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 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 , but the team's fifth win had to wait until the last race of the 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".
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.
The 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. 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. In Emerson Fittipaldi , world champion with Lotus two years earlier,. 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. With the top drivers already signed to other teams, Mayer turned to James Hunt , a driver who biographer Gerald Donaldson reflected on as having "a dubious reputation".
In Lauda was again strong in his Ferrari ; at mid season 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.
But at the German Grand Prix 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 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 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 non ground effect M Hunt was dropped at the end of 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.
Tambay scored no points and Watson only 15 to place the team eighth at the end of the year. The s started much as the s had ended: Alain Prost took over from Tambay but he and Watson rarely scored points. 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. Soon after the merger McLaren moved from Colnbrook to a new base in Woking and whilst Dennis and Mayer initially shared the managing directorship of the company, by Mayer had departed and his and Tyler Alexander's shareholdings had been bought by the new owners.
In the early s, teams like Renault , Ferrari and Brabham were using 1. Seeing the need for a turbo engine of. In the meantime, they continued with Cosworth engines as old rival Lauda came out of retirement 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 McLaren were second in the constructors' title race.
Having been fired by Renault, Prost was once again at McLaren for Now using the TAG engines, the team dominated, scoring 12 wins and two-and-a-half times as many contructors' points as nearest rival Ferrari. They featured a more conventional chassis that did not use the engine as a stressed member.
Customers chose their own engines. Bruce McLaren died in pre-season testing of the M8D. The car won nine out of 10 rounds and the entire Can-Am championship. The high pylon-mounted rear wings of the M8B were replaced with a lower wing to comply with the ban on high-mounted wings. The all aluminium V8 increased in size to well over 8 litres.
McLaren M20 was developed for the season. It served as a replacement for the M8Fs, but it later became the final Can-Am design created by McLaren before they left the series after failing to win the championship.
One car was built. Starting out life as a McLaren M8F, the C8 used a cu in 7, cc Chevrolet V8 engine, but proved to be fragile, often retiring from races Peter Hoffmann owned the sole C8, and ran it until McLaren took Indianapolis by storm. McLaren's first Indy car, the McLaren M15, was due to be driven in the Indy by Denny Hulme and Chris Amon, but despite Hulme showing very good early speed, he incurred serious burns in one of the cars, and neither driver started the race.
Peter Revson later led the California , but the team's attention quickly turned to a new design. In various guises the McLaren M16 saw frontline service as a works entry in Indycar racing for five seasons, in effect mirroring the long career of the M23, the F1 car that was a born a couple of years later. The M16 would log three Indy victories over its remarkable lifetime, and as such is one of the most successful designs in the history of the race.
In recent year McLaren has tip-toed back into IndyCars and more recently gone all-in. Below we take you through all their IndyCar racers over the years. The car was very light by Indy standards, weighing in at lbs when first built gained lbs during development.
It was the lightest cars at the Indy This is the wedge shaped Indianapolis car for using the turbo charged Offenhauser engine and a Hewland LG 4 speed transaxle. The Chssis is a fill aluminium monocoque with Goodyear 75 gallon fuel bags and fibreglass body panels. It had several tweaks vs the 16B.
McLaren built six revised M16Cs for , for works and Penske use. By now rule makers USAC had basically said that anything goes as far as wings were concerned. The M16C looked a little more like an F1 machine than the previous car, with a full length engine cover, a new, more rounded cockpit surround, and new radiator ducts. The M16 series had come to the end of its competitive life. It was superceded by the much more modern M24 for The McLaren M24B was built in and used during the and season.
Fernando Alonso and McLaren, decided to take on the Indy He slowed and coasted to a smoky halt after completing of the laps. It was a great run, with Alonso having led 27 laps in total, between the frequent yellow flags, and he was classified 24th.
McLaren's IndyCar went from a planned full-season with proven champions targeted as Fernando Alonso's team-mates, to failing to qualify for a one-off Indianapolis appearance. There were lots of issues but the main one was a preoccupation by the company on improving F1 competitiveness.
It promised factory support from the iconic constructor with the tested know-how of Sam Schmidt and Ric Peterson at the helm. McLaren is still the only manufacturer to win the world-famous endurance race on its first attempt. It happened back in and it is a crazy story about a crazy car company building the fastest car in the world and then taking it racing. When the F1 was released it did not take long for people to start asking for a racing version.
