The chassis was designed by Paddy Lowe, Neil Oatley, Tim Goss, Andrew Bailey and John Iley and was powered by a customer Mercedes-Benz engine.

[7] The effect was controlled by the driver covering up a small hole in the cockpit with his left leg; this was not considered by the FIA to be a moveable aerodynamic device, which would be banned under the technical regulations.

[11] The MP4-25 proved to be a stark improvement over the McLaren MP4-24 with both Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton reaching the third stage of qualifying at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

[12] During the race the car proved lacking in downforce causing it to struggle to keep up with the pace of the Ferraris and Sebastian Vettel who opened up an impressive lead.

[13] In Australia, Button was the first to come in for slick tyres on a damp but drying track, which lifted him to second place after the other drivers had pitted.

He inherited the lead when Sebastian Vettel retired with brake problems and maintained the position to the end of the race without changing his tyres again.

[14] In Malaysia, McLaren seemed to improve their overall pace by three-tenths of a second due to performance updates to the car, with Hamilton recording the fastest lap time in both free practice sessions on Friday.

Button retired on lap 3 with an overheating engine after a cooling duct was mistakenly left in the radiator, while Hamilton never managed to threaten the pace of the leaders and finished fifth after Schumacher was penalized.

[20] In Turkey, Hamilton and Button qualified second and fourth respectively amongst the two Red Bulls of polesitter Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel.

In the race, Hamilton passed the safety car illegally – deployed after Webber ran into the back and over Heikki Kovalainen's Lotus – and was forced to serve a drive-through penalty.

Hamilton took another second place in the race while Button finished fourth, losing out on the final podium spot to Nico Rosberg.

[24] Hockenheim proved difficult for McLaren with the team preparing a damage limitation tactics until further major updates were introduced.

[25] In Hungary, the circuit's nature hindered McLaren more with Button missing the top ten again and Hamilton nearly two seconds off pole position.

Hamilton, meanwhile, attempted to pull the same trick on Alonso's teammate Massa at the second chicane, but instead hit the Brazilian, damaging his front suspension and eliminating him from the race.

The two McLaren men stayed in position during a safety car, deployed to clear the wreckage of Vitantonio Liuzzi's Force India, right up to the pit stops.

They emerged behind Mark Webber, who had jumped them in the stops, just in time for a second safety car as Kamui Kobayashi and Bruno Senna collided.

[29] Qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix was held on the morning of the race, after torrential rain at Suzuka on the Saturday.

Hamilton had a brilliant start, moving up 6th just behind his teammate before the safety car was deployed due to the first corner incident involving Nico Hülkenberg, Felipe Massa, Vitaly Petrov and Vitantonio Liuzzi.

[31] Brazil was up next, and in tricky conditions in qualifying, Button was eliminated in Q2 by local hero and fellow top 10 regular Felipe Massa.

The championship was now out of Button's reach going to the final round in Abu Dhabi, and it was an outside shot for Hamilton, who was 24 points off Fernando Alonso's lead.