Mclaren Brand History

A renowned manufacturer of sports cars, GTs and supercars, McLaren is first and foremost a racing team, founded by Bruce McLaren in 1963. A New Zealander by nationality, he began his career as a driver, demonstrating his talent early on by winning his first Formula 1 victory at the age of 22, driving a Cooper at Sebring in 1959. Following the example of Jack Brabham, he decided to found his own team and entered his cars in Formula 1 from the 1966 season onwards. At Spa in 1968, he became one of the few driver-constructors to have won a Grand Prix at the wheel of one of his own cars. At the same time, McLaren successfully entered cars across the Atlantic in the Can-Am championship, dominating the 1967, 1968 and 1969 seasons. Unfortunately, Bruce McLaren's career was brutally and tragically cut short when he was killed on the Goodwood circuit in England on 2 June 1970, at the age of just 32. This did not prevent the company bearing his name from continuing its rise; in 1974, Emerson Fittipaldi won the Formula 1 World Drivers' Championship at the wheel of the McLaren M23. Many more victories were to follow, and even more so after McLaren merged with Ron Dennis' Project Four team.

Dennis, a legendary manager, would go on to lead McLaren for more than a quarter of a century, from 1981 to 2008, and would accelerate its development by forging fruitful partnerships with leading engine manufacturers. TAG-Porsche and then Honda powered the MP4/2, MP4/2B and MP4/2C single-seaters (their name standing for "McLaren Project Four"), which won the constructors' championship in 1984 and 1985, with Niki Lauda and then Alain Prost crowned world drivers' champions in 1984, 1985 and 1986. It was a golden age for the team, which dominated F1 thanks to the talent of Prost and then Ayrton Senna, whose rivalry Ron Dennis exploited, indifferently navigating regulatory changes that banned turbo engines at the end of the 1988 season in favour of naturally aspirated V10 and then V12 engines, still supplied by Honda. However, McLaren then went through a slump before returning to success by joining forces with Mercedes. The "silver arrows", driven by Mika Häkkinen and Lewis Hamilton, would thus give the British team its latest titles before it returned to success after several difficult seasons by winning a new constructors' title in 2024.

In the meantime, McLaren had made a masterful return to road cars, entrusting engineer Gordon Murray, who had joined the F1 team in 1987, with the development of a supercar designed to surpass the most renowned models in its class. Designed entirely according to Murray's principles, the McLaren F1, unveiled in 1992 and built in a limited edition of around 100 units until 1992, is a milestone in automotive history thanks to its performance, the advanced technologies used in its design and its racing record – the car won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1995. It was succeeded, as part of the partnership between McLaren and Mercedes, by the SLR McLaren coupé and then, in 2011, by the MP4-12C, the template for all current McLaren road cars, which marked the evolution of the company into a fully-fledged manufacturer with an extensive range rivalling Ferrari and Lamborghini. A mid-engined berlinetta with a V8 engine developed entirely by McLaren, the car was designed to compete directly with the 458 Italia and Gallardo, as well as the most powerful Porsche 911s. Increasingly ambitious, its descendants would constantly raise the bar, culminating in the extraordinary Senna and hybrid supercars such as the 2013 P1 (rival to the Porsche 918 and Ferrari LaFerrari) and the W1 unveiled in autumn 2024 with 1275 hp, which will go on sale in 2025. With such firepower, McLaren's future is assured!