McLaren

### Notes

Statistics include races in 1966 where Bruce McLaren ran his own McLaren car as a private entry.

**McLaren Racing** (*mah-**CLA**-ren*) are a British constructor currently competing in Formula One. Founded in 1963 by Bruce McLaren, the team entered the Formula One World Championship in 1966 and have competed every season since.

## History

Bruce McLaren Motor Racing was founded in 1963 by New Zealander Bruce McLaren. Bruce was a works driver for the British Formula One team Cooper with whom he had won three Grands Prix and come second in the 1960 World Championship. Wanting to compete in the Australasian Tasman Series, Bruce approached his employers, but when team owner Charles Cooper insisted on using 1.5-litre Formula One-specification engines instead of the 2.5-litre motors permitted by the Tasman rules, Bruce decided to set up his own team to run him and his prospective Formula One teammate Timmy Mayer with custom-built Cooper cars.

Bruce won the 1964 series, but Mayer was killed in practice for the final race at the Longford Circuit in Tasmania. When Bruce McLaren approached Teddy Mayer to help him with the purchase of the Zerex sports car from Roger Penske, Teddy Mayer and Bruce McLaren began discussing a business partnership resulting in Teddy Mayer buying in to Bruce McLaren Motor Racing Limited (BMMR) and ultimately becoming its largest shareholder. The team was based in Feltham in 1963 and 1964, and from 1965 until 1981 in Colnbrook, England. The team also held a British licence. Despite this, Bruce never used the traditional British racing green on his cars. Instead, he used colour schemes that were not based on national principles (e.g. his first F1 car, the McLaren M2B, was painted white with a green stripe, to represent a fictional Yamura team in John Frankenheimer's film *Grand Prix*).

During this period, Bruce drove for his team in sports car races in the United Kingdom and North America and also entered the 1965 Tasman Series with Phil Hill, but did not win it. He continued to drive in Grands Prix for Cooper, but judging that team's form to be waning, decided to race his own cars in 1966.

### Early days (1966–1967)

Bruce McLaren made the team's Grand Prix debut at the 1966 Monaco race (of the current Formula One teams, only Ferrari is older). His race ended after nine laps due to a terminal oil leak. The 1966 car was the M2B designed by Robin Herd, but the programme was hampered by a poor choice of engines: a 3.0-litre version of Ford's Indianapolis 500 engine and a Serenissima V8 were used, the latter scoring the team's first point in Britain, but both were underpowered and unreliable. For 1967 Bruce decided to use a British Racing Motors (BRM) V12 engine, but due to delays with the engine, was forced initially to use a modified Formula Two car called the M4B powered by a 2.1-litre BRM V8, later building a similar but slightly larger car called the M5A for the V12. Neither car brought great success, the best result being a fourth at Monaco.

### Ford-Cosworth DFV engines (1968–1982)

For 1968, after driving McLaren's sole entry for the previous two years, Bruce was joined by 1967 champion and fellow New Zealander Denny Hulme, who was already racing for McLaren in Can-Am. That year's new M7A car, Herd's final design for the team, was powered by Cosworth's new and soon to be ubiquitous DFV engine (the DFV would go on to be used by McLaren until 1983) and with it a major upturn in form proceeded. Bruce won the Race of Champions at the Brands Hatch circuit and Hulme won the International Trophy at Silverstone, both non-championship races, before Bruce took the team's first championship win at the Belgian Grand Prix. Hulme also won the Italian and Canadian Grands Prix later in the year, helping the team to second in the Constructors' Championship. Using an updated 'C' version on the M7, a further three podium finishes followed for Bruce in 1969, but the team's fifth win had to wait until the last race of the 1969 championship when Hulme won the Mexican Grand Prix. That year, McLaren experimented with four-wheel drive in the M9A, but the car had only a single outing driven by Derek Bell at the British Grand Prix; Bruce described driving it as like "trying to write your signature with somebody jogging your elbow".

The year 1970 started with a second-place each for Hulme and Bruce in the first two Grands Prix, but in June, Bruce was killed in a crash at Goodwood while testing the new M8D Can-Am car. After his death, Teddy Mayer took over effective control of the team; Hulme continued with Dan Gurney and Peter Gethin partnering him. Gurney won the first two Can-Am events at Mosport and St. Jovite and placed ninth in the third, but left the team mid-season, and Gethin took over from there. While 1971 began promisingly when Hulme led the opening round in South Africa before retiring with broken suspension, ultimately Hulme, Gethin (who left for BRM mid-season,) and Jackie Oliver again failed to score a win. The 1972 season saw improvements though: Hulme won the team's first Grand Prix for two-and-a-half years in South Africa and he and Peter Revson scored ten other podiums, the team finishing third in the Constructors' Championship. McLaren gave Jody Scheckter his Formula One debut at the final race at Watkins Glen. All McLaren drivers used the Ford-Cosworth engines, except for Andrea de Adamich and Nanni Galli who used engines from Alfa Romeo in 1970.

