McLaren

**McLaren Racing Limited** is a British racing team from Woking, UK and one of the most historic racing teams in Formula 1 history. Debuting all the way back in 1963, McLaren won its first race in 1968 and its first title in 1974 with Emerson Fittipaldi. Over the years, McLaren evovled into one of the best teams of the paddock, with the best years coming in the 80s thanks to Ayrton Senna. After a weak start in the 90s, McLaren returned to the titles with Mika Hakkinen until 1999. After years failing to beat Ferrari and Renault, McLaren won a title in 2008 with Lewis Hamilton in dramatic circumstances. Following this, McLaren still remained a top team, but from 2013 onwards, they endured a steady decline, including a turbulent 3 year stint with Honda engines from 2015 to 2017, in which they fell down to the back of the grid. From 2018 onwards, the team started moving up the grid again, and in 2021 they finally returned to the top places from the grid. From 2022 to 2025, the team scored 3 driver titles with Carlos Sainz Jr. and 3 constructors titles with Sainz and Lando Norris (2022-2024) and Charles Leclerc (2025). From 2027 to 2031, Leclerc won 4 titles, 3 of them coming succesively. The years from 2021 to 2031 is considered to be the best years in the team's history. From 2032 onwards, the new regulations caused McLaren to slip down to the midfield, but still remain somewhat of a threat.

## Origins and Formula 1 History

McLaren was founded in 1963 by Bruce McLaren and started rising in the grid from 1968 when they scored their first ever win. While there was a major setback when McLaren died in a testing accident in 1970, this did not stop the team from rising to superpower levels in the 70s, winning the title in 1974 with Emerson Fittipaldi and in 1976 with Niki Lauda. In 1980, the team merged with Formula 2 team Project Four, ran by Ron Dennis, and went through its first golden decade, winning titles with Niki Lauda, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna. In fact, this is where the infamous Prost-Senna rivalry peaked, with numerous incidents between them. 1988 was the team's best season, winning all but one race, with both cars retiring in Monza. The 90s began in a tough way, with Honda withdrawing, Senna moving to rivals Williams and various other stuff. However, with the rise of Mercedes as a engine supplier and the signing of Adrian Newey as designer, they won 2 titles in 1998 and 1999 with Mika Hakkinen.

From 2000 to 2007, McLaren failed to win a single title due to being overshadowed by rivals Ferrari and Renault. 2007 was their closest call, with Alonso and Hamilton being beaten narrowly by Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen. This year saw them being disqualified from the teams championship due to an espionage scandal caused by McLaren staff member Nigel Stepney, dubbed as Spygate due to the illegal transfer of Ferrari data to McLaren. 2008 was better though as Hamilton won the title from Felipe Massa by a single point thanks to a late overtake and Toyota's strategy blunder which saw Timo Glock struggling for grip. This was the last title for McLaren in the Formula 1 era. While 2009 and 2012 were good years of the team, from 2013 the team started to decline. The toughest era was the 2015-2017 era due to problems with their Honda units. In 2018, McLaren switched to Renault and started to rise again in the grid.

## 2020: Final year with Renault

With the series being renamed into Formula Earth, McLaren entered with their last F1 lineup, Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz. This was the final year of the team being powered by Renault. This year also saw the first win for the historic team since 2012, with Sainz winning in Suzuka. Norris on the other hand failed to score any podium, but was consistent enough to keep McLaren high in the standings, albeit behind Renault.

## 2021-2025: The Carlos Sainz era

In 2021, the team switched to Mercedes units, immediately transforming from a midfield team into something from McLaren's glorious past. The Sainz-Norris lineup was kept, and they rewarded the team with 5 wins out of 21 races and a second place in the teams standings. In fact, Norris also scored his first ever win. However, it was in 2022 when they would return to title winning, and in dominant fashion. Sainz scored 10 wins in 18 races, a record yet to be broken by Formula Earth standards and scored a record finishing of 370 points. Norris finished second with 6 wins and scored 282 points, meaning that McLaren was unbeatable this year and gave people flashbacks of the 1988 McLaren which won all but one race.

However, next year, while winning the teams title, they lost the driver title to Ferrari star Charles Leclerc. It did not helop matters that Sainz missed 2 races due to an injury. Reserve driver Rory Douglas raced during that period. In 2024, they returned to titles, winning the double again and Sainz winning his second drivers title. Norris left the team at the end of the year and moved to Aston Martin, with Leclerc moving from Ferrari. Sainz won his second succesive title in 2025 and became the most succesful Spanish driver in single seater history.

