F1Fanatic.co.uk

Active years: 1963-present

History

The second-oldest team in Formula 1 today, McLaren was formed by New Zealand racer Bruce McLaren before his death in 1970. Four years later the team won its first world championship with Emerson Fittipaldi, and a second came in 1976 courtesy of James Hunt. But the Teddy Mayer-run outfit fell down the grid before a takeover by Ron Dennis in the early 1980s. The outfit pioneered the carbon fibre chassis and became the dominant force in F1 from 1984 until the early nineties. After splitting with Honda it found a new engine partner in Mercedes and added further championships in 1998 and 1999. More might have followed in 2007 but the team was implicated in a scandal over alleged spying on rivals Ferrari. Given a record fine of $100m the team were thrown out of the constructors’ championship and both Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso lost the drivers’ title at the last round by one point each.

Headquarters

Woking, Surrey, United Kingdom

Major team personnel

Chairman and chief executive: Ron Dennis Chief operating officer: Martin Whitmarsh Managing director: Jonathan Neale Engineering director: Paddy Lowe Chief engineer: Tim Goss Head of aerodynamics: Simon Lacey Mercedes-Benz director of motorsport: Norbert Haug Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines managing director: Ola Kallenius Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines chief engineer: Andy Kowell Previous identities: None

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