McLaren to launch MP4-25 on January 29

UPDATE McLaren's 2010 car will make its first outing on Wednesday 3 February, World Champion Jenson Button revealed at the Autosport International Show on Sunday. The challenger, to be driven by himself and Lewis Hamilton, will be official launched five days earlier. With the show at Birmingham's NEC running over the course of the weekend, Button made his first Sunday appearance on the main stage during the morning. McLaren's new car, the MP4-25, will be the first since the team's management partnership with Mercedes-Benz ended.

Button's revealing of the February date confirms that the McLaren roll-out will see the car lapping in Valencia for the final of three days as pre-season testing begins. The circus will then move on to Jerez for two tests before proceedings come to a close in Barcelona on Sunday 28 February.

01/14/10 (GMM) McLaren on Thursday announced that its 2010 car will be launched on 29 January.

Initially on its official Twitter page TheFifthDriver, the Woking based team said the event will take place somewhere in the UK on the Friday morning.

It will be called the MP4-25. Incidentally, the 'MP4' designation dates back to 1980, when Ron Dennis merged his own company Project 4 with the team.