There is No Finish Line.
McLaren
Tagline
Net Worth
$101,757,519
Started in (City)
Surrey
Started in (Country)
England
Incorporation Date
02nd December, 1963
Bankruptcy Date
-
Founders
- Bruce McLaren
About
I feel that life is measured in achievement, not in years alone
McLaren Racing Limited is a British motor racing team. The second oldest active team and the second most successful team after Ferrari in Formula One racing and are best known for their Formula One Constructor. The team so far has won 182 races, 12 Driver’s Championships, and eight constructor championships. Founded in 1963 by Bruce McLaren the success of the company has been breathtaking. The countless victories, pole positions, and podiums and not to forget the championship can be attributed to the guidance and relentless endeavor of their eponymous founder and definitely the team of McLaren. Some of the greatest names which have been associated with the company include Lewis Hamilton, Ayrton Senna, Mika Hakkinen
Beginning
Whatever the company has achieved has been Bruce’s dream. He was born in Auckland to parents who owned a service station and workshop. Bruce was diagnosed with Perthes disease which left his left leg shorter than the right but this never lowered his spirit. From his childhood, Bruce was a racing enthusiast and spent all his free time hanging around the workshop. He also studied engineering at the University of Auckland.
Aided by his mentor, the Grand Prix driver Jack Brabham, he became the first-ever winner of the New Zealand International Grand Prix Association’s “Driver to Europe” scholarship’. Joined Brahman in the Cooper racing team in 1959 and late became the youngest member to win Formula One. He also competed in American open-wheel racing. There is no doubt that McLaren was a competitive driver but his legacy of the McLaren Racing Team stems from his abilities as an analyst, engineer, and manager. Roger Donaldson’s documentary which aired in 2017 portrays McLaren’s zest and zeal for racing and engineering. McLaren as a race driver was at the peak of his career when the unfortunate accident took place.
Road to Success
After Bruce’s died in a testing accident in 1970 Teddy Mayer took over and led the team to win their first Formula One constructor’s championship in 1974. In 1981 they merged with Ron Dennis Project Four Racing and Dennis took over as team principal, consecutively Porsche and Honda's engines came in and Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna took between them seven Driver’s Championships and six Constructor’s Championship. Then in the mid-’90s came in the Mercedes Benz engines, a lot of sponsorship from the West, and Adrain Newey winning a lot of championships with Mika Hakkinen. Dennis retired in 2009 handing the reigns to Martin Whitmarsh after which the 2013 season did not go well for the team. The sad and underperformance of the team led to the resignation of Whitmarsh. In 2015 they shifted to Honda engines from Mercedes and in 2017 they agreed on the supply of Renault engines from 2018. 2019 saw Andreas Seidl as the new team principal.
Challenges
The historical slate of the company is not clean, as such. In the 1980s McLaren along with other teams of Formula One Constructors Association (FOCA) ran into a feud with F1’s governing body FISA over control of the sport, which then came to be called the FISA-FOCA war. The dispute was eventually resolved by a revenue-sharing deal called the Concorde Agreement. There have been other arguments over the commercial structure and regulations of the sport. 2007 saw them being involved in an espionage controversy for which they were excluded from the Constructor’s Championship and were fined US$100 million.
Failures
Nevertheless, these minor hiccups never diverted the team from their ultimate goal on the track field – to cross the finish line. The team owes all their wins to the hard work and dedication of Bruce. On his 50th death anniversary, the team commemorated a bronze statue in the memory of their hero and mentor. Zak Brown, the present CEO of the McLaren Racing team went on to say, "Bruce was a racer, an innovator and a leader, and all of us at McLaren strive each day to follow the example he set us. Bruce stands as a hero of our sport, immortalized by this statue which is surrounded by his legacy”
Achievements
- Victory in the famous 1966 Le Mans with Ford
- Won their first Formula One constructor’s championship in 1974
Subsidies
- McLaren Young Driver Programme
CEOs
- Zak Brown
- Ron Dennis