McLaren will have their ‘biggest’ budget ever

McLaren won't announce their new title sponsor when they launch their new car, but fans shouldn't be concerned as they will have their biggest ever budget this year.

The Woking squad are coming off a disastrous 2013 campaign during which they finished a distant fifth in the Constructors' Championship as they not only failed to win a race, but also didn't claim a single podium finish.

Telecommunications group Vodafone also announced early last year that they would end their title sponsorship, but McLaren's bosses said they had an "exciting announcement" lined up for the last month of the year.

December came and went and there are now doubts whether or not they will have a title sponsor for the 2014 season after they revealed they won't announce one when launching their car on January 24.

Despite the concerns, McLaren managing director Jonathan Neale says they are in "good shape".

"We won't be announcing a new title partner when we launch our new MP4-29 on January 24th," he is quoted as saying by pitpass.com, "but our roster of sponsors remains the envy of the pitlane."

He continued: "Moreover, and importantly, McLaren Group is a private organization, not a PLC. As such, whereas in previous years we've sometimes shown a very healthy profit, running to tens of millions of pounds, we don't have shareholders demanding that we do that every year, as PLCs do. Indeed, our shareholders don't take dividends – instead they're motivated by the desire to make the McLaren Group an even greater and even more successful powerhouse of technical innovation than it is already.

"So, bearing all the above points in mind, I'm pleased to say that McLaren Racing will have a larger operational budget available to it in 2014 than it's had in any previous season in McLaren's history.

"We're in good shape."