McLaren’s engineering director Tim Goss says McLaren aren’t ruling out a forward facing exhaust system, similar to that seen on the Renault R31 during testing.
The MP4-26, which was revealed in Berlin on Friday, featured plastic innards to hide the real layout from their rivals.
Goss explained that the exhaust system would be an area of much interest for the team as it could potentially provide a real boost in terms of pace.
“It’s no surprise to anyone involved in Formula 1 through last season to the start of this season that the exhaust solution is a significant part of the performance on the car,” he said during a media conference.
“It won’t come as any surprise or shock that the exhaust solution on the car today is not what we intend to be testing or racing. There will be some other solutions appearing on other cars, and on our cars as well.”
He also hinted that the team already had two solutions of which they will evaluate in Jerez, neither of which were like that of Renault’s.
Meanwhile, team principal Martin Whitmarsh revealed that the car seen today, doesn’t feature all their updates, as they opted to instead hide them from the media and their competitiors until the last minute.
“Be warned, you haven’t seen it all. I think there are some really interesting bits on the car that you can see. But there are some bits we have hidden from you and our competition.”