The McLaren M23, designed by Gordon Coppuck, was the team's new car for the 1973 season. Sharing parts of the design of both McLaren's Formula One M19 and Indianapolis M16 cars (itself inspired by Lotus's 72), it was a mainstay for four years. Hulme won with it in Sweden and Revson took the only Grand Prix wins of his career in Britain and Canada. In 1974, Emerson Fittipaldi, world champion with Lotus two years earlier, joined McLaren. Hulme, in his final Formula One campaign, won the Argentinian season-opener; Fittipaldi, with wins in Brazil, Belgium and Canada, took the Drivers' Championship. It was a close fight for Fittipaldi, who secured the title with a fourth at the season-ending United States Grand Prix, putting him three points ahead of Ferrari's Clay Regazzoni. With Hulme and multiple motorcycle world champion Mike Hailwood, he also sealed McLaren's first Constructors' Championship. The year 1975 was less successful for the team: Fittipaldi was second in the championship behind Niki Lauda. Hulme's replacement Jochen Mass took his sole GP win in Spain.

At the end of 1975, Fittipaldi left to join his brother's Fittipaldi/Copersucar team. With the top drivers already signed to other teams, Mayer turned to James Hunt, a driver on whom biographer Gerald Donaldson reflected as having "a dubious reputation". In 1976, Lauda was again strong in his Ferrari; at midseason, he led the championship with 56 points whilst Hunt had only 26 despite wins in Spain (a race from which he was initially disqualified) and France. At the German Grand Prix, though, Lauda crashed heavily, was nearly killed, and missed the next two races. Hunt capitalised by winning four more Grands Prix giving him a three-point deficit going into the finale in Japan. Here it rained torentially, Lauda retired because of safety concerns, and Hunt sealed the Drivers' Championship by finishing third. McLaren, though, lost the Constructors' Championship to Ferrari.

In 1977, the M23 was gradually replaced with the M26, the M23's final works outing being Gilles Villeneuve's Formula One debut with the team in a one-off appearance at the British Grand Prix. Hunt won on three occasions that year, but the Lauda and Ferrari combination proved too strong, Hunt and McLaren managing just fifth and third in the respective championships. From there, results continued to worsen. Lotus and Mario Andretti took the 1978 titles with their 78 and 79 ground-effect cars and neither Hunt nor Mass's replacement Patrick Tambay were able to seriously challenge with the nonground-effect M26. Hunt was dropped at the end of 1978 in favour of Lotus's Ronnie Peterson, but when Peterson was killed by a crash at the Italian Grand Prix, John Watson was signed, instead. No improvement occurred in 1979; Coppuck's M28 design was described by Mayer as "ghastly, a disaster" and "quite diabolical" and the M29 did little to change the situation. Tambay scored no points and Watson only 15 to place the team eighth at the end of the year.

The 1980s started much as the 1970s had ended: Alain Prost took over from Tambay but Watson and he rarely scored points. Under increasing pressure since the previous year from principal sponsor Philip Morris and their executive John Hogan, Mayer was coerced into merging McLaren with Ron Dennis's Project Four Formula Two team, also sponsored by Philip Morris. Dennis had designer John Barnard who, inspired by the carbon-fibre rear wings of the BMW M1 race cars that Project Four was preparing, had ideas for an innovative Formula One chassis constructed from carbon-fibre instead of conventional aluminium alloy. On their own, they lacked the money to build it, but with investment that came with the merger it became the McLaren MP4 (later called MP4/1) of 1981, driven by Watson and Andrea de Cesaris. In the MP4, Watson won the British Grand Prix and had three other podium finishes. Soon after the merger, McLaren moved from Colnbrook to a new base in Woking and Dennis and Mayer initially shared the managing directorship of the company; by 1982, Mayer had departed and Tyler Alexander's and his shareholdings had been bought by the new owners.

