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2016 McLaren-Honda MP4-31
Pictured is a 2016 McLaren-Honda MP4-31 Grand Prix Car.
It was driven in 2016 by double Formula 1 World Champion Fernando Alonso, 2009 World Champion Jenson Button and Stoffel Vandoorne.
A much anticipated reunion with Honda for 2015 brought misery for McLaren with a woefully underpowered engine ensuring that the team suffered it's worst season since 1980, finishing ninth overall.
An improved Honda engine did see the team move forward in 2016 but nowhere near it's race-winning days of old. The season started in dramatic fashion with Fernando Alonso having a spectacular accident after touching the Haas of Esteban Gutierrez mid-race. The Spaniard flew through the air and the resulting impact saw the double World Champion walk away from the wreckage with two broken ribs. Team-mate Jenson Button had a tough race and trailed home in fourteenth position.
With Alonso ruled out of the following Bahrain Grand Prix on medical grounds McLaren test driver Stoffel Vandoorne stepped in to the car and the young Belgian was a revelation. He outqualified Button for his first Grand Prix and went on to finish a creditable tenth and hand McLaren it's first point of the season. Button retired from the race early on with engine failure.
The third race in China saw Alonso return to the cockpit although he finished the race in twelfth position with Button a further place back.
The Russian Grand Prix saw the team score a double-points finish with Alonso finishing a lapped sixth and Button claiming a solitary point for tenth, both drivers opening their 2016 accounts.
Button finished in ninth position in Spain and matched that in the following race in Monaco, although Alonso bettered that result by coming home fifth, the car's highest placing of the season.
Alonso finished just outside the points in eleventh in Canada and Button matched that in the inaugural European Grand Prix in Azerbaijan.
The following race in Austria saw Button have his best weekend of the season. In mixed conditions the 2009 World Champion qualified an excellent third on the grid and would end the race in sixth position, his best result of the year. After this he would score points in only three more events in what would prove to be his swansong in the sport after a seventeen-year career.
Eighth position in the German Grand Prix was followed by ninth in Malaysia and a further ninth position in the United Stated Grand Prix, the final points finish of his career.
After the heroics of Monaco Alonso would finish seventh in Hungary and Belgium, the latter from the back of the grid after receiving a ridiculous sixty-place grid penalty for changing engine components.
A late tyre change saw Alonso finish the Italian Grand Prix in fourteenth position although, on new rubber, he did take the fastest lap.
Two further seventh positions followed in Singapore and Malaysia (this time from the back after a forty-five place grid penalty!). He matched his best result of the season by finishing fifth in the United States Grand Prix and then rounded of the year with a pair of tenth positions in Brazil and the season finale in Abu Dhabi.
Sadly, that final race saw Button end his career with a retirement early on after a kerb-hopping exercise resulted in broken suspension, although he did make a one-off return for McLaren at Monaco in 2017.
At the end of the season, the McLaren drivers would finish tenth (Alonso), fifteenth (Button) and equal eighteenth (Vandoorne) in the championship, McLaren climbing to sixth in the Constructors Championship.
Pictured in January 2017 at the Autosport International show at the NEC in Birmingham.
2016 McLaren-Honda MP4-31
Pictured is a 2016 McLaren-Honda MP4-31 Grand Prix Car.
It was driven in 2016 by double Formula 1 World Champion Fernando Alonso, 2009 World Champion Jenson Button and Stoffel Vandoorne.
A much anticipated reunion with Honda for 2015 brought misery for McLaren with a woefully underpowered engine ensuring that the team suffered it's worst season since 1980, finishing ninth overall.
An improved Honda engine did see the team move forward in 2016 but nowhere near it's race-winning days of old. The season started in dramatic fashion with Fernando Alonso having a spectacular accident after touching the Haas of Esteban Gutierrez mid-race. The Spaniard flew through the air and the resulting impact saw the double World Champion walk away from the wreckage with two broken ribs. Team-mate Jenson Button had a tough race and trailed home in fourteenth position.
With Alonso ruled out of the following Bahrain Grand Prix on medical grounds McLaren test driver Stoffel Vandoorne stepped in to the car and the young Belgian was a revelation. He outqualified Button for his first Grand Prix and went on to finish a creditable tenth and hand McLaren it's first point of the season. Button retired from the race early on with engine failure.
The third race in China saw Alonso return to the cockpit although he finished the race in twelfth position with Button a further place back.
The Russian Grand Prix saw the team score a double-points finish with Alonso finishing a lapped sixth and Button claiming a solitary point for tenth, both drivers opening their 2016 accounts.
Button finished in ninth position in Spain and matched that in the following race in Monaco, although Alonso bettered that result by coming home fifth, the car's highest placing of the season.
Alonso finished just outside the points in eleventh in Canada and Button matched that in the inaugural European Grand Prix in Azerbaijan.
The following race in Austria saw Button have his best weekend of the season. In mixed conditions the 2009 World Champion qualified an excellent third on the grid and would end the race in sixth position, his best result of the year. After this he would score points in only three more events in what would prove to be his swansong in the sport after a seventeen-year career.
Eighth position in the German Grand Prix was followed by ninth in Malaysia and a further ninth position in the United Stated Grand Prix, the final points finish of his career.
After the heroics of Monaco Alonso would finish seventh in Hungary and Belgium, the latter from the back of the grid after receiving a ridiculous sixty-place grid penalty for changing engine components.
A late tyre change saw Alonso finish the Italian Grand Prix in fourteenth position although, on new rubber, he did take the fastest lap.
Two further seventh positions followed in Singapore and Malaysia (this time from the back after a forty-five place grid penalty!). He matched his best result of the season by finishing fifth in the United States Grand Prix and then rounded of the year with a pair of tenth positions in Brazil and the season finale in Abu Dhabi.
Sadly, that final race saw Button end his career with a retirement early on after a kerb-hopping exercise resulted in broken suspension, although he did make a one-off return for McLaren at Monaco in 2017.
At the end of the season, the McLaren drivers would finish tenth (Alonso), fifteenth (Button) and equal eighteenth (Vandoorne) in the championship, McLaren climbing to sixth in the Constructors Championship.
Pictured in January 2017 at the Autosport International show at the NEC in Birmingham.