McLaren

United Kingdom McLaren-Mercedes
Full nameMcLaren Formula 1 Team[1]
BaseMcLaren Technology Centre
Woking, Surrey, England, UK
Team principal(s)Zak Brown
(Chief Executive Officer)
Andrea Stella
(Team Principal)
Technical director(s)Rob Marshall[2]
(Engineering and Design)
Peter Prodromou
(Aerodynamics)
David Sanchez[3]
(Car Concept and Performance)
Founder(s)Bruce McLaren
Websitemclaren.com/racing/formula-1
2024 Formula One World Championship
Race drivers04. United Kingdom Lando Norris[4]
81. Australia Oscar Piastri[5][6]
Test driversMexico Pato O'Ward[7]
Japan Ryō Hirakawa[8]
ChassisMCL38
EngineMercedes M15 E Performance
TyresPirelli
Formula One World Championship career
First entry1966 Monaco Grand Prix
Last entry2024 Australian Grand Prix
Races entered953 (949 starts)
EnginesFord, Serenissima, BRM, Alfa Romeo, TAG, Honda, Peugeot, Mercedes, Renault
Constructors'
Championships
8 (1974, 1984, 1985, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1998)
Drivers'
Championships
12 (1974, 1976, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1998, 1999, 2008)
Race victories183
Podiums504
Points6346.5
Pole positions156
Fastest laps164
2023 position4th (302 pts)

McLaren Racing Limited is a British motor racing team based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey, England. McLaren is best known as a Formula One chassis constructor, the second oldest active team and the second most successful Formula One team after Ferrari, having won 183 races, 12 Drivers' Championships and 8 Constructors' Championships. McLaren also has a history of competing in American open wheel racing, as both an entrant and a chassis constructor, and has won the Canadian-American Challenge Cup (Can-Am) sports car racing championship. The team is a subsidiary of the McLaren Group, which owns a majority of the team.

Founded in 1963 by New Zealander Bruce McLaren, the team won its first Grand Prix at the 1968 Belgian Grand Prix, but their greatest initial success was in Can-Am, which they dominated from 1967 to 1971. Further American triumph followed, with Indianapolis 500 wins in McLaren cars for Mark Donohue in 1972 and Johnny Rutherford in 1974 and 1976. After Bruce McLaren died in a testing accident in 1970, Teddy Mayer took over and led the team to their first Formula One Constructors' Championship in 1974, with Emerson Fittipaldi and James Hunt winning the Drivers' Championship in 1974 and 1976 respectively. 1974 also marked the start of a long-standing sponsorship by the Marlboro cigarette brand.

In 1981, McLaren merged with Ron Dennis' Project Four Racing; Dennis took over as team principal, and shortly afterwards organised a buyout of the original McLaren shareholders to take full control of the team. This began the team's most successful era; with Porsche and Honda engines, Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, and Ayrton Senna won seven Drivers' Championships between them and the team took six Constructors' Championships. The combination of Prost and Senna was particularly dominant—together they won all but one race in 1988—but later their rivalry soured and Prost left for Ferrari. Fellow English team Williams offered the most consistent challenge during this period, the two winning every constructors' title between 1984 and 1994. By the mid-1990s, Honda had withdrawn from Formula One, Senna had moved to Williams, and the team went three seasons without a win. With Mercedes-Benz engines, West sponsorship, and former Williams designer Adrian Newey, further championships came in 1998 and 1999 with driver Mika Häkkinen, and during the 2000s the team were consistent front-runners, with driver Lewis Hamilton taking their latest title in 2008.

Ron Dennis retired as McLaren team principal in 2009, handing over to long-time McLaren employee Martin Whitmarsh. At the end of 2013, after the team's worst season since 2004, Whitmarsh was ousted. McLaren announced in 2013 that they would be using Honda engines from 2015 onwards, replacing Mercedes-Benz.[9] The team raced as McLaren Honda for the first time since 1992 at the 2015 Australian Grand Prix. In September 2017, McLaren announced they had agreed on an engine supply with Renault from 2018 to 2020. McLaren is using Mercedes-Benz engines from the 2021 season until at least 2030.[10][11]

After initially returning to the Indianapolis 500 in 2017 as a backer of Andretti Autosport to run Fernando Alonso and then in 2019 as an independent entry, McLaren announced in August 2019 that they would run in conjunction with Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports starting in 2020 to run the full IndyCar Series, the combined entry being named Arrow McLaren SP.[12] Initially having no ownership interest in the team, McLaren would purchase 75% of the operation in 2021.[13] McLaren entered the electric off-road racing series Extreme E in 2022,[14] and also joined Formula E in the 2022–23 season.[15]

  1. ^ "2023 FIA Formula One World Championship Entry List". Federation Internationale de l'Automobile. 14 March 2015. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
  2. ^ "McLaren Formula 1 team announces signing of Rob Marshall". Formula1.com. 30 May 2023. Retrieved 30 May 2023.
  3. ^ "Key out, Sanchez in as McLaren restructures F1 team". autosport.com. 25 March 2023. Retrieved 25 March 2023.
  4. ^ "Lando Norris agrees major contract extension to stay at McLaren until 2025". formula1.com. 9 February 2022. Archived from the original on 14 June 2022. Retrieved 18 June 2022.
  5. ^ "2021 FIA F2 champion Oscar Piastri to join McLaren Racing in 2023". mclaren.com. 2 September 2022. Archived from the original on 2 September 2022. Retrieved 2 September 2022.
  6. ^ "F1 2023: Piastri explains why he chose number 81 for debut". RaceFans. 27 September 2022. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
  7. ^ "McLaren Formula 1 Team confirm Pato O'Ward as a 2024 F1 reserve driver". www.mclaren.com. Retrieved 4 January 2024.
  8. ^ "McLaren announce Ryo Hirakawa as 2024 reserve driver". www.formula1.com. Retrieved 4 January 2024.
  9. ^ Benson, Andrew (4 March 2013). "McLaren poised to switch to Honda engines for 2015 season". BBC. Retrieved 7 January 2020.
  10. ^ "McLAREN F1 TO BE POWERED BY MERCEDES-BENZ FROM 2021". McLaren Racing. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
  11. ^ "McLaren agree extension to use Mercedes power until 2030". Formula 1. 24 November 2023. Retrieved 24 November 2023.
  12. ^ Ayello, Jim. "Arrow SPM splits with Honda, partners with McLaren, Chevrolet". The Indianapolis Star.
  13. ^ "McLaren Racing buys majority share of Arrow McLaren SP". Sportsnet.ca. Retrieved 27 August 2021.
  14. ^ "McLaren Racing - McLaren Racing to enter Extreme E in 2022". www.mclaren.com. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
  15. ^ "McLAREN RACING TO COMPETE IN FORMULA E FROM SEASON NINE". McLaren Racing. 14 May 2022.