McLaren: History, Landmark Cars and Racing Titles

McLaren at a glance: key facts

The McLaren catalogue lists every road model on 1cars, from the McLaren F1 to today's cars.

Origins and founder

Bruce McLaren was born in Auckland in 1937 and became a works Cooper driver in Formula 1. In 1963 he founded Bruce McLaren Motor Racing, whose first car was the M1 sports-racer, and the team made its Formula 1 debut in 1965. McLaren cars dominated the North American Can-Am series in the late 1960s. Bruce McLaren was killed in June 1970 at Goodwood while testing the M8D Can-Am car, but his team continued.

History by era

1970s: first world titles

McLaren won its first Constructors' Championship in 1974, when Emerson Fittipaldi also took the Drivers' title. James Hunt followed with the 1976 Drivers' Championship after a famous season-long fight with Niki Lauda.

1980s and early 1990s: the Ron Dennis years

In 1980–81 Ron Dennis merged his Project Four team with McLaren and became team principal. The MP4/1 introduced a carbon-fibre racing monocoque, a technology that later spread to every Formula 1 car and to McLaren's road cars. The Dennis era produced seven Drivers' and six Constructors' titles: Niki Lauda (1984), Alain Prost (1985, 1986, 1989) and Ayrton Senna (1988, 1990, 1991). With Honda engines from 1988 to 1991, McLaren won four consecutive Constructors' titles, and in 1988 it won 15 of 16 races.

1990s: the McLaren F1 and Le Mans

McLaren Cars was founded in 1985, and its first product was the McLaren F1 of 1992, a three-seat road car with a central driving position conceived by Gordon Murray and backed by Ron Dennis. Only 106 were built, and a modified F1 GTR won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1995 at its first attempt. In Formula 1, Mika Häkkinen won the Drivers' titles of 1998 and 1999, with McLaren also taking the 1998 Constructors' crown in its works partnership with Mercedes-Benz (1995–2009).

2000s: SLR and Hamilton

In 1999 McLaren agreed to design and build the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, a front-engined grand tourer with a 5.5-litre supercharged V8, produced in Woking. Further joint projects were cancelled in 2005. On track, Lewis Hamilton won the 2008 Drivers' Championship.

2010 to today: McLaren Automotive and new titles

McLaren Automotive was launched in 2010 as a standalone road-car maker, separate from McLaren Racing. The 12C (originally MP4-12C) arrived in 2011, followed by the hybrid P1 in 2013, the Sports Series (540C, 570S), the 650S, 720S and 750S, the McLaren GT and the Artura plug-in hybrid. In Formula 1, the Mercedes customer engine deal ran from 2010 to 2014; after spells with Honda and Renault power, McLaren returned to Mercedes engines in 2021 under a deal extended to 2030. The team won the Constructors' Championship again in 2024 and 2025, and Lando Norris took the 2025 Drivers' title.

On the road-car side, Mike Flewitt led McLaren Automotive from 2013 to 2021 and Michael Leiters from 2022 to 2025. The 2017 reunion of McLaren Cars and McLaren Automotive followed Ron Dennis's sale of his shares in both companies.

Landmark McLaren road cars

Some of these cars have their own pages: the McLaren P1, the McLaren Senna and the McLaren 720S.

Motorsport, records and engineering firsts

Beyond Formula 1, McLaren cars won the Can-Am championship in its heyday and the 1995 Le Mans 24 Hours. Its customer racing division, McLaren GT, built the 12C GT3 in 2011, then the 650S GT3 and 720S GT3, and today offers the 570S GT4 and Artura GT4. McLaren's best-known technical firsts are the carbon-fibre monocoque in Formula 1 (MP4/1) and the carbon-fibre chassis used in McLaren road cars from the F1 onwards.

Ownership, factories and production today

McLaren Automotive builds its cars at the McLaren Production Centre in Woking, connected by an underground walkway to the McLaren Technology Centre headquarters. Its carbon-fibre chassis come from the McLaren Composites Technology Centre at the Advanced Manufacturing Park in Rotherham, which opened in November 2018. In September 2026 McLaren announced a major new technology investment expected to create 1,000 jobs. On 10 December 2024 CYVN Holdings, owned by the government of Abu Dhabi, bought the automotive business from Bahrain's Mumtalakat, and in April 2025 McLaren merged with the British EV start-up Forseven to form McLaren Group Holdings. Nick Collins became chief executive in May 2025.

McLaren model line-up today

McLaren groups its cars into series: the Artura plug-in hybrid sports car, the 750S supercar, the GTS grand tourer and the Ultimate Series W1 hypercar. McLaren has announced the 788HS as its last car powered only by a combustion engine. More cars of the class are listed among supercars and British cars.

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