Founded by a young Kiwi by the name of Bruce Mclaren in 1963 with just a few simple aims – Have fun, go racing and beat the best, McLaren Racing have the most enviable record in all of F1, boasting of the best race wins/race start record in all the F1 teams on the grid, past and present – 24.7%. Bruce McLaren won the first race for the team in 1968 at Spa.
However it was not until after the founder of the team had passed away that the team got its hands on the championship trophies. Since then the team has never looked back something that is still in the team’s DNA to this day(despite a rather horrendous 50th season)
Now we look back at those 50 seasons and pick out five of the best of McLaren seasons starting from that historic first win in 1974 to the current era of Button and co.
1) 1974: For the First timeWhen Emerson Fittipaldi the 1972 champion joined McLaren for the 1974 season the team was expected to really push for both the driver’s and constructor’s championship. They did just that beating Ferrari by 10 points. However, Fittipaldi had to wait till the end of the final race to ensure that he got his second F1 title as he edged out Ferrari’s Clay Regazzoni by a meagre 3 points.
2) 1976: All hail King James Hunt the shunt!1976 is a season that will remain in the annals of F1 as one of the best seasons of all time. The season was dominated by the rivalry between McLaren’s James Hunt and Ferrari’s Niki Lauda. The politically charged atmosphere of the season lead to several race results changing due to numerous appeals over results and regulations. The season is also remembered for Lauda’s horrific crash at the Nürburgring Nordschleife which left the right hand side of Lauda’s face scarred by burns. In the end Hunt won the season by the slimmest of margins – 1 point. The season was immortalised this year in the film ‘Rush’
3) 1985 – The Professor schools his rivalsAlain Prost dominated the 1985 season winning the the championship by 20 points as he ensured that he remained on the podium for all the 11 races that eventually counted in his points quest in the process he also helped the team to a 8-point win in the constructor’s championship.
4)1988: Senna – The best everThe 1988 season was one that was dominated by McLaren as they won 15 of the 16 races that season. The season though was won by Senna who took the championship win by 3 points beating team-mate and rival Alain Prost because of the fact that only 11 races were counted in the championship points.
F1 1988 Season – Tribute Video (rFactor) from Thiago Miguez on Vimeo.
5) 1998: Mika Häkkinen – The Flying FinnMika Häkkinen hammered past Michael Schumacher, scaring the living daylights out of the German as he went on to win the championship by 14 points winning 8 races along the way. With Coulthard winning yet another race, McLaren cruised to victory in the contructors championship by a comfortable margin of 23 points
