McLaren Racing, founded by the New Zealander Bruce McLaren in 1963, is the second-oldest active Formula One team and the second most successful after Ferrari, with 205 race wins, 13 drivers’ championships and 10 constructors’ championships. This page is about the team, its engine partners and its titles rather than one car.
McLaren in Formula One at a glance
| Founded | 1963, by Bruce McLaren |
|---|---|
| Base | McLaren Technology Centre, Woking, Surrey |
| Owner | McLaren Group, wholly owned by Mumtalakat Holding Company |
| First Grand Prix | 1966 Monaco Grand Prix, McLaren M2B |
| First win | 1968 Belgian Grand Prix |
| First titles | 1974, with Emerson Fittipaldi |
| Race wins | 205 |
| Drivers’ championships | 13 |
| Constructors’ championships | 10 |
| 1,000th Grand Prix entry | 2026 Chinese Grand Prix |
| Current engine | Mercedes |
This page is about the team and its engine partners rather than one model, so it is based on the English Wikipedia article on McLaren.
History of the McLaren in Formula One
How the team began
Bruce McLaren founded Bruce McLaren Motor Racing in 1963. He had been a works driver for Cooper, with whom he won three Grands Prix and finished second in the 1960 championship, and he set up his own team to race in the Australasian Tasman Series after Cooper insisted on 1.5-litre Formula One engines instead of the 2.5-litre units the Tasman rules allowed. He won the 1964 series, but his teammate Timmy Mayer was killed in practice for the final race in Tasmania. A business partnership with Teddy Mayer followed, and Teddy eventually became the largest shareholder.
The team was based in Feltham from 1963 to 1964 and in Colnbrook from 1965 to 1981, and has been in Woking since 1981. Bruce never used British racing green: his first Formula One car, the M2B, raced at the 1966 Monaco Grand Prix in white with a green stripe to represent a fictional team in John Frankenheimer’s film Grand Prix.
The early Formula One years
The team made its Grand Prix debut at Monaco in 1966, won its first race at the 1968 Belgian Grand Prix and took its first championships in 1974. After Bruce McLaren died in a testing accident in 1970, Teddy Mayer took over and led the team to its first constructors’ title in 1974, with Emerson Fittipaldi and then James Hunt winning the drivers’ championship in 1974 and 1976. That year also began the long Marlboro sponsorship that lasted until 1996.
Engines and the great era
In 1981 McLaren merged with Ron Dennis’s Project Four Racing, and Dennis became team principal before buying out the original shareholders. With Porsche and Honda engines, Niki Lauda, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna won seven drivers’ championships between them and the team took six constructors’ titles. The Prost and Senna pairing was especially strong: together they won all but one race in 1988, a season covered by the MP4/4 page, though their rivalry later soured and Prost left for Ferrari. The partnership with Honda from 1988 to 1991 produced four consecutive constructors’ championships, and the team won 15 of 16 races in 1988.
By the mid-1990s Honda had left Formula One, Senna had moved to Williams and McLaren went three seasons without a win. With Mercedes-Benz engines, West sponsorship and the former Williams designer Adrian Newey, further championships came in 1998 and 1999 with Mika Häkkinen. The team currently uses Mercedes power.
Titles and the Triple Crown
Fittipaldi, Hunt, Lauda, Prost, Senna, Häkkinen, Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris have won drivers’ championships with McLaren, while champions Denny Hulme, Jody Scheckter, Keke Rosberg, Fernando Alonso, Kimi Räikkönen and Jenson Button also drove for the team at some point. The team’s most recent titles came in 2025, and the 2026 Chinese Grand Prix was its 1,000th Grand Prix entry, making it the second constructor after Ferrari to reach that number. McLaren is one of only three constructors, and the only team, to complete the Triple Crown of Motorsport: wins at the Indianapolis 500, the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Monaco Grand Prix.
Beyond Formula One
McLaren also has a history in sports cars and endurance racing, where a modified McLaren F1 road car won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1995, and it has won the Can-Am championship as a chassis constructor. Its current IndyCar entry, Arrow McLaren, has taken 10 wins since it took over Sam Schmidt Motorsports in 2020, and the team is due to return to the World Endurance Championship in 2027 with an LMDh car, the McLaren MCL-HY. McLaren has also entered Formula E and Extreme E and withdrawn from both, and it won the 2022 Formula One esports championship.
Design and features
- Engine partners: Porsche, Honda and Mercedes-Benz have all powered McLaren cars to championships in different eras.
- Honda years: four consecutive constructors’ titles from 1988 to 1991 and 15 wins from 16 races in 1988.
- Mercedes years: titles with Häkkinen in 1998 and 1999 and, later, the team’s most recent championships.
- Triple Crown: the only team to win at Indianapolis, Le Mans and Monaco.
- Longevity: the second-oldest active team and the second most successful after Ferrari.
McLaren in Formula One versions
- Works team eras: TAG-Porsche engines in the 1980s, Honda in 1988–1991 and again later, Mercedes-Benz since the mid-1990s.
- Other series: Can-Am, Indianapolis and USAC in the 1970s, Le Mans in 1995, IndyCar with Arrow McLaren, and LMDh from 2027.
The team’s cars are covered one by one, from the early M14A to the title-winning M23 and MP4/4. More cars are in the McLaren collection.
Video: McLaren-Honda: a new era
Video by YouTube on YouTube.
Sources
- McLaren, English Wikipedia: team history, titles, engine partners, other series
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