excitement and performance, with the sport’s emerging narratives – such as enclosed cockpits to enhance driver safety, and hybrid power technologies”, said Allert.
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