When renowned race engineer Adrian Newey joined McLaren F1 team from Williams in 1997, he was unable to influence the design and performance of their then current MP4/12 car, however he was able to work on the 1998 MP4/13 car and it was his ability to adapt to the upcoming new rule changes for that year that made 1998 a very big year for McLaren.
Drivers Mika Häkkinen and David Coulthard were dominant all season with Häkkinen taking out the championship ahead of Michael Schumaker and Coulthard coming third. McLaren also won the Constructors Championship which was the team’s first championship victory since 1991 with Ayrton Senna, and in terms of race wins, the team’s most successful year since 1989.
As good as 1998 was for McLaren, it took 26 years before they were able to regain the F1 Constructors World Championship in 2024 (remarkably having started the previous season at the very back of the grid), and this year with six rounds to spare, won it again for the 10th time marking the team’s first back-to-back Constructors’ Championships since claiming four in a row between 1988 and 1991.
Whilst on years, it was in 1988 as McLaren were about to dominate the F1 world, that Chief Engineer Gordon Murray on a flight home from the Italian Grand Prix drew a sketch of a three-seater sports car and pitched it to then McLaren team Principal Ron Dennis.
He wanted to create the ultimate road car, that would be heavily influenced by the company’s Formula One experience and technology and reflect that skill and knowledge through what we now know as the McLaren F1.
As history now shows, between 1992 and 1998, 106 McLaren F1’s powered by specially built BMW S70/2 V12 engines were manufactured, and the world motoring media loved them, British car magazine ‘Autocar’ wrote “The McLaren F1 is the finest driving machine yet built for the public road. It will be remembered as one of the great events in the history of the car, and it may possibly be the fastest production road car the world will ever see.”
So, in the year that McLaren have again reaffirmed their position at the top of the F1 hierarchy and as the McLaren F1 sports car celebrates it 33rd birthday, it appropriate that McLaren launches its ultimate road car to date, the next-generation McLaren W1 hypercar.
Billed as the fastest-accelerating and fastest-lapping road-legal McLaren ever, only 399 W1’s will be manufactured with all being sold for a price tag of just under $4 million Australian.
John Mahoney from carsales.com.au takes a close look at this amazing car:
2025 McLaren W1 is a 938kW P1 successor – carsales.com.au
The following episode of a ‘One Vision’ series produced by McLaren, features Advanced Aerodynamics Architect Robin Algoo telling the story of how the W1’s ground-breaking aerodynamics were developed.
Just as Gordon Murray wanted the McLaren F1 to showcase the companies rich racing history, this video shows how the W1 takes inspiration from the McLaren MCL38 Formula 1 car by generating most of its downforce from ground-effect.
McLaren W1 ‘One Vision’ Ep.3 – W1 Aerodynamics
Image courtesy McLaren Automotive
