The 1984 Portuguese Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Estoril on 21 October 1984. It was the sixteenth and final race of the 1984 FIA Formula One World Championship . It was the first World Championship Portuguese Grand Prix since 1960 , when it was held at the Boavista street circuit in Oporto.
125-623: The McLaren MP4/2 was a Formula One car produced by McLaren for the 1984 season . An iteration of it, the MP4/2B , was used in the 1985 season, and a slightly updated version, the MP4/2C , raced in the 1986 season for McLaren. It was closely based on the MP4/1E model that was used as a test car, used in the final races of 1983. The chassis was designed by John Barnard , Steve Nichols , Gordon Kimball , Alan Jenkins , Tim Wright and Bob Bell with
250-494: A "proper disaster" for the team's credibility. 2018 was the first season in McLaren's history when their cars were powered by Renault engines. McLaren also announced that Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne would remain with the team for the 2018 season . On 6 November 2017, the team announced that Lando Norris would be the team's test and reserve driver. At the season-opening Australian Grand Prix , Fernando Alonso scored
375-632: A British racing licence , was based in Feltham , England from 1963 to 1964, and in Colnbrook , England from 1965 until 1981, and it has been based in Woking , England since 1981. Despite this, Bruce never used the traditional British racing green on his cars. Instead, he used colour schemes that were not based on national principles (e.g. his first Formula One car , the McLaren M2B car, raced at
500-472: A chance going into the last race, the Australian Grand Prix . There, a puncture for Mansell and a precautionary pit stop for Piquet gave Prost the race win and his second title, making him the first driver to win back-to-back championships since Jack Brabham in 1959 and 1960. In 1987 Barnard departed for Ferrari to be replaced by Steve Nichols (who himself joined Ferrari in 1989). In
625-725: A corner. Before Barnard relented on setup, the Finn was always quick, but was mostly outshone by his team mate and unfortunately for Rosberg, by the time he was able to set up the MP4/2C to his liking the championship for him was lost. By 1986 the Williams FW11 had overtaken McLaren as the best car; notably, the MP4/2's mileage was not as good as it was in 1984, with the fuel tank reduced in size from 220 litres to 195 litres (the TAG's fuel mileage
750-683: A history in American open wheel racing as both an entrant and a chassis constructor, and has won the Canadian-American Challenge Cup (Can-Am) sports car racing championship. McLaren is one of only three constructors, and the only team, to complete the Triple Crown of Motorsport (wins at the Indianapolis 500 , 24 Hours of Le Mans , and Monaco Grand Prix ). Founded in 1963 by New Zealander Bruce McLaren ,
875-801: A major upturn in form proceeded. Bruce won the Race of Champions at the Brands Hatch circuit and Hulme won the International Trophy at Silverstone , both non-championship races, before Bruce took the team's first championship win at the Belgian Grand Prix . Hulme also won the Italian and Canadian Grands Prix later in the year, helping the team to second in the Constructors' Championship. Using an updated 'C' version on
1000-636: A more regular basis. However, the season started with a massive crash at the Australian Grand Prix in which Fernando Alonso sustained rib fractures and a collapsed lung after colliding with Esteban Gutiérrez and somersaulting into the crash barriers. Alonso, as a result of his injuries, was forced to miss the second round of the Championship, the Bahrain Grand Prix , and was replaced by reserve driver Stoffel Vandoorne . Vandoorne produced an impressive performance in his first race to score
1125-625: A repeat of Mansell's problem and handed the lead to Prost (himself having stopped on lap 30 to replace a puncture). Prost went on to win from Piquet and Ferrari's Stefan Johansson (who would replace Rosberg at McLaren for 1987 ) to secure his second World Championship and become the first driver to win back-to-back championships since Jack Brabham had won in 1959 and 1960 . The MP4/2 won 22 Grands Prix (Prost, 16; Lauda, 6), took 7 pole positions (Prost, 6; Rosberg, 1), and scored 327.5 points throughout its three-year career. It contributed to 2 Constructors' and 3 Drivers' championships, and remains among
1250-582: A season of significant progress compared to 2015, Alonso and Button finished the championship in 10th and 15th places respectively with the team ending the season in sixth place in the Constructors' Championship with 76 points. On 3 September 2016, Jenson Button announced he would take a sabbatical from Formula One for the 2017 season. He then confirmed on 25 November that he would retire from F1 altogether with Vandoorne being Alonso's new Teammate for 2017. In February 2017, McLaren signed Lando Norris to their Young Driver Programme. Alonso did not take part in
1375-517: A season-long battle, winning 15 of the 16 races (at the other race at Monza , Senna had been leading comfortably, but collided with back-marker Jean-Louis Schlesser ). At the Portuguese Grand Prix , their relationship soured when Senna squeezed Prost against the pit wall; Prost won, but afterwards said, "It was dangerous. If he wants the world championship that badly he can have it." Prost scored more points that year, but because only