### TAG-Porsche and Honda engines (1983–1991)

In the early 1980s, teams like Renault, Ferrari and Brabham were using 1.5-litre turbocharged engines in favour of the 3.0-litre naturally aspirated engines that had been standard since 1966. Having seen in 1982 the need for a turbo engine of their own, Dennis had convinced Williams backer Techniques d'Avant Garde (TAG) to fund Porsche-built, TAG-branded turbo engines made to Barnard's specifications; TAG's founder Mansour Ojjeh would later become a McLaren shareholder. In the meantime, they continued with Cosworth engines as old rival Lauda came out of retirement in 1982 to drive alongside Watson in that year's 1B development of the MP4. They each won two races, Watson notably from 17th place on the grid in Detroit, and at one stage of the season McLaren were second in the constructors' championship. As part of a dispute with FISA, they boycotted the San Marino Grand Prix. Although 1983 was not so fruitful, Watson did win again in the United States, this time from 22nd on the grid at Long Beach.

Having been fired by Renault, Prost returned to McLaren once again for 1984. Now using the TAG engines, the team dominated, scoring 12 wins and two-and-a-half times as many constructors' points as nearest rival Ferrari. In the Drivers' Championship, Lauda prevailed over Prost by half a point, the narrowest margin ever. The McLaren-TAGs were again strong in 1985; a third Constructors' Championship came their way while this time Prost won the Drivers' Championship. In 1986, the Williams team were resurgent with their Honda engine and drivers Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet, while at McLaren, Lauda's replacement, 1982 champion Keke Rosberg could not gel with the car. Williams took the Constructors' Championship, but for Prost, wins in San Marino, Monaco, and Austria combined with the fact that the Williams drivers were taking points from each other meant that he retained a chance going into the last race, the Australian Grand Prix. There, a puncture for Mansell and a precautionary pit stop for Piquet gave Prost the race win and his second title, making him the first driver to win back-to-back championships since Jack Brabham in 1959 and 1960. In 1987 Barnard departed for Ferrari to be replaced by Steve Nichols, but much of Barnard's work was still incorporated in the MP4/3 and while the TAG engine was not expected to be competitive with the Williams-Honda, Prost surprised everyone with a remarkable 6 wins and a second place from the last 7 races to win from Piquet.

For 1988, Honda switched their supply to McLaren and, encouraged by Prost, Dennis signed Ayrton Senna to drive. Despite regulations reducing the boost pressure and fuel capacity (and therefore, power) of the turbo cars, Honda persisted with a turbocharged engine. In the MP4/4, Senna and Prost engaged in a season-long battle, winning 14 of the 16 races. Senna put in an incredible performance to take a clean sweep of pole positions in the year. While only 2 points would separate the two drivers it did not tell the full story of Senna's dominance, but while it was relatively close Senna took the title at the penultimate race in Japan.

The next year, with turbos banned, Honda supplied a new 3.5-L naturally aspirated V10 engine and McLaren again won both titles with the MP4/5. For 1989 the rivalry between Senna and Prost intensified into numerous battles on the track and a psychological war off it. Some controversy also arose after the French Grand Prix press conference when Ron Dennis declared that they found consistent differences between the Honda engines from Prost and Senna, to the detriment of Senna. Tension and mistrust between the two drivers increased when Senna overtook Prost as he battled Davies in the early laps of the San Marino Grand Prix, a move which Prost claimed violated a pre-race agreement (Senna denied the existence of any agreement, though Prost's story was backed up by John Hogan of the team's major sponsor, Marlboro). A discussion between the two drivers and Dennis during a test session at the Pembrey circuit in Wales served to effectively confirm Senna and Prost's personal animosity to Dennis and the team. Senna and Prost traded first place in the championship in the early rounds of the season with victories at Birmingham, the USA and France. The battle continued for the rest of the season with both men trading the lead in the championship. Believing that McLaren and Dennis were favouring Prost, Senna announced at the Italian Grand Prix that he would leave to drive at Ferrari the following year. For the second year in succession, the Drivers' Championship was decided at the Japanese Grand Prix, this time in Prost's favour after Senna dropped out of contention when he picked up front wing damage.

For 1990 McLaren would replace Senna with Piquet, but McLaren was unable to maintain the form of previous years, with Senna and Ferrari dominating the season and securing both titles. Two wins for Piquet and one for Prost was all could be managed in the season and for 1991 McLaren would bring in young talent, Joey Davies, to replace Piquet.

For the 1991 season, McLaren would field a strong driver pairing in Davies and Prost. Prost would be the early star of the season, collecting three wins in five races, while Davies seemed unable to get the same level of performance out of the competitive McLaren MP4/6. Davies performance at Monaco Grand Prix would be his best in this first part of the season, securing second to Prost. However, it would be his fight with Mansell in that race that would be a prelude to a stormy and often ill-tempered season-long battle with his fellow countryman. After Prost's win at the Canadian Grand Prix he would suffer a dramatic change in fortune and it would be his last visit to the top step all season. Meanwhile Davies would have a similar change in fortunes and with four wins from the Mexican Grand Prix onwards, the title would be decided between Davies, Mansell and Prost at the final round in Australia, with Senna having an outside chance at the title. In the race Mansell led for much of the race and was holding the lead on the final lap of the Grand Prix until Davies attempted a late braking manoeuvre into the final corner, and while it forced him into a spin, it obstructed Mansell, and Davies was able to cross the line in first to win the Grand Prix and the title for 1991.

