McLaren
Nationality - UK
Debut in F1 - 1966
Drivers' Titles - 12
Constructors' Titles - 9
Current Drivers - Kimi
Raikkonen, David
Coulthard
Team History
McLaren made its F1 debut in 1966 at the Monaco GP. In 1968 team
founder Bruce McLaren recorded first points in an excellent season
in which the team accumulated 3 wins and 147 points.
In 1970 Bruce McLaren died whilst in a test race, but the team
continued in strength. 1973 was a strong year and marked McLaren's
true abilities. The team of drivers Peter Revson, Denny Hulme and
Jacky Ickx tallied up 174 points that included 3 wins and another
5 podiums. Building on this success McLaren achieved 10 podiums
(4 wins) and 225 points to take both the Constructor's Title and
the Driver's Title courtesy of Fitipaldi in 1974. Again with 225
points and 10 podiums (6wins) McLaren took the Constructor’s
Title and James Hunt the Driver's Title for McLaren.
However McLaren's performance began to slack after this period.
In fact between 1977 and 1981 the team only recorded a 1 win. In
1984 McLaren’s entered a new partnership with TAG Porsche.
This proved to be a profitable association. Immediately the team
achieved 18 podium places that included 12 wins. As well winning
the Constructor's Title, Niki Lauda won the team the Driver's Title.
The winning streak continued with Alain Prost winning the Driver's
Title with McLaren in 1985 and 1986. McLaren also took the Constructor’s
Title in 1985.
1988 was an outstanding year for McLaren. A new deal was signed
with Honda and Ayrton Senna joined the team. The team won 15 out
of 16 races and took 25 podium positions, and had 15 pole positions.
Ayrton Senna took the Driver's title and the Constructor's Title
was McLaren's again. Prost and Senna continued to rule F1 with McLaren,
with McLaren taking the Constructor’s Title and Driver's Title
in 1989, 1990 and 1991 also.
After this period the Mclaren team joined some indifferent partnerships
with Ford and Peugeot. Though the team continued to challenge positively
in championship the standard was not in league with the competition.
However In 1995 McLaren entered an association with Mercedes, initial
success here too was limited, but by 1997 shortly after David
Coulthard joined Mika Hakkinen the team started to look like
a real threat again. In 1997 the team achieved 7 podium places including
3 wins. Building on this improvement Hakkinen and Coulthard
notched up 20 podium places including 9 wins in 1998 and Hakkinen
went on to take the Driver's Championship. Strong performances from
Hakkinen in 1999 also ensured McLaren the Driver’s title in
1999.
2000-2002 saw McLaren put on good performances but few conversions
to wins or podiums. In 2002 Hakkinen went on sabbatical and Kimi
Raikkonen joined the team. 2003 saw the team increase their
competitiveness and Raikkonen
proved to be a real threat to Ferrari's Schumacher, but finished
in 3rd place overall.
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