Jan.17 (Reuters) 2011 world championship runner-up Jenson Button will have the first run in the new McLaren when Formula 1 pre-season testing starts next month, the Woking based team said on Monday.
The new MP4-27 car is due to be launched at the Woking factory in southern England on Feb. 1 with 2009 world champion Button scheduled to kick off testing at the Jerez circuit in Spain on Feb. 7 and 8.
Team mate, fellow Briton and 2008 world champion Lewis Hamilton will take over the final two days on Feb. 9 and 10.
Button finished overall runner-up to Red Bull’s double world champion Sebastian Vettel in the 2011 season, with Hamilton fifth overall and beaten by a team mate for the first time in his F1 career.
Both McLaren drivers won three races last year.
Here are the provisional dates for our 2012 pre-season test days:
Jerez
| Tuesday Feb 7 | Jenson Button |
| Wednesday Feb 8 | Jenson Button |
| Thursday Feb 9 | Lewis Hamilton |
| Friday Feb 10 | Lewis Hamilton |
Barcelona
| Tuesday Feb 21 | Lewis Hamilton |
| Wednesday Feb 22 | Lewis Hamilton |
| Thursday Feb 23 | Jenson Button |
| Friday Feb 24 | Jenson Button |
Barcelona
| Thursday March 1 | Jenson Button |
| Friday March 2 | Lewis Hamilton |
| Saturday March 3 | Jenson Button |
| Sunday March 4 | Lewis Hamilton |