Legacy of McLaren

Our DNA

Racing and engineering excellence are the core of everything we do. Every car we build, every product we create, every progressive step we take is driven by our relentless pursuit of engineering perfection.

RACING HERITAGE

Bruce McLaren started his racing career as a teenager in an ingeniously modified Austin Ulster that his father gave him. A prodigiously talented engineer and racer, he developed his own Formula 1 car in May 1966. It debuted at Monaco and qualified in 10th place with Bruce at the wheel. In the British Grand Prix two months later, McLaren Racing scored its first point in a Formula 1 Grand Prix when Bruce finished sixth. The foundations of our world beating racing team and world leading technology company were laid that day.

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Tragically, Bruce died while testing the McLaren M8D at Goodwood in 1970. His death was a devastating blow, but we did not founder. In memory of Bruce, racing legend Denny Hulme won nine out of 10 Can-Am races in the M8D in 1970. Wins in the Indy 500 followed for McLaren in 1972, 1974 and 1976. Under the control of Teddy Mayer, we took the Formula 1 constructor’s championships in 1974, and driver’s titles with Emerson Fittipaldi and, even more memorably, James Hunt.

When Group Chairman Ron Dennis took over in 1981, the team was set on its current path: focused, disciplined, confident, inspirational and inspired. Since then, the records have tumbled and the names involved in our story have taken their place in the pantheon of motorsport greats: Niki lauda, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, Mika Hakkinen, Kimi Raikkonen, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button.

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As aesthetically pure as it was fast, the all-conquering MP4/4 won 15 of the 16 Grands Prix in 1988 with Senna and Prost at the wheel. It`s a record that stands to this day as one of sport`s – all sports – most seismic achievements. A decade later, MP4-13 delivered driver`s and constructor`s titles in Formula 1 world championship. And in 2008, long-time McLaren prodigy Lewis Hamilton took the MP4-23 – arguably the most aerodynamically advanced racing car ever – to overall victory in the driver`s championship in only his second season.

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