Humble McLaren 'on a journey' as they launch 2019 car

The mood changed this week at McLaren's dramatic headquarters in the Surrey countryside as the iconic British team unveiled a car that they hope could improve their fortunes after a bleak few years.

Fifth, fifth, ninth, sixth is not good enough for a team with plenty of experience of winning races and championships. But since Jenson Button's victory in the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix, the slide has been relentless, to the point where they had one of the worst cars at the end of last year.

Changes were made last season, notably the split from Honda and the big funding that came with the partnership, for the Renault engine they would have to pay for, and they were still behind the power units of Mercedes and Ferrari up front, but they failed to deliver. After a strong start, their form is worrying. It appeared that they had a car that would not respond well to development.

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There has been a lot of soul-searching since then. People have left. Others have signed on. Some of them are expected to join in the coming months. "McLaren boss Zak Brown says the team "did some things differently". When this writer pushed him on this comment, he said: "We don't like to share secrets but we did things differently technically, operationally and in terms of how we designed and built the car."

Talk about keeping your cards close to your chest. But that's exactly what McLaren is doing this year, and it's a change of approach from last year. There is still a fierce determination amongst the 800 strong workforce, the desire to win burns brightly despite miserable results, but they are not going to, as Brown says, make it "too big" as they did last year.

Instead, it's a humble attitude based on hard work and an acknowledgement that they've made mistakes before. The hardest part, they say, is coming to terms with your mistakes. So this could be a pivotal moment in McLaren's long and successful history in F-1. "We are in the process of rebuilding," says Brown. It will be a journey."

The MCL34 looks like a fast car. And if it looks fast, the theory is usually that it will be fast. Brown agrees with that statement, but in between this new strategy he added: "It looks fast, but looks can sometimes be deceiving! All we can do is. We've identified the areas that we think have gone wrong, we've addressed those areas - structural, technical, people - now we just want to put a good race car on the track and make sure it's a good car that we can build. We'll keep our heads down, do the best we can and see where the chips may fall."

McLaren didn't like last year's development, a frustration that became apparent very early on. That's why the main focus of this year's design has been on laying the foundations to create a solid base for a car that can respond well to development during the season, something that will be crucial this year given the new regulations will provide the opportunity for big breakthroughs as engineers hope to exploit new concepts.

Then there is the engine. If we are to believe Renault, with Cyril Abiteboul, the head of their works team, Remi Taffin, the engine manager, and Daniel Ricciardo, the power unit figures for this year will be very, very good. Will they be on a par with Mercedes and Ferrari? Well the jury is certainly out on that now, but any improvement will be key to how much of a step their client McLaren can make this year.

They are already on the front foot. The switch to Renault power for 2018 was a late one, which means last year's McLaren chassis was a compromise. This year they have consistency and have also hit their production schedule deadlines, which means they have a car that takes its time to be ready for testing - something many of their competitors can't match. This was particularly important given that they are introducing a completely new driver line-up for the first time in 12 years - and their youngest ever - Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris.

What they need more than anything is a car that is reliable in the first week of testing. They need mileage - and lots of it - to get them comfortable with the car and their engineers, and to start working on performance in the second week so they can maximise the Australian spec package they will be desperate to bring out in time - having had to wait until the fifth race in Spain last year.