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#17327930932171500-484: A season. The year 2003 started promisingly, with one win each for Coulthard and Räikkönen at the first two Grands Prix. However, they were hampered when the MP4-18 car designed for that year suffered crash test and reliability problems, forcing them to continue using a 'D' development of the year-old MP4-17 for longer than they had initially planned. Despite this, Räikkönen scored points consistently and challenged for
1625-461: A second-place each for Hulme and Bruce in the first two Grands Prix, but in June, Bruce was killed in a crash at Goodwood while testing the new M8D Can-Am car. After his death, Teddy Mayer took over effective control of the team; Hulme continued with Dan Gurney and Peter Gethin partnering him. Gurney won the first two Can-Am events at Mosport and St. Jovite and placed ninth in the third, but left
1750-702: A three-race suspended ban for misleading stewards at the Australian and Malaysian Grands Prix. Despite these early problems, a late revival had Hamilton win at the Hungarian and Singapore Grands Prix. For the 2010 season , McLaren lost its status as the Mercedes works team; Mercedes decided to buy the Brackley-based Brawn team that had won the 2009 titles with its customer engines, Whitmarsh having chosen to abandon their exclusive rights to
1875-400: A total of 13 world championships between them, and the three drivers on the podium were all (at least) triple World Champions from different eras – Lauda, approaching the end of his long and distinguished F1 career, Prost, enjoying the best years of his career, and Ayrton Senna , still at the dawn of his. After running a strong second behind Prost for most of the race, Mansell's spin on lap 52
2000-453: A tyre failure on lap 62 (he later admitted he would not have won anyway as if it was needed he planned to give best to Prost in his attempt to win his second championship). Just one lap later on the same piece of road, Mansell suffered the same, but a much more spectacular tyre failure at some 180 mph (290 km/h) on the high-speed Brabham Straight which ended his race. Piquet, who had inherited Rosberg's lead then pitted for tyres to avoid
2125-595: Is a British motor racing team based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking , Surrey, England. The team is a subsidiary of the McLaren Group , which owns a majority of the team. McLaren is best known as a Formula One chassis constructor , the second-oldest active team and the second-most successful Formula One team after Ferrari , having won 188 races, 12 Drivers' Championships , and eight Constructors' Championships . McLaren also has
2250-484: Is not usually too much of a problem. The car has been better than ever this year, but for sure the engine program is six months behind. That has certainly been our major problem this year, shortage of power. Our engine will not accept a lot of turbo boost. Later in the 1980s, Prost's former Renault team mate of 1983 Eddie Cheever confirmed the view of the other drivers when he said that they often had no need to worry about Prost during qualifying, unless he happened to be on
2375-457: Is using Mercedes-Benz engines from the 2021 season until at least 2030. After initially returning to the Indianapolis 500 in 2017 as a backer of Andretti Autosport to run Fernando Alonso and then in 2019 as an independent entry, McLaren announced in August 2019 that they would run in conjunction with Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports starting in 2020 to run the full IndyCar Series ,
2500-690: The 1964 series , but Mayer was killed in practice for the final race at the Longford Circuit in Tasmania . When Bruce McLaren approached Teddy Mayer to help him with the purchase of the Zerex sports car from Roger Penske, Teddy Mayer and Bruce McLaren began discussing a business partnership resulting in Teddy Mayer buying in to Bruce McLaren Motor Racing Limited (BMMR) and ultimately becoming its largest shareholder. The team, competing under
2625-688: The 1966 Monaco Grand Prix , was painted white with a green stripe, to represent a fictional Yamura team in John Frankenheimer 's film Grand Prix ). During this period, Bruce drove for his team in sports car races in the United Kingdom and North America and also entered the 1965 Tasman Series with Phil Hill , but did not win it. He continued to drive in Grands Prix for Cooper, but judging that team's form to be waning, decided to race his own cars in 1966. Bruce McLaren made
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#17327930932172750-483: The 1985 Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort where he finished only 0.232 seconds in front of Prost. Lauda's win in the Netherlands also showed that McLaren had no team orders as to who should finish in front, just that they should not take each other out of the race. This was despite the fact that a win would have been more beneficial to Prost's championship challenge. Going into the race Prost and Alboreto were tied at
2875-511: The 1993 season. Senna—who initially agreed only to a race-by-race contract before later signing for the whole year —won five races, including a record-breaking sixth victory at Monaco and a win at the European Grand Prix , where he went from fifth to first on the opening lap. His teammate, 1991 CART champion Michael Andretti , fared much worse; he scored only seven points, and was replaced by test driver Mika Häkkinen for
3000-479: The 1995 season, the MP4/10 , was not a front-runner and Brundle's replacement, former champion Nigel Mansell , was unable to fit into the car at first and departed after just two races, with Mark Blundell taