Teamspeed.com - James Allen on McLaren's launch

The Formula 1 press pack rolled up at McLaren's Technology Centre on Friday expecting to get a first look at the team’s new MP4-24 car and, while they got that, they also heard the first major breaking story of the year – that Ron Dennis will shortly be stepping down as team principal.

ITV.com/F1 columnist James Allen was at Woking to hear the announcement, and in his first feature of 2009 he discusses what's likely to change at McLaren with Martin Whitmarsh at the helm, while also looking at the challenges ahead for the team as a whole and drivers Hamilton and Kovalainen.

The king is dead, long live the king!

A new boss at McLaren – no great surprise in many ways, but still there is a real feeling of a changing of the guard.

Jean Todt has gone, Frank Williams has handed over a lot of responsibility to Adam Parr, Flavio Briatore says that he is stepping backwards ahead of retirement in two years and now Ron Dennis has decided to give his long-time deputy Martin Whitmarsh his chance.

McLaren's new era

I know better than most what it’s like to take over from a legend, even if you have understudied him for many years.

It’s not easy. Whitmarsh has big shoes to fill.

He is an employee of McLaren, not a major shareholder like Dennis.

Under him McLaren will continue to operate in much the same way, probably, with a few obvious differences.

I’m sure they will be slightly more laid-back and instinctive in the way they go racing, without Dennis towering over them.

It’s been coming for some time and in fairness Whitmarsh has been doing the lion’s share of the work for years without necessarily getting the limelight.

He is leading McLaren’s work with the Formula One Teams' Association (FOTA), and that is a big part of the reason why the team needed a change of leader: to deal with changing times.

Dennis is stepping back to take more of an overview, focusing particularly on maximising commercial opportunities for the whole McLaren Group of companies.

The big 2009 challenge

As for the launch itself, the team seemed very confident, the car looks pretty by 2009 standards and all the simulations say that it’s very fast.

There hasn’t been much to choose between the top teams in recent years and I’m sure it will be the same again this year, with BMW the ones we are all waiting to see.

They’ve had a head start over the others because they were able to throw more resources into the 2009 car at the end of '08 when Ferrari and McLaren were still fighting out the championship.

The key to this season is going to be the rate at which the teams can develop their cars without the benefit of any track testing.

Dennis said at the launch that 95% of all developments last year were done at the factory, with track testing merely a proving ground, but now the teams will have to be highly organised on Fridays of grand prix weekends to make sure they properly evaluate new parts and don’t go in the wrong direction.

Sometimes the simulations give you one reading but a bumpy track gives you a different picture.

Different goals

Lewis Hamilton was suffering from a cold, but struggled through the ceremony and press conference.

He is pretty relaxed having clinched the title and most people expect him to go up a gear this year, with the result that he will probably not make as many mistakes.

Heikki Kovalainen looked like a man who wasn’t expecting to make the headlines and just focused on keeping his nose clean.

He will have to raise his game significantly this year, as he accepted.

Finishing seventh in the same car as the world champion isn’t what he had in mind and nothing less than a top-four finish will do for him this season.