McLaren's new Formula One car made a belated but encouraging test debut on Wednesday with Jenson Button hopeful the team was picking up speed on and off the track after a dismal 2013 season.
Max Verstappen won Formula One's first Chinese Grand Prix in five years on Sunday.
The Spaniard said he would be ashamed if McLaren's appeal over alleged fuel irregularities gifted the championship to Lewis Hamilton.
Formula One champions Mercedes expect to be beaten by Ferrari this season and also see McLaren catching up fast after a dismal 2015 for the Honda-powered team, engine head Andy Cowell said.
McLaren have promised Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso a quicker car for the next race in Germany after losing to Ferrari for the second weekend in a row.
McLaren are set to replace Mexican Sergio Perez with Danish rookie Kevin Magnussen for next season, media reports said on Monday.
There is a notable precedent for Lewis Hamilton, with four times world champion Alain Prost starting his Formula One career at McLaren in 1980 before moving to Renault for three years and then returning to win titles.
The Spaniard will replace the Colombian at McLaren for the rest of the season.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen started the season with a commanding Bahrain Grand Prix win from pole position.
Verstappen took pole position for the Saudi Arabian Formula One Grand Prix on Friday with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc qualifying alongside on the front row.
The feeling in the paddock is that the FIA's World Motor Sport Council could hit them with at least a heavy fine and points penalty.
Formula One world champion Jenson Button has agreed terms on a three-year deal with McLaren and could sign a contract within days, Britain's Guardian newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Sergio Perez expressed his shock at McLaren's decision to drop him on Thursday and hoped he would find another Formula One drive for next season despite time being against him.
Former world champion Alain Prost believes that McLaren are playing with fire in granting Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso equal status in the team.
McLaren's Spanish reserve driver Pedro de la Rosa switched over to testing duties with the Force India Formula One team at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya on Tuesday. Force India this month agreed a five-year partnership deal with McLaren and Mercedes that will see them replace their Ferrari engines with a complete drivetrain (engine and gearbox) package next season.
McLaren set the pace in Friday's Brazilian Grand Prix practice with Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya the fastest race driver.
Jenson Button's body language after the first day of Formula One testing on Tuesday spoke happily of a new McLaren that was everything last year's car was not.
McLaren expect Fernando Alonso to switch from Renault to Ferrari next season and trigger a series of driver moves, team boss Martin Whitmarsh said on Friday.
Prosecutor Giuseppe Tibis also intends to question McLaren team principal Ron Dennis, chief executive Martin Whitmarsh, engineering director Paddy Lowe and senior employees Jonathan Neale and Rob Taylor.
McLaren drivers Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button stepped onto the Formula One podium for the first time this season on Saturday -- but only in jest after yet another qualifying nightmare in Brazil.
McLaren last went a year without a victory when Mika Hakkinen and Scot David Coulthard were driving for the team in 1996.
World champion Max Verstappen took the first pole position of the Formula One season in Bahrain on Friday.
Media reports suggested the McLaren driver, whose wife is Japanese, was likely to announce at this weekend's Japanese Grand Prix that he would be leaving Formula One at the end of the year.
Mexican team mate Sergio Perez qualified second fastest in a front row lockout for Red Bull, 15 years after the team took their first win at the Shanghai International Circuit with Sebastian Vettel.
McLaren managing director Jonathan Neale insists that the team will not impose team orders on their drivers -- Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton -- during the latter part of the Formula One season.
Ferrari have accused former technical manager Nigel Stepney of passing secrets to Formula One rivals.
Rediff's Formula One fanatics in a chat after the Melbourne Grand Prix.
Formula One leader Max Verstappen celebrated a record-equalling ninth successive victory on Sunday after beating the rain to win a chaotic and red-flagged Dutch Grand Prix for the third year in a row.
British mobile operator Vodafone will end its seven-year title sponsorship of Formula One team McLaren at the end of 2013, the team said on Thursday.
Formula One will have a record 24 races in the season that starts in Bahrain on Saturday.
Formula One championship leader Lewis Hamilton put McLaren on pole position for engine partners Mercedes' home German Grand Prix/
Formula One's governing body has charged championship leaders McLaren with unauthorised possession of confidential Ferrari information.
Last year's inaugural Indian Formula One Grand Prix taught McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh an important driving lesson: Steer clear of the country's public roads as much as possible.
McLaren boss Ron Dennis shrugged off a frustrating Malaysian Grand Prix on Sunday and said the team's pace could not be fairly evaluated until after the fourth race of the season. McLaren started the year on a high note, Lewis Hamilton winning the opening race in Melbourne with team mate Heikki Kovalainen in fifth, but the pair could not match the Ferraris at Sepang after being penalised five places in qualifying.
McLaren suspended their chief designer Mike Coughlan in July after 780 pages of Ferrari technical information was found at his home.
Red Bull's triple Formula One world champion Max Verstappen won a US Grand Prix sprint race from pole position on Saturday after an early challenge from Mercedes's Lewis Hamilton.
McLaren can deny Red Bull's Formula One leader Sebastian Vettel a fourth straight win, Jenson Button said at the Indian Grand Prix on Thursday.
McLaren were stripped all of their points in the 2007 Formula One constructors championship and fined $100 million in the spying case.
Dominant Formula One leader Max Verstappen ran away with the Hungarian Grand Prix by a mighty margin on Sunday as Red Bull made history with a record 12th victory in a row.
