The McLaren MP4-31 was a car designed by McLaren for the 2016 Formula One season. It was unveiled on 21st February 2016 in a black livery that they ran in the previous season. Their drivers were Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button, with Stoffel Vandoorne substituting Alonso for the 2016 Bahrain Grand Prix following Alonso's crash at Australia.
The MP4-31's sponsors are Chandon, Mobil 1, Esso, KPMG, Segafredo, Hilton, SAP, CNN and Richard Mille.
Season review[]
In testing, McLaren showed a lot of progress. In qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix, the team's qualifying times were 5 seconds faster compared to their qualifying times last year. In the race, Alonso had a big crash on lap 18 with Esteban Gutiérrez from Haas, and both of them walked away uninjured. Button went on to finish 14th.
At the next round in Bahrain, Stoffel Vandoorne replaced an injured Alonso for the whole race weekend, because Alonso was deemed unfit to race from his injuries in the previous race. Vandoorne qualified 12th, out-qualifying his team-mate Jenson Button, and eventually gave McLaren their first point of the season by finishing tenth in the race.
Alonso secured his first points finish at the Russian Grand Prix, finishing sixth. He went on to finish a season-best fifth at the Monaco Grand Prix, repeating his best result from last year's Hungarian Grand Prix. In the second half of the season at the Belgian Grand Prix, Alonso finished seventh after starting 22nd and last, earning him the Driver of the Weekend.
The Japanese Grand Prix was the team's worst performance of the season. Alonso could only manage a 15th place in qualifying, meanwhile Button qualified a poor 17th. Alonso finished 16th in the race, meanwhile Button finished 18th. McLaren showed off their true pace at the United States Grand Prix, with Alonso finishing fifth after starting 12th and Button finishing ninth after starting from 19th.
Complete Formula One Results[]
| Complete Formula One Results | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Year | Driver | Tyre | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
| 2016 | 
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 Alonso
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P | Ret | INJ | 12th | 6th | Ret | 5th | 11th | Ret | 18th | 13th | 7th | 12th | 7th | 14th | 7th | 7th | 16th | 5th | 13th | 10th | 10th | |
 Button
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14th | Ret | 13th | 10th | 9th | 9th | Ret | 11th | 6th | 12th | Ret | 8th | Ret | 12th | Ret | 9th | 18th | 9th | 12th | 16th | Ret | ||
 Vandoorne
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10th | ||||||||||||||||||||||
