Mclaren

Bruce McLaren, a New Zealander, founded the team in 1963, and it won its first Grand Prix in the 1968 Belgian Grand Prix. However, their greatest early success came in the Can-Am series, which they dominated from 1967 through 1971. Following this victory, Mark Donohue and Johnny Rutherford both won the Indianapolis 500 in McLaren vehicles in 1974 and 1976. Teddy Mayer took over as team manager after Bruce McLaren passed away in a testing incident in 1970, and under his direction, the team won its first Formula One Constructors' Championship in 1974. James Hunt and Emerson Fittipaldi won the Drivers' Championship in 1974 and 1976, respectively. The Marlboro tobacco company also began its long-running sponsorship in 1974.

Ron Dennis' Project Four Racing amalgamated with McLaren in 1981. Dennis was named team principal and shortly after that, he organized a buyout of the original McLaren stockholders to gain complete control of the organization. With Porsche and Honda engines, this marked the start of the team's most prosperous period. Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, and Ayrton Senna collectively won seven Drivers' Championships, while the team won six Constructors' Championships during this time. Prost and Senna were a very potent team; they won all but one race in 1988. However, their rivalry subsequently became sour, and Prost departed for Ferrari.

Williams, a fellow English team that won every constructors' title between 1984 and 1994, provided the most dependable competition during this time. Honda left Formula One in the middle of the 1990s, Senna switched to Williams, and the team endured three seasons without a championship. Further titles were won in 1998 and 1999 with driver Mika Häkkinen thanks to Mercedes-Benz engines, West sponsorship, and former Williams designer Adrian Newey. Throughout the 2000s, the team was a perennial front-runner, and Lewis Hamilton won their most recent championship in 2008.

In 2009, Ron Dennis stepped down from his position as McLaren team principal and Martin Whitmarsh, a longtime employee, took over. Whitmarsh was fired at the conclusion of 2013, following the team's worst season since 2004. In 2013, McLaren made the announcement that, starting in 2015, Honda engines will take the place of Mercedes-Benz. At the 2015 Australian Grand Prix, the team competed as McLaren Honda for the first time since 1992. Renault and McLaren announced their agreement to provide engines from 2018 through 2020 in September 2017. From the 2021 season to at least the 2024 race season, McLaren will use Mercedes-Benz engines.

McLaren announced in August 2019 that they would team up with Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports starting in 2020 to run the full IndyCar Series. The combined entry will be known as Arrow McLaren SP. McLaren first returned to the Indianapolis 500 in 2017 as a supporter of Andretti Autosport to run Fernando Alonso, and then in 2019 as an independent entry. With no initial ownership stake in the team, McLaren would buy 75% of the business in 2021.


The Official McLaren Website – McLaren.com
https://www.mclaren.com