McLaren get radical on the wing front.

McLaren have been testing a rather interesting new front wing in their preparations for the 2003 season in Spain.

The wing, which can only be described as 'wavy', has a very distinctive curved look to it and shows that Adrian Newey has clearly been busy over the winter months trying to develop an advantage to let David Coulthard and Kimi Raikkonen wave goodbye to their rivals in the new season.

The radical shape could be McLaren's answer to increased downforce generation while cornering - when air doesn't flow squarely across the wing, but travels slightly diagonally [the angle depnds on the radius of the corner]. Another possiblity is that the curves help direct air better around the chassis behind.

It is unclear whether the wing will be used in Melbourne, or if it is for the car the Woking based team will start the season with, or specifically for the all new machine due to debut later in the year.

McLaren is emulating the approach that Ferrari used for the 2002 season by starting out with the reliabilty of last year's challenger, the McLaren MP4-17, albeit in much modified form, before switching over to its believed to be revolutionary MP4-18 once the European season begins.

Picture credit: Diego Moro