There had been news of the departure of Honda from Formula One and with Davies proving to be the rising star in McLaren, Prost took the opportunity for a new venture to emulate Bruce McLaren and become a team owner and driver at Ligier. With Prost's departure McLaren turned to the Mercedes backed Ilmor engines, which came with the prodigious young talent Michael Schumacher, for 1992.

### Ilmor and Chevrolet engines (1992–1993)

With Honda withdrawing from the sport at end of 1991, McLaren sought a new engine supplier. As part of a deal that would bring Michael Schumacher to the reigning World Champions McLaren signed a two-year deal with Mercedes-Benz-backed Ilmor. With Davies and Schumacher McLaren were considered to have the best driver lineup for the 1992 season and it was hoped they may deliver a surprise to season favourites, Williams. Despite Mansell's dominance in qualifying, the consistency of the McLaren pair kept both drivers in the fight to the end of the season. Schumacher would get a brace of wins and Davies would secure his forth win of the season and McLaren's 100th Grand Prix win at the penultimate Japanese Grand Prix, putting him in the lead of the championship. A win for Mansell at the season finale would deny Davies the Championship, but McLaren would secure the Constructor's title for 1992.

Ahead of the 1993 season, McLaren would lose their Ilmor engine contract as the engine supplier chose to concentrate exclusively on Formula One debutants, Sauber, for 1993. The loss of Ilmor engines and with no immediate works engine deal in the offing, both Davies and Schumacher opted to nullify their contracts early, leaving McLaren with neither engines nor drivers for 1993. McLaren were eventually able to secure works Chevrolet engines with part of the agreement being bringing in an American driver. Following a solid two year stint at Ferrari McLaren turned to proven race winner, Michael Andretti. He would be partnered by the young and talented Finn, Mika Häkkinen, who had a strong record over the past two years at Lotus.

## Formula One record

### Entrant names

 1972–1974
 1974
 1979

### Season-by-season record

*The drivers noted are works McLaren drivers only (no private-only entrants).*

*Drivers' champions in **bold**.*

Notes

* \* – Season still in progress.

#### Milestone wins

 25
 50

### McLaren driver Grand Prix count

Notes

* \* – Season still in progress.

## Notes

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 For the purposes of the World Constructors' Championship, a constructor is the combination of the person or body which designs the chassis and engine of the entry. Thus, McLaren-Ford and McLaren-Serenissima are recognised as separate entries in the championship.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 For the purposes of the World Constructors' Championship, a constructor is the combination of the person or body which designs the chassis and engine of the entry. Thus, McLaren-Ford and McLaren-BRM are recognised as separate entries in the championship.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 For the purposes of the World Constructors' Championship, a constructor is the combination of the person or body which designs the chassis and engine of the entry. Thus, McLaren-Ford and McLaren-Alfa Romeo are recognised as separate entries in the championship.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 For the purposes of the World Constructors' Championship, a constructor is the combination of the person or body which designs the chassis and engine of the entry. Thus, McLaren-Ford and McLaren-TAG are recognised as separate entries in the championship.

**1958**: Vanwall
**1959**: Cooper-Climax
**1961**: Ferrari
**1962**: BRM
**1963**: Lotus-Climax
**1964**: Ferrari
**1965**: Lotus-Climax
**1966**: Brabham-Repco
**1967**: Brabham-Repco
**1968**: Lotus-Ford
**1969**: Matra-Ford
**1971**: Tyrrell-Ford
**1972**: Lotus-Ford
**1973**: Lotus-Ford
**1974**: **McLaren**-Ford
**1975**: Ferrari
**1976**: Ferrari
**1977**: Ferrari
**1978**: Lotus-Ford
**1979**: Ferrari
**1981**: Williams-Ford
**1982**: Ferrari
**1983**: Ferrari
**1984**: **McLaren**-TAG
**1985**: **McLaren**-TAG
**1986**: Williams-Honda
**1987**: Williams-Honda
**1988**: **McLaren**-Honda
**1989**: **McLaren**-Honda
**1991**: **McLaren**-Honda
**1992**: **McLaren**-Ilmor