The regulations pegged its power below bhp, so the racer was actually slightly less powerful. The GTRs also had to be fitted with steel roll-cages, the steering rack ratios were quicker, and the rubber bushing in the suspension was removed. By any standards, that race was an epic, even going on to win the Global GT Championship. The F1 GTR race cars that lined up on the grid at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in were essentially still no more than converted road cars.
Indeed, the air restrictor regulations of the period meant the F1 GTR actually had less power than the production F1 it was based on. Yet against faster purpose-built sports prototypes, F1 GTRs finished the race in 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 13th positions, an unprecedented result that made McLaren the only manufacturer to win the world-famous endurance race on its first attempt.
It is a record we still proudly hold to this day. Rivals responded to the dominance of the F1 GTR with purpose-built racers that were then modified just enough to create the road-going versions needed to certify them.
McLaren decided to create an F1 GT road car to homologate a race version sharing the same basic form. The racer would be the ultimate evolution of the F1 GTR. While McLaren does indeed have its struggles in F1 at the moment there is no denying the company has real race pedigree. These competition-honed racing cars are the best of breed and are built to win. The 12C GT Sprint retains many of the unique systems from the road car whilst being optimised exclusively for the race track.
The 12C GT Can-Am Edition was a dramatic track-focused car launched in , paying tribute to the racers of Bruce McLaren and Denny Hulme which were extremely successful throughout the s and s. The one-off design study is finished in historic McLaren Orange and satin black, and is the debut appearance of a 12C racing variant outside Europe.
A concept it was not subject to the racing regulations. The McLaren 12C GT3 made its competitive debut in , securing four championship titles, 60 race victories and podiums with customer teams globally. The S Sprint is an easier car to fully exploit and enjoy for a driver, and the levels of engagement and refinement have been optimized.
The development programme for the car was extensive. Making its competitive debut with customer teams from , it builds on the highly successful 12C GT3. The S GT3 offers optimised aerodynamics and enhanced levels of driver engagement. The model is homologated to full GT4 specification, and is sold in a ready-to-race configuration, eligible for all GT4-regulated series globally. The S GT3 elevates the extreme performance of the Super Series model to world-class track pace — accessible to professional and amateur drivers alike.
The latest GT3 challenger is undergoing an intensive and extensive track testing programme throughout , and will compete with customer teams at some of the most demanding GT races. Videos Pictures Wallpapers Forum.
McLaren Race Cars. McLaren Formula One Cars. McLaren Formula 1 Cars McLaren is the second-oldest active Formula 1 team and if you have been following their race team for more than five seasons, they have actually been pretty successful at the sport, with some of the most iconic and successful Formula 1 cars ever made. McLaren M2B Season: McLaren M4B Season: McLaren M5A Season: - McLaren M7A Season: - McLaren M7B Season: McLaren M7C Season: McLaren M7D Season: Mclaren M9A Season: McLaren M14A Season: - McLaren M14D Season: McLaren M19A Season: McLaren M19C Season: - McLaren M23 Season: - McLaren M26 Season: - McLaren M28 Season: McLaren M29 Season: - McLaren M30 Season: McLaren MP Season: McLaren Can-Am Cars.
McLaren M1A Season: McLaren M1B Season: McLaren M1C Season: McLaren M6A Season: Intense rivalry sees team mates Hamilton and Alonso finish level on points - one shy of the drivers' title. Distant third in championship, despite strong race pace in second half of season. End campaign winless for first time in a decade.
The MP proves the quickest car on the grid, but poor reliability means they narrowly miss out on constructors' title, despite 10 wins - two more than champions Renault. Kimi Raikkonen runner-up in drivers' championship. Worst start to a season in years with just five points from the first seven races. Stage strong recovery, including victory for Kimi Raikkonen in Belgium, to end the year fifth in the table. Third in the constructors' standings, just behind Williams.
Kimi Raikkonen emerges as the team's key contender for the drivers' championship, losing out to Michael Schumacher at the final race in Japan.
Pushed down to third place in the constructors' championship, behind Ferrari and Williams. David Coulthard takes fifth place in the drivers' championship. Finish second in both drivers' and constructors' championships two years in a row, with Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard. Dominate after successfully adapting to rule changes. Mika Hakkinen takes the drivers' championship in both seasons with McLaren taking the constructors' championship in A period of total McLaren dominance.
In Ayrton Senna takes the title from his team mate Alain Prost, with honours reversed in In Senna takes back the title and retains it in Partnering Alain Prost, Niki Lauda takes the drivers' championship by half a point from his team mate as they win 12 of the season's 16 races.