## 2026-2031: The Charles Leclerc era

2026 was a bit of a tough year for McLaren, as they were swiftly beaten by Renault in both titles. Leclerc finished 4th and Sainz, who would leave McLaren at the end of the year, 5th. Reigning champion Esteban Ocon moved from Renault to McLaren. Leclerc won his first title with McLaren in 2027 and the second of his career. Meanwhile, Ocon struggled to get to grips with his new car, despite a very strong start with 2 wins in 4 races and finished 7th. In 2028, McLaren won yet another double, with Leclerc also getting his second succesive title. In the end of the season, Ocon fell out of favour and left, with Jason Leung, who came from a succesful season with Audi, signing an one-year contract. McLaren won its second succesive double, with Leclerc getting his third succesive title and Leung finishing third, winning a grueling battle with Ferrari duo Ness Muller and Billy Mathman.

Leung's contract expired and he moved to Red Bull. Fellow Audi starlet Martin Fenin was announced as his replacement. 2030 was a bit of a tough year for them, as they lost both titles to Mercedes. However, 2031 saw the team returning to dominant fashion, swiftly beating Mercedes and rogue reserve team Shadow to win its third double. Leclerc and Fenin finished first and second, with the Monegasque scoring his fourth title with the team and the team winning in a similar way the Sainz-Norris duo did in the past. This ended what was the golden decade of 2021-2031 for McLaren, which was its most succesful period of its history.

## 2032-2036: Decline

With the new regulations being introduced in 2032, McLaren slipped to the midfield. Leclerc left for the resurgent Renault side and Fenin moved to wealthy upstarts Aramco. The new lineup was 2030 champion Giovanni de Ziel and reserve driver Shawn Yong. McLaren performed far better than what the odds predicted, with de Ziel even scoring a win. Yong on the other hand struggled to get to grips with the car and at the end of the year abruptly cancelled his contract to move to IndyCar.

With the team losing even more ground, falling behind even Williams and Aramco, fellow midfielders, in 2033 Lando Norris returned for one last year before retirement. The team failed this time to score a single podium and was cut adrift from the frontrunners. While 2034 saw them failling further in preformance, the team still managed to score 45 points, with de Ziel and new signing Harry van der Weijden outperforming their own car and all the backmarkers, even challengind Aston Martin and Mercedes for 6th place. They resigned Leclerc for 2035, with the former champion scoring good results, but the Dutchman still struggling. At the end of the year, van der Weijden announced his retirement from the sport age 27, having fallen out of love with it and Leclerc moving to Shadow. FI Champion Erich von Ribermarch and test driver Aidan McKay were announced as replacements. Von Ribermarch impressed on his first full-time year in FE, finishing 12th, while McKay struggled, but still scored the team's only podium and became rookie of the year.

## 2037-present: Title win and return to the top spots

For 2037, McLaren decided to bring back Charles Leclerc as he wanted one last title battle, with McKay going on a 2-year loan spell to Geely Nio. The team had made the strongest car of the grid, with only Shadow and Gazprom Lada being the real rivals for them. After a very tight title battle, Leclerc prevailed and scored his 6th and final world championship, and also becoming the oldest world champion in the 21st century, being 40 years old. Von Ribermarch was also very impressive and fended off Alexandre Gagnon to finish second, helping McLaren score a perfect double.

In 2038, McLaren decided to conserve money after their title winning season. Also, Leclerc left the team after he announced his semi-retirement from the sport. Davor Dordevic was signed from Gazprom Lada as his replacement. 2038 was a weak year for the historic team, but both Dordevic and von Ribermarch helped the team avoid the wooden spoon, beating Red Bull and Williams. In 2039, they fought back, with Dordevic finishing in 4th and von Ribermarch in 6th. Von Ribermarch left the team in the end of the season and FI champion Stanislav Rezac was promoted to the first team. The Czech was very impressive on his debut season with his speed and consistency and finished 10th and became rookie of the year. Dordevic scored an early podium but in the end was defeated by Rezac by 2 points.

## Notable Drivers

* Carlos Sainz Jr. (2020-2026)
* Lando Norris (2020-2024, 2033)
* Rory Douglas (2022)
* Charles Leclerc (2025-2031, 2035, 2037)
* Esteban Ocon (2027-2028)
* Jason Leung (2029)
* Martin Fenin (2030-2031)
* Giovanni de Ziel (2032-2034)
* Shawn Yong (2032)
* Harry van der Weijden (2034-2035)
* Erich von Ribermarch (2036-2039)
* Aidan McKay (2036)
* Davor Dordevic (2038-present)
* Stanislav Rezac (2040-present)