page_title: McLaren M7A
section_title: Racing history
hierarchical_section_title: McLaren M7A / Racing history
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: No. 6 in de drukke pitstraat. English: Bruce McLaren (centre left, white balaclava) prepares to take his seat in his McLaren M7C Formula One car, prior to the 1969 Dutch Grand Prix. Behind, French driver Jean-Pierre Beltoise (helmet on) is about to board his Matra MS80.
context_page_description: The McLaren M7A and its M7B, M7C and M7D variants were Formula One racing cars, built by McLaren and used in the world championship between 1968 and 1971. After two relatively unsuccessful years of Formula One competition, the M7A was used to score McLaren's first win at the 1968 Belgian Grand Prix.
  Designed by Robin Herd and Gordon Coppuck, the M7A was the first McLaren to be powered by the Cosworth DFV engine, which went on to be used by the team until 1983. The M7B had outboard fuel tanks and the M7C a modified chassis, whilst the M7D was powered by an Alfa-Romeo engine.
  The M7A made its Grand Prix debut at the second race of the 1968 world championship. After its victory in Belgium, it took another two wins that year, helping to place McLaren second in the Constructors' Championship.
context_section_description: For the 1968 Formula One season, after two years of driving the team's sole entry, Bruce McLaren was partnered by Denny Hulme. Hulme was world champion with the Brabham team in 1967 and had raced for McLaren that year in Can-Am, a North American sports car racing series. For the first round of the 1968 world championship – the South African Grand Prix, which was held in January, four months before the second round – only Hulme competed, using the M5A to finish fifth. The M7A's first race was the Race of Champions at Brands Hatch, run to Formula One rules but not part of the world championship. There, McLaren won from pole position while Hulme was third. Another victory came at the non-championship BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone, this time with Hulme finishing first and McLaren second. In the M7A's championship debut in Spain, Hulme was second and McLaren retired, then in Monaco McLaren crashed and Hulme was fifth and last. At the Belgian Grand Prix, they were fifth and sixth on the grid. Hulme took the lead and held it until a half shaft failed two thirds of the way in. McLaren was then second behind Jackie Stewart's Matra but Stewart had to make a pit stop for fuel on the final lap, giving McLaren the win, although he initially believed he had finished second. It was the McLaren team's first world championship victory and Bruce McLaren became the second driver, after Jack Brabham, to win in a car bearing their own name; it was also the last win of his career.
  After Belgium, McLaren's Goodyear tyres suffered a slump in competitiveness and the team and their car fell behind rivals Graham Hill in his Lotus and Stewart in his Matra. At the Dutch Grand Prix McLaren crashed out and Hulme retired with ignition failure. After Lotus had begun the first experimentation with wings in Monaco and Ferrari and Brabham had debuted full height wings in Belgium, McLaren fitted a rear wing to their car for the French Grand Prix. However, mounted above the engine on the sprung mass of the car, it was not as effective as Lotus's wing mounted on the unsprung suspension components. In France Hulme was fourth, then fifth in Britain but both cars were out of the points-earning positions at the German Grand Prix.
  An improvement in form came at the Italian Grand Prix where the cars ran without wings and Goodyear brought their new G9 specification tyre. McLaren qualified on the front row and led to begin with until he slowed at the scene of an accident and was caught by Stewart, Hulme and Jo Siffert in a Lotus. A slipstreaming battle ensued; McLaren retired with an oil leak at mid-distance but Hulme went on to win. From the Canadian Grand Prix onwards, a third M7A was driven by Dan Gurney whose Anglo American Racers team – for whom Bruce McLaren had driven for three races in 1967 – had run out of funding for their own Eagle cars. Gurney retired with overheating in Canada, but Hulme and McLaren continued their success by finishing first and second respectively, albeit after their strongest challengers had all retired. Hulme was then jointly in the lead of the Drivers' Championship with two races to go. He ran competitively towards the beginning of the United States Grand Prix but ultimately retired via a spin, pit stops to repair damaged brake lines and a gearbox output shaft failure which spun him again, this time into a crash. McLaren was sixth, Gurney fourth. Going into the final race in Mexico, Hulme retained a chance of defending his title. McLaren finished second there, but Hulme crashed out because of a broken suspension damper allowing Hill to win the Drivers' Championship.
  For 1969 McLaren, with an unchanged driver line-up, designed a new four-wheel drive car, the M9A, but whilst that was being readied, continued with the old car. The M9A was eventually unsuccessful and appeared only once, driven by Derek Bell at the British Grand Prix. At the South African Grand Prix Hulme scored a podium with the M7A; Bruce used the M7B version and the pair were joined by Basil van Rooyen in another M7A. In South Africa the works cars used rear
caption: Bruce McLaren (white balaclava) prepares to take his seat in his M7C, prior to the 1969 Dutch Grand Prix
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