McLaren: An Exercise in Perfection? Quiz

Answer: New Zealand

Born in Auckland, New Zealand in 1937, McLaren showed an early interest in all things mechanical and was soon racing and competing in the local Kiwi scene until Jack Brabham noticed his talents and invited him to the United Kingdom to race in Formula 2 in 1958.

After showing promise, he graduated to the Cooper F1 team in 1959 and would win the United States Grand Prix at the end of the 1959 season.

Answer: 1966

With a new formula and rules governing Formula One for the onset of the 1966 Formula One season, McLaren left Cooper and chose to run his own race team. His first Formula One car, the McLaren M2B, was powered by both a Ford V8 engine and a Serenissima V8 engine during the season. McLaren only managed four starts during the season (it was a nine race programme). McLaren managed two points finishes in his first season, with sixth at the British Grand Prix and 5th at the United States Grand Prix.

Answer: British Racing Motors

British Racing Motors, otherwise known as B.R.M, provided both a 2-litre V8 engine and a 3-litre V12 engine for McLaren's use during the 1967 season. However, the season saw little success for the six events that McLaren attended with a fourth place at Monaco the only result of note.

Answer: 4

McLaren was the second driver in Formula One history to take a victory in a car bearing his own name by winning the 1968 Belgian Grand Prix (Jack Brabham was the first). Hulme would win the 1968 Italian and Canadian Grand Prix and finished third overall in the Championship. A further win followed for Hulme at the 1969 Mexican Grand Prix.

Answer: Goodwood

As designer of all cars bearing his own name, it was in Can-Am sportscar racing that McLaren shone brightest during his early years as McLaren cars dominated the Championship from 1967 to 1971; with McLaren winning two titles in 1967 and 1969 (Hulme would win in 1968 and 1970).

But it was during a testing of one of these cars at Goodwood in 1970 that rear bodywork detached from his car at high speed and the loss of downforce caused his car to veer off the circuit. McLaren was killed in the accident at the age of only 32.

Answer: Both Driver and Constructors

After the death of McLaren in 1970 it took time for the McLaren team, now run by Teddy Mayer, to recover. But by 1972 the team was back to winning ways but it was the coup of signing ex-World Champion Emerson Fittipaldi for the 1974 that changed the team's fortunes.

The Brazilian would only win three races during the 1974 season but a host of other podium finishes resulted in his second World Championship. A win for Denny Hulme and decent results for Mike Hailwood in a third car resulted in McLaren winning their first Constructors Championship.

Answer: 6

James Hunt, somewhat affectionately known as 'Hunt the Shunt' for some rather wild antics, had proven his abilities driving for Hesketh by winning the 1975 Dutch Grand Prix. With Hesketh pulling out at the end of 1975, and with Fittipaldi leaving McLaren to join his brother's Copersucar team, the marriage of Hunt and McLaren was a perfect match. Hunt would go on to win the Spanish, French, German, Dutch, Canadian and United States Grand Prix (1975 was a 14 race porgramme).

A third place at the Japanese Grand Prix wrapped up the Drivers Championship. Hunt also 'won' the British Grand Prix but was disqualified two months after the race after a successful protest from Ferrari.

Answer: Patrick Tambay

After their title success in 1976, McLaren persisted with the M26. Hunt managed three wins with the car in 1977, but after only one podium in 1978 he left the team to be replaced by John Watson. McLaren was still using the M26 into 1979 and would actually use five different chassis in 1979 (M26, M28, M28B, M28C, M29) in an effort to return to competitiveness. Patrick Tambay debuted at McLaren in 1978 and enjoyed minor success but 1979 was poor. Tambay managed only five finishes all season, of which none were in the points and also did not qualify for two events.

Answer: Marlboro Project Four

At the coercion of primary sponsor Phillip Morris (who through their Marlboro brand had sponsored McLaren since 1974 and also sponsored the Project Four F2 team) McLaren and Project Four joined forces to build a new-age carbon-fibre monocoque chassis Formula One car in 1981.

The first McLaren MP4 (now called the MP4/1) was used in 1981 with derivatives of this first chassis also used in 1982 and 1983. MP4 originally stood for Marlboro Project Four as it was finances from Marlboro that allowed Project Four to build the carbon-fibre chassis.

Originally Mayer and Dennis split ownership of McLaren but by 1982 Dennis had bought out Mayer and other shareholders.

Answer: TAG

Ron Dennis persuaded Porsche, with funding from Techniques d'Avant Garde (TAG), to return to Formula One in 1983 by providing 1.5 turbocharged engines to his McLaren team. Although the engines block stated 'built by Porsche' it was the considerable investment from TAG that allowed the engine project to begin, therefore the chassis-engine combination would be known for commercial reasons as McLaren-TAG.

Answer: 22

McLaren were utterly dominant in 1984 with Niki Lauda and Alain Prost winning 12 of the 16 races between them. Lauda would win the 1984 Driver Championship by half a point from team-mate Alain Prost with McLaren winning the Constructors Championship. McLaren would win only 6 of 16 races in 1985 with Prost winning 5 and Niki Lauda 1, this time Prost winning the Drivers Championship and the team again the Constructors. For 1986 the Williams team was arguably the stronger team, but Prost still managed 4 victories and won the Drivers Championship at the final race of the season, but McLaren lost out to Williams-Honda for the Constructors title.

Answer: 15

The combination of the McLaren MP4/4, the 1.5-litre turbo Honda and the driving skill of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost resulted in one of the most dominant seasons ever seen. Senna won 8 races to Prosts 7 and Senna would win his first World Championship at the 15th round in Japan. Prost actually scored more points, but due to the points system used at the time, Senna's 8 wins gave him the championship. McLaren wrapped up the Constructors Championship at the 11th round in Belgium. McLaren scored 199 points that was more than triple the points of the next team.

Answer: Peugeot

McLaren-Honda dominated Formula One in 1988-89-90-91 by winning four consecutive Drivers and Constructors Championships. However Honda pulled out of Formula One at the end of 1992 and McLaren had to make do with customer Ford engines. That did not stop Ayrton Senna winning 5 races during 1993 but this was merely a stop-gap measure. Peugeot made their first foray into Formula One for the 1994 season after years in rallying, touring cars and sportscar racing.

The engine proved to be unreliable at times but Mika Hakkinen managed six podiums and Martin Brundle two podiums but there were not wins as McLaren finished fourth in the Constructors Championship.

Answer: 6

Hakkinen made his McLaren debut in 1993 by sensationally out-qualifying Ayrton Senna at the Portuguese Grand Prix and he remained with the team until his retirement at the end of 2001. David Coulthard was hired by McLaren at the beginning of the 1996 season as team-mate to Hakkinen and he would remain with McLaren until the end of the 2004 season.

In the six seasons they were team-mates Hakkinen would win two Drivers Championships (1998, 1999) and McLaren one Constructors Championship (1998). Hakkinen won 20 races and Coulthard won 10 races (of 12 he won in total for McLaren) in six seasons.

Answer: 182

The levels of success McLaren have enjoyed, particularly since the takeover by Ron Dennis in 1981, is staggering. In total McLaren had won 12 Drivers Championships (1974, 1976, 1984-1986, 1988-1991, 1998-99, 1998) and 8 Constructors Championships (1974, 1984-85, 1988-91, 1998).

The team had won a total of 182 races, of which Ayrton Senna had won 35, the most of any driver for McLaren between 1966-2012. McLaren had also taken 155 pole positions and 151 fastest laps.