The assembled world of F1 was surprised on Wednesday when Jenson Button declared the 2012 McLaren "beautiful".
With the new Caterham featuring a radically-stepped front nose, and Ferrari also preparing to unveil a less-than-attractive single seater, most insiders expected the entire field of 2012 to be ’ugly’.
"This is a beautiful car," said 2009 world champion Button when the MP4-27 was unveiled to the media at Woking.
"Many of the others you will see won’t be," smiled the Briton.
He is referring to the fact that, while the new regulations require a lower extremity of the nose section, the aerodynamic shape at the front of the McLaren remains smooth.
The MP4-27 will be debuted in team youngster Oliver Turvey’s hands at an aerodynamic test this weekend, before Button drives it at the opening of the Jerez test.
"It may look like a direct evolution of last year’s car, but we’ve analysed every area of performance over the winter and the whole car has benefited from lots of fresh thinking and new ideas in every area," said Button.