McLaren a Monument In The F1 World

The McLaren Team and its journey in the F1 world reads like a novel. A lot of ups and downs define the history of McLaren. Perseverance, ambition, and success are engraved in the genes of the team with the name Ron Dennis being mentioned in one breath with Mc Laren. However, November 2016 is written as a black page in the history of the team. After 38 years, Zak Brown took over the helm from the Ron Dennis statue. After a while later, the figurehead was finally pushed aside. That change of power at the top immediately heralded the swan song for Ron Dennis. In recent years, the F1 team seems a bit like a maze. The last victory dates from 2012 in Brazil.

History Of A Famous Past

McLaren was born in 1963, founded by F1 pilot Bruce Mac Laren from New Zealand. It became officially known as Bruce Mc Laren Racing. It was the first team to create a car using a carbon fiber monocoque (synonymous with construction technology), which is a common style used in motorsport today. Over the years, they became one of the most successful teams in F1 with 8 construction titles, 12 world titles and more than 160 Grand Prix victories. In 1968, McLaren himself gave us the first victory. Teammate Denny Hulme would knit an extension to the success with two more wins. In that year, Mc Laren finished second in the World Cup behind Lotus. Fate struck on June 20, 1970. When testing a CanAm car in Goodwood, Mc Laren crashed into his car. Two years later after that jet-black day in June, the team left the CanAm series. At that time, McLaren was the most successful constructor with no fewer than 43 wins.

The Age Of Ron Dennis And The Beginning Of Dominance

The McLaren team was founded in 1980 when Ron Dennis' Project 4 Racing Team formed a collaborative merger with McLaren. As a result, Dennis took on the role as the team leader. This was just the beginning of a dominative era. Ayrton Senna (in 1988 and 1990) and Alain Prost (1989) ensured a World Cup title. After that, the golden years seemed to pass. It took until 1998 and 1999 when Mika Hakkinen won the McLaren world title two years in a row. The peak years seemed to come back in 2005. But the Lewis Hamilton team (along with Renault) was accused of espionage in connection with confidential Ferrari documents. The team had to cough up 100 million dollars for these fraudulent practices. In 2009, Ron Dennis cleared the place for Martin Whitmarsh. In addition to the circuit event, Mc Laren is displaying a new car model, the so-called Mc Laren GT: 570GT but then in a Speedtail version. In concrete terms, this means that the sports car can reach a top speed of 326 kilometers per hour. With a length of 4.7 meters, the new model is 20 cm larger than the predecessor. Under the hood is a 620 horsepower version of the 4.0-bit turbo V8 from the 720S. With 570GT, you can go from 0 to 100 in 3.2 seconds.