McLaren is a British car manufacturer and racing team/constructor. The team is named after New Zealand driver and team founder Bruce McLaren who was killed in an accident in 1970.
- McLaren F1
- Mercedes SLR McLaren (collaboration with Mercedes)
- McLaren P1
- McLaren 12C
- McLaren Senna
History
Early History (1960s-1970s)
Their first Formula One race was the 1966 Monaco Grand Prix. McLaren didn't win its first Drivers and Constructors title until 8 years later when Emerson Fittipaldi won his second title in 1974 with the team. Despite winning the Drivers Championship with James Hunt in 1976, McLaren lost the Constructors title to their main rival Ferrari. 1977 would see Gilles Villeneuve make his debut in F1 with the team for one race before moving to Ferrari.
Becoming part of the top four (1981-1987)
In 1981, the team merged into Ron Dennis's Project Four Racing, with Dennis taking over as team principle for the next three decades. After convincing Niki Lauda to return to F1 and hiring Alain Prost from Renault, McLaren was able to win their first Drivers title since 1976 and first Constructors title since 1974 during 1984. While McLaren won the 1985 Constructors Championship, they also were able to the '85 and '86 Drivers' title with Prost.
Early Honda years (1988-1989)
After being losing 1987 to Williams-Honda, McLaren switched from TAG-Porsche engines to Honda for 1988. On advice from Prost, Ron Dennis replaced Stefan Johansson with Ayrton Senna. The McLaren MP4/4 driven by Prost and Senna that season was able to win 15 of the 16 races (the only exception being the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. Senna was able to win his first title that same season at the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, while McLaren won the Constructors title by the 11th round in Belgium.
The rivalry between Senna and Prost however by 1989 had flared up to a point where Prost had decided to leave the team for Ferrari after the season. Before the season ended, Prost and Senna collided at the final chicane (Casio Triangle) at Suzuka. While Prost's McLaren was too damaged to continue in the race, Senna was able to repair his front wing on the next lap and won the race, only to be disqualified for getting a push start from the marshals after the collision with Prost. As a result, Prost won the 1989 Championship.
End of McLaren-Honda dominance (1990-1992)
With Prost at Ferrari in 1990, McLaren were forced to take Ferrari's car numbers (27 and 28) despite winning the Constructors title in 1989. Senna along with his new teammate Gerhard Berger (who had swapped with Prost) were able to win McLaren their third constructors title in a row while Senna sealed the Drivers title at Suzuka when his McLaren collided into the rear of Prost's Ferrari.
Senna would win the first four races of 1991 in the new McLaren MP4/6, powered by a Honda RA121 V12 engine; while Ferrari and Prost fell back in performance and failed to win any races by the end of the season. However, during the middle of 1991; Williams-Renault as well as Prost's former teammate Nigel Mansell were able to successfully challenge McLaren and win several races in row between Mexico and Germany.
Honda finally delivered a new version of the RA121 for the Hungarian GP (ironically just after their founder Soichiro Honda had passed away). Senna was able win the next two races as well as score valuable points in Italy and Portugal. After a win in Spain by Mansell, the title came down to Suzuka once again. On lap 10, Mansell's FW14 spun off at the first corner, thus Senna won what would be his last championship. McLaren sealed the constructors title in Adelaide in one of the shortest and most rainy races held ever.
The 1992 season would see McLaren initially using the MP4/6B for the first two races before the MP4/7A was rolled out ahead of schedule. The result was multiple retirements in the season due to reliability issues with both the car and engine. Senna was thus unable to defend his title and Mansell with the active-suspension equipped FW14B won his only drivers championship by Hungary and Williams won their first constructors title since 1987.
Despite the troubles of 1992 and even finishing behind new rival and rookie Michael Schumacher, Senna was still able to win three races, including a another Monaco victory where defended against Mansell during the last few laps of the race. Berger was also able win McLaren-Honda's last race victory at the season ender at Adelaide, ending Honda's first relationship with McLaren. Berger would move back to Ferrari for 1993. Mclaren finished second behind Williams but successfully beat Benetton Formula.
Senna's last season at McLaren (1993)
For 1993, McLaren's new MP4/8 would use a Ford V8 customer engine, inferior on power to the Ford V8 factory engine in the Benetton B193 and the Renault RS5 V10 engine the Williams FW15C. Despite this, the MP4/8 had would be considered superior driver aids than the Williams and Benetton cars. While he won five races that season (the Brazilian, European, Monaco, Japanese and Australian GPs), Senna was unable to beat Prost due to multiple retirements during the European leg of the season. Senna also raced on a race-by-race basis thats season while teammate was initially Michael Andretti. Andretti however failed to preform well until the Italian GP, often crashing or failing to score points. As a result, he was replaced by new test driver and former Lotus rookie Mika Häkkinen for the last three races. After winning his last for McLaren (in his career), Senna moved to McLaren for 1994.
Peugeot and decline (1994)
Before the end of 1993, Ron Dennis had secured a deal for Peugeot engines for 1994. Häkkinen would now be team leader, Senna's former British F3 rival and 1988 WSC champion Martin Brundle was hired at the last minute and it emerged that Prost would stay for another season while Philippe Alliot was kept as test driver as part of the deal with Peugeot.
The first two races would the McLaren MP4/9 fail to finish. At the infamous San Marino GP (which saw Senna as well as Roland Raztenberger be killed in fatal accidents) Häkkinen scored McLaren's first points and podium of the year. The next race in Monaco would see Brundle score a career best of second, beating Berger after the Ferrari driver spun off and was then overtaken for the hairpin by Brundle.
After being held responsible for the lap 1 crash at the German GP, Häkkinen was banned for one race and thus replaced by Alliot for the Hungarian GP. By the end of the season, McLaren scored 42 points, being beaten by Ferrari despite both teams experiencing misfortune during the season. McLaren decided to end their deal with the french supplier and picked the Mercedes-Benz engine deal from Sauber for 1995.