The McLaren MP4-28 is a Formula One racing car designed and built by the McLaren team for use in the 2013 Formula One season. The chassis was designed by Paddy Lowe, Neil Oatley, Tim Goss, Mark Ingham and Marcin Budkowski and was powered by a customer Mercedes-Benz engine. It was driven by 2009 World Champion Jenson Button and Sergio Pérez, the latter joining the team after Lewis Hamilton moved to Mercedes. The car was launched on 31 January 2013, as part of the team's fiftieth anniversary celebrations. It was also the last McLaren car to feature major sponsorship from Vodafone, a partnership that flourished for seven years, beginning in 2007 on the MP4-22.
The MP4-28 resulted in McLaren's worst Formula 1 performance for 33 years. It was their first season without finishing on the podium since 1980, and they never qualified in the top five - their worst since 1983. It was also the team's first season without a win since 2006.
Design
The MP4-28 features significant revisions compared to the MP4-27 as the team felt that the MP4-27 had reached the end of its development cycle, and that starting over would give the MP4-28 a wider scope for development. A pullrod front suspension similar to that of the Ferrari F2012 was introduced, the sidepods were revised to improve airflow over the rear of the car, while the rear suspension geometry was reconfigured to be more aerodynamic whilst incorporating a wishbone system designed to manage rear tyre wear by adding camber to the rear wheels as the speed increases, and relax as the car decelerates. The car's centre of gravity was altered by reducing the weight of the rollhoop and engine cover, allowing the team to raise the car's nose. The profile of the chassis was streamlined with the addition of a "vanity plate" to cover the "stepped" design seen throughout 2012. By contrast, the Lotus E21 was launched without a vanity plate, as the team felt that it was a purely cosmetic feature that added unnecessary weight; McLaren, on the other hand, described the weight change and aerodynamic benefits as a "non-issue".
By the team's own admission, the launch version of the MP4-28 contained some parts—including the exhaust, floor and front wing assembly—that had been carried over from its predecessor, the MP4-27, but new parts would be added throughout the winter testing programme. Despite the outward similarities to the MP4-27, Jenson Button described the internal design of the MP4-28 as having been completely re-worked.
Testing
The MP4-28 displayed significant speed during winter testing at Jerez de la Frontera, leading to speculation that the car would be an early championship contender. However, it was soon discovered that this speed was a result of a suspension component being incorrectly fitted on Jenson Button's car, which created an extremely low ride height that in turn led to the fast lap times. The team was forced to install the offending part properly as continuing to run the car in such a configuration would prove to be impossible.
Competition history
The McLaren MP4-28 faced a difficult debut in Australia, with the team admitting that they did not truly understand the way the car behaved under race conditions. Jenson Button qualified in tenth place, whilst Sergio Pérez started in fifteenth. Button and Pérez went on to finish the race in ninth and eleventh place respectively, on the lead lap, but some eighty seconds behind race winner Kimi Räikkönen. Button was critical of the car, claiming that it could not win a Grand Prix without extensive development work. Following the race, team principal Martin Whitmarsh described his willingness to abandon the MP4-28 altogether and instead revert to using the McLaren MP4-27 if the team felt they could not solve the MP4-28's issues, but that the team's preference was to concentrate on developing the MP4-28 for the time being.