McLaren

**Vodafone McLaren-Mercedes F1 Team**, known simply as Vodafone McLaren-Mercedes or most commonly as McLaren, is a British Formula One constructor that has competed in the sport since the 1966 Monaco Grand Prix. The team currently fields just one driver after an injury before the start of the season to Chase McPherson, three time Drivers' World Champion Eric Flynn.

## History

### Formula One

#### Chuck Dingley era of dominance (1980-1987)

1980 saw the arrival of two key figures that would shape McLaren into a top level team. British businessman and mechanic Ron Dennis had just merged McLaren with his own team, Project 4 Racing. The merger put Ron Dennis at the head of McLaren and also gave way to the "MP4" chassis name.

Alongside the new management of McLaren, Ron Dennis also had managed to convince then two-time World Drivers Champion Chuck Dingley to join McLaren and to leave Tyrrell, where Dingley had just won back to back championships. Dennis also requested the American driver to pass personal etiquette and speech classes in order to prevent any further media incidents, of which had occurred several times in the years prior. Dennis also threatened that if Dingley had any more media run-ins, his contract would immediately be voided. Dingley was officially contracted to 3-years with the Woking based team.

#### Interlude period (1988-1990)

With the departure of Chuck Dingley to Ferrari at the end of the 1987 season, McLaren opted to replace the outgoing American with Ferrari's Fabiano Margheriti fairly soon after the announcement of Dingley's move. Dingley had set things in motion after a falling out with Ron Dennis following two difficult years in which Ferrari and Williams had been superior. After striking a deal with Ferrari, Fabiano quickly jumped ship to McLaren. It was a decision he had been contemplating for about a year, with the Italian quoted as saying "I got a call from Ron right after Austria. But I had to wait a long time because the decision had not been made on Chuck yet."

#### Jack Wilson's McLaren (1991-1996)

Just as it had been in 1988, McLaren and Ferrari once again swapped drivers with the 1989 and 1990 Drivers World Champion Jack Wilson trading places with Fabiano Margheriti, who had wanted to return to Ferrari for the last years of his career.

#### West McLaren (1997-2005)

Following Makkinen's instant championship success in 1996, the 1997 campaign looked to be even more promising for McLaren. During testing, the new MP4/12 designed by McLaren's new technical director Adrian Newey, had shown as even faster than it's predecessor MP4/11B. One of the bigger stories during pre-season was the departure of long time sponsor Marlboro to Ferrari. With the iconic white and orange livery gone, McLaren brought a striking silver and black car to the 1997 season with German cigarettes' brand West sponsoring the car.

#### Vodafone McLaren (2006-Ongoing)

The 2006 season saw McLaren return to championship form. With both Stefan Scherz and Georgina Hill staying on the team, the MP4-21 was rivaled only by Ferrari's 248 F1 in terms of pace. The MP4-21 is also notable for being chromatic, a tradition which still continues today. McLaren started the campaign off unexpectedly dominant with Stefan Scherz at the helm. Scherz would beat Flynn by 1.203 to the line to win the first race in Australia. A double retirement for the team in Bahrain allowed BMW-Sauber's Stine Olander to win. Monaco saw Hill and Scherz qualify 1-2, and finish the same way with Scherz winning and Hill in 2nd. Once again, the British Grand Prix saw Scherz and Hill qualify in the top 2 positions and both finish on the podium with Scherz winning his third race of the season.

Austria would see Ferrari bring massive upgrades to the car as the Italian team took their first win of 2006, both Ferrari drivers stood on the podium with Hill splitting them in 2nd. Scherz and Hill would once again qualify in the top two positions for the German Grand Prix in a race that would see the Austrian driver make a costly error in turn 1 that would force the car to retire. Thankfully for McLaren, the position was inherited by Hill who finished 3rd. The Hungarian Grand Prix would end in heartbreak as although Scherz had retired on lap 7 following an error, Georgina Hill managed to make it all the way to the final corner on the final lap in 2nd before retiring. Ferrari would once again win.

The 2008 season saw Flynn and Hill returning with the MP4-23 as their chassis. The team would go on to win the 2008 World Constructors' Championship, but were unsuccessful in capturing the World Drivers' Championship.

##### Modern times

The 2012 season will see some drivers racing the MP4-27 in Formula One.