Formula One: McLaren unveil new car for 2008

STUTTGART, Germany: McLaren unveiled their new car for the 2008 Formula One season, the MP4-23, which team boss Ron Dennis believed would be competitive in the drivers' and constructors' world championship this year.    

McLaren drivers Lewis Hamilton of Britain, second in the drivers' championship last year, and Heikki Kovalainen, have still not driven the new car but will undertake tests at the Jerez circuit in Spain this week.    

"Our ultimate aim is to be competitive for the drivers' and constructors' championships," said Dennis while unveiling the car in front of 700 Mercedes staff and 400 guests at the Mercedes-Benz museum.    

"Everybody worked extremely hard at the end of 2007 so that the car would be ready as quickly as possible and would allow our drivers to test it for the longest possible time before the Australian Grand Prix on March 16."    

Hamilton, who was 23 on Monday, said: "My engineer said that it needed 14,000 working hours to ensure that the car was ready today. I'm really looking forward to driving it for the first time on Thursday."    

The team, which was excluded from the 2007 constructors' championship because of their role in a spying affair with Ferrari, added: "There are no significant changes in the appearance of the car, but from now until the Australian Grand Prix, we expect to modify most of the aerodynamic surfaces."