Dec 3, 2015 2:05 AM

Gallery: McLaren's New MP4-X Concept Car Imagines a Fully Bonkers Future for F1

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The MP4-X, McLaren’s Formula One concept, unveiled today, cares little for evolution and leaps right into tomorrow.
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“We wanted to peer into the future and imagine the art of the possible,” says John Allert, group brand director for the McLaren Technology Group.

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The MP4-X is the work of McLaren Applied Technologies, the division that applies McLaren’s F1 R&D to other fields, from making toothpaste to treating ALS.
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The team considered the project an “open brief,” freed from silly constraints like cost, F1 regulations, and any ability to actually produce the proposed technologies.

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Naturally, the MP4-X is fully electric.
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But it doesn't rely on one big battery, like today's electric cars.

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McLaren says it would use “thin batteries,” integrated into the bodywork.
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Even if the MP4-X were spouting CO2, the driver wouldn’t notice, thanks to the canopy protecting him from the elements and dangerous flying objects.

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This canopy would be photochromic, changing color to improve the driver’s vision.
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The MP4-X is fitted with cameras, feeds from which could be piped directly into the driver’s helmet, allowing to to effectively see through the car and vastly improving visibility.

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In McLaren’s future, there’s no need for drivers to familiarize themselves with the insanely complex steering wheels used in today’s racers.
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Drivers would control the cars with hand gestures—a technology already in consumer cars—or simply their thoughts, using the ability to monitor the brain’s electrical signals.

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Surfaces of the car would shift position to apply exactly the downforce needed at any given moment.
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McLaren’s says “powerfully charged electrodes could be switched on into corners to turn the air around the wings into plasma.”

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Surprisingly, McLaren’s not suggesting trading in rubber for graphene and buckyballs.
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The ads would be projected onto the car, and would change based on who's looking at them.

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