Covers taken off McLaren challenger in Berlin

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes have unveiled their car for the 2011 Formula 1 season at an event held in the heart of Berlin.

Featuring a number of eye-catching design innovations aimed at maximising performance in the wake of regulation changes, the MP4-26 was assembled in front of a large crowd in the city's Potsdamer Platz.

Drivers Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button put the finishing touches to the car after the process was started by Vodafone competition winners, fans and customers.

The completed MP4-26 has groundbreaking u-shaped sidepods which are designed to feed air more efficiently towards the rear of the car, as well as an active rear wing to assist overtaking.

In addition, a new KERS system has been integrated which builds on the successful device deployed in the 2009 season.

While happy with the results, McLaren engineering director Tim Goss said there was still much work to be done.

"We set ourselves a very ambitious aerodynamic target for 2011," he commented.

"We always want to do more and we're always very critical about performance, but we feel we've done a good job. We've identified some areas where we can add performance to the car - over the next [few] weeks, the task will be to get them on to the car and [make them] reliable by the first race."

The first race of the 2011 Formula 1 season will take place in Bahrain on March 13th.