Autoblog

Lewis Hamilton is having a great 23rd birthday. Not only has he resigned with McLaren for a reported $138 million, but Mercedes-Benz presented him with a brand new car to drive next season, the MP4-23. McLaren's new F1 car was literally finished last night and then trucked over a 1,000 kilometers to the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Germany. There it was unveiled by none other than Daimler chief Dieter Zetsche (we last saw him getting the hell out of Dodge). Along with other execs and media, Mercedes invited 700 workers from its Stuttgart plant to attend the festivities, as well. The car should be back on a trailer and headed to the Circuito de Jerez in Southern Spain as we speak, where Hamilton and his new teammate, Heikki Kovalainen, will give it a proper shakedown. As work began on this car began all the way back in November of 2006, it's no surprise that development of its replacement is already underway.

[Source: Mercedes-Benz]