Explore 60 thrilling years of McLaren Formula 1 race cars in this handsome volume, complete with detailed specs, stunning photography, a foreword by twice World Champion Mika Häkkinen,and the full competition record for every car. McLaren has been a top Formula 1 competitor and innovator since it fielded founder and driver Bruce McLaren’s first car, the M2B, in 1966. Just two years later, Bruce scored the team’s first grand prix win. Tragically, he was killed in 1970 while testing his Can-Am car at Goodwood.
Despite the heavy loss of its founder, McLaren carried on, scoring its first of twelve championships in 1974 with Emerson Fitipaldi. McLaren’s roster of F1 Champions includes such greats as James Hunt, Niki Lauda, Ayrton Senna, and modern master Lewis Hamilton.
Equally legendary are the cars themselves, including the:
- 1960s M7A
- 1970s M23
- 1980s MP4/2
- 1990s MP4/5
- 2000s MP4-23
- Today’s MCL 60
As the second longest-running team in F1 (surpassed only by Ferrari), McLaren holds twelve Drivers Championships and eight Constructor’s titles.
McLaren Formula 1 Car by Car chronicles every McLaren Formula 1 car in chronological order, featuring an overview of each car’s significant features and evolution, its technical specifications, and its competition record accompanied by historic and contemporary images.
Featuring a Foreword from two-time F1 World Champion Mika Häkkinen,
McLaren Formula 1 Car by Car details the amazing race cars and drivers that have cemented McLaren’s reputation as one of the most dominant manufacturers in F1 history making this book a must-have for every McLaren and F1 fan.
This instalment in Evro’s decade-by-decade series covering all Formula 1 cars and teams is devoted to a period when some normality seemed to return after the ground-effect and turbo excesses of the 1980s, except for one terrible weekend in the spring of 1994. The tragic deaths of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna led to immense change with new emphasis on safety, including measures to slow down the cars and improve their structural strength, and numerous changes to circuits. In many ways Formula 1 became more as we recognise it today, especially as the decade’s dominant teams, McLaren and Williams, remain familiar.
- Year-by-year treatment explores each season in fascinating depth, running through the teams — and their various cars — in order of importance.
- McLaren: success for this team bookended the decade, delivering back-to-back titles for both Ayrton Senna (1990–91 with Honda engines) and Mika Häkkinen (1998–99 with Mercedes engines).
- Williams: as with McLaren, Renault-powered Williams cars brought four World Championship driver titles, for Nigel Mansell (1992), Alain Prost (1993), Damon Hill (1996) and Jacques Villeneuve (1997).
- Benetton: mid-decade, this British-based team won two titles for a sensational new talent, Michael Schumacher, powered by Ford in 1994 and by Renault in 1995.
- Ferrari: the longest-established marque, a participant in the World Championship ever since its inception in 1950, concluded a lean decade on an upbeat — and prescient — note by becoming 1999 Constructors’ Champions, with six Grand Prix wins that year.
- Other winning marques were few and far between, just Ligier (1996), Jordan (1998–99) and Stewart (1999).
- Besides the winning cars, there is always much fascination for fans in unsuccessful and obscure efforts, such as Andrea Moda and Venturi.
This authoritative and comprehensively illustrated book, which contains 475 color photos from the incredible archives of US-owned Motorsport Images, shows every type of car that raced or attempted to qualify for a race, presenting a comprehensive survey.
