McLaren abandoned their Christmas break in order to get their new car ready for the upcoming Formula One season.

The famous British team, who last year endured the worst campaign of their glittering grand prix history, had to amend their schedule after the season-opening race in Melbourne was brought forward by two weeks.

The now-traditional Australian curtain-raiser had been scheduled for April 3, but the first of a record-breaking 21-race season will now take place on March 20.

“Our entire build programme wasn’t lined up for that so we knew we had a problem to solve,” said McLaren Racing’s operations director Simon Roberts reflecting on the change to the calendar.

“In simple terms, we put about eight shifts of work back into the programme over a five-day period – a fantastic effort.

“In total, there were about 110 people involved and we looked after our Christmas workers with a competitive package.”

McLaren said this week that they will break cover with their MP4-31 on the eve of the first winter test in Barcelona on February 21.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.