McLaren’s 8 greatest moments in Formula 1

The long wait for a Constructors’ Championship

When McLaren won last year’s Constructors’ Championship, it broke a long spell in the wilderness. The team’s previous victory had been more than a quarter of a century earlier, when Mika Häkkinen did the double in 1998. McLaren showed its return to form in 2023 when it was once again challenging at the front of the grid.

The 2024 season started with McLaren fourth fastest on the grid, drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri claiming points where they could. In the first five rounds, they secured 96 points as a grounding for the season. Developments to the MCL38 saw Norris claim his first win in Miami, but Red Bull and Mercedes were soon playing catch-up. By the season finale, a healthier lead had been eroded by Ferrari to a 21-point advantage, but that was still enough to put McLaren back on top of the Constructors’ standings for the first time this century.

A 1-2 finish in Monza

McLaren arrived at 2021’s Italian Grand Prix having not won a race since 2012. That near decade-long purple patch would finally be broken with a decisive 1-2 victory, Daniel Ricciardo leading team-mate Norris to the chequered flag.

McLaren profited from a clash between title fighters Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, who had a coming together when the former left the pitlane on lap 26. The Red Bull of Verstappen ended up dramatically beached on top of Hamilton’s Mercedes, both drivers escaping unhurt. 

Ricciardo was a worthy victor, having claimed first place at the start of the race from P2 on the grid while Norris scored his best result to date, making the weekend all the sweeter for McLaren.

Hamilton’s first Drivers’ Championship

The first step towards becoming a legend of the sport, Lewis Hamilton achieved his F1 World Championship with McLaren in 2008 in dramatic fashion. After five wins and ten podiums, Hamilton won his first Drivers’ Title by just one point – and it all came down to the final corner of the final lap of the final Grand Prix of the year.

The McLaren driver needed to finish fifth or better in Japan to win against his closest rival, Felipe Massa, and when the Brazilian crossed the line in first place Hamilton was lying in sixth, sparking celebrations in the Ferrari pit garage.

They thought it was all over, but right at the eleventh-hour Hamilton passed Timo Glock to take fifth position – and Championship glory with it. He was the first McLaren driver to win since Mika Häkkinen was crowned in 1998. The then 23-year-old became the youngest F1 World Champion, a distinction that was soon beaten by Sebastian Vettel. 

Häkkinen claims his first title

Mika Häkkinen made his F1 debut in 1991 and joined the McLaren team two years later. Initially he did have a race seat, but was demoted to test driver when the team recruited Mario Andretti and had to wait until the following season before he was back full time.

It would be the 1998 season when the Finn really made his mark, taking his first of two World Titles for McLaren. The season got off to a controversial start at the opening round in Australia when Häkkinen and team-mate David Coulthard had an agreement that whoever exited the first corner ahead would be allowed to win, so the Scot let Häkkinen through for his first victory of the year.

A consistent campaign saw Häkkinen lead the Championship all year, although his closest rival Michael Schumacher equalled his points at Monza. However, eight wins – including two in the final rounds in Luxembourg and Japan – were enough to seal the deal. Speaking after that final race Häkkinen said: “It took a while for me to win the Formula 1 World Championship, but now it happened and I am very happy.”

Domination in 1988

A decade before Häkkinen’s success, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna were making headlines for McLaren with the all-conquering MP4/4. McLaren’s major coup was securing the supply of Honda’s 1.5-litre V6 turbo engine. Despite rules that favoured teams who had already made the switch to naturally-aspirated engines for the following season, the MP4/4 was one of F1’s most successful cars.

Between Senna and Prost (the Brazilian having been drafted in on the suggestion of the Frenchman), they won all but one race and claimed all but one pole, losing out to Gerhard Berger both for the Italian Grand Prix and for pole at the British Grand Prix. To add to an almost embarrassingly dominant performance, a McLaren led 1,003 laps out of 1,031 in the season, a record remained until Red Bull’s RB19 bested it in 2023. By the time the season ended, McLaren won with 199 points against runner-up Ferrari’s 65. The Marlboro-livered cars had achieved a red-and-whitewash.

Lauda makes 1984 his own

Prior to 1988, the most successful Grand Prix car was the MP4/2. The 1984 World Championship battle it was embroiled in between McLaren team-mates Niki Lauda and Alain Prost came down to the wire in the final round in Portugal. Prost had started from second on the grid, and ended up claiming the race win while Lauda always had more work to, starting from 11^th but picking his way through the field. 

Fortune shone on him when second-placed Nigel Mansell retired after his Lotus suffered brake failure, allowing Lauda to come home second and win the World Championship by half a point.

Lauda had returned to the sport in 1982 having retired in 1979. Initially he was wary of being a team-mate of Prost as the Frenchman had established himself as a front-runner, but the drivers became friends during their time at McLaren, and Lauda later said that having a competitive team-mate encouraged him. Between them, they won twelve out of sixteen races for McLaren that year.

The first Championships

McLaren won its first F1 World Championships – both Drivers’ and Constructors’ – in 1974. It was a hotly contested season with Ferrari, Tyrrell, Brabham and Lotus all taking wins throughout the year, but it was McLaren’s pre-season preparation with the M23 that gave it the advantage.

Emerson Fittipaldi, that year’s Champion, joined the Woking team from Lotus for the 1974 season and was central to prolonged winter testing; he brought with him knowledge of the Lotus 72. That manifested itself with an extended wheelbase and track for the McLaren which made it easier to drive on the limit. Add in a super-stiff structure and decent reliability, and the McLaren M23 became one of the best Grand Prix cars of the 1970s, with the silverware to prove it.

Bruce scores McLaren’s first win

Bruce McLaren achieved the first victory for his team at Spa-Francorchamps in 1968. Then, teams were experimenting with different aerodynamic addenda at the fearsome full-length version of the Ardennes circuit, and following a wet practice Bruce had secured a modest sixth place starting position.

For what would prove a dry but overcast race, the size of the wings on the McLaren were reduced and Bruce entered a race-long battle with the BRM of Pedro Rodriguez. By the time they embarked on the final lap, they believed they were fighting for second and third places but, having passed the pitted Jackie Stewart, they were actually duelling for the win. So when Bruce crossed the line ahead of Rodriguez he had actually scored his team’s first victory. He would go on to finish second in the Championship that year.

The 2025 Festival of Speed takes place on 10^th-13^th July. Friday and Saturday tickets are now sold out, but Thursday and limited Sunday tickets are still available.

Images courtesy of Getty Images.