McLaren set to crash-test 'short nose'

Will McLaren shorten their long nose?

(GMM) McLaren on Wednesday confirmed it is bringing a significant package of aerodynamic upgrades to the MP4-30 car in Austria.

Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button left Monaco recently expecting the Honda-powered car to struggle on the long straights of Canada this weekend.

But then it emerged the team's Japanese 'power unit' partner has for the first time in 2015 traded in some in-season 'tokens' to bring performance to the turbo V6.

Not only that, Spaniard Alonso flagged a round of significant car upgrades for the Austrian grand prix later in June.

Rumors early this week suggested one of the features of the package is a 'short nose', which will require mandatory FIA crash-testing before it can be debuted.

A team spokesman told us on Wednesday: "We are aiming to bring aero upgrades to MP4-30 as and where possible, in line with our efforts steadily to make more competitive a still-new car concept that offers a huge amount of development potential.

"For Austria, yes, as you suggest, we are expecting to be able to incorporate some aero upgrades, some of which will be visible and some of which will not, but these are still in development and we are not able to share details of them with the media at this time," he added.