Our heroes, past and present - Button, hamilton and Senna's MP4-4 Whether you call it a warehouse or a treasure trove, our two world champions were awestruck by the extent of history on display when they made their first-ever visit to McLaren’s secret vintage car archive. Among the hundreds of cars kept under wraps, they were stopped in their tracks by Ayrton Senna’s legendary dart-shaped MP4/4 – the most successful Formula 1 car of all time.
"You forget the number of world champions who have raced here." Jenson Button
The Race against ourselves - Senna's greatest ever lap Former McLaren team co-ordinator Jo Ramirez and old friend, veteran F1 journalist Gerald Donaldson, spend a lunchtime in Monaco discussing their memories of old friend Ayrton Senna, the Monaco master whose searing 1988 pole lap remains one of Formula 1’s most thrilling and indelible memories.
The race goes on - The legacy of Bruce McLaren Two true McLaren legends, Tyler Alexander and Gordon Coppuck, reunite to discuss their experience working with the young Bruce McLaren. Tyler helped found the team alongside Bruce and ony retired from McLaren in 2009. Gordon began his career in 1963, and was chief designer from 1971 to 1980, during which he penned the classic M23 chassis.
Success of the soapbox Built from pieces of a damaged F1 GTR chassis, the carbon fibre composite monocoque of the MP4-T5 was completed in the workshops of the Vehicle Development Department at Woking Business Park. The steering wheel, such as it was, was based on the one fitted to the 2001 MP4-16 Formula 1 car driven by Häkkinen and...
Interview with Chris Goodwin, McLaren soapbox racer The first question everyone asks is, how do you fit in such a tiny cockpit? “The answer is, ‘Only just!’ The top canopy comes off, you slot yourself in there, and it was made to measure, so there are only millimetres to spare. You’re fairly hunched up with your knees pushed up, and it&r...
- Goodwood Festival of Speed
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Neil Oatley on MP4/4 “First, some background: I was Alain Prost’s race engineer throughout 1987 and ’88 – the 1989 normally aspirated V10 car was my first McLaren project, so while I worked with the MP4/4, it wasn’t ‘my’ car – it was a project led by Steve Nichols, who’d also helmed &rs...