Piastri pokes fun at Red Bull: 'We showed our car first'

McLaren presented their new livery for the MCL38 earlier, but on Wednesday, they followed by unveiling the actual Formula 1 car with which Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will be in action next season. However, to the disappointment of many fans, it remained just a simple video and a few pictures.

So there was no spectacular live launch and that was a conscious decision. Why the decision not to take a more elaborate approach? "Because we can't. Because it's a game of performance so why would you ever want to give away anything? You see what the car looks like, but you'll see in two weeks or something the rest, so be patient," Norris told GPblog and others.

Piastri takes Red Bull to task

His teammate Piastri has something to add, sharing a tease at Red Bull Racing: "At least we showed our car before it went on track, unlike others!"

Team boss Andrea Stella explains more about the choice. "We have seen recently that teams decided to have some style, to launch the car like we had last year, where there was a show. It was launched at the theatre, at MTC, live streaming. But we also see that sometimes you may want to have a lower profile in launching your car," he explained.

He continues: "I guess these approaches can be alternated over time. And we went from last year's glamorous one to this year, which is low profile. This is not only technical or operational aspects. This is also marketing and commercial. Formula One is a large business, it's not only technical, like I say, and we need to take into account all these requirements and a variety of approaches."