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McLaren is unlikely to announce its new title sponsor for 2014 on December 2, as originally planned.

In March, the team confirmed its sponsorship deal with Vodafone would not continue beyond the end of 2013.

A team statement said that an announcement was planned for one week after the season-ending Brazilian GP, but team principal Martin Whitmarsh has now said this is more likely to happen at the launch of its 2014 car.

This will take place in January, although has yet to be scheduled.

"There will be some new sponsors, but probably, and I don't know because I haven't spoken to our PR function, I suspect there will be more of a fanfare at a car launch rather than on December 2," said Whitmarsh when asked by AUTOSPORT about the deadline.

"But we will see, it depends what our partners want to do, how they want to do it as it's not just our voice.

"My own view is that we will be taking away from what I hope is going to be an exciting car launch early next year [if the announcement was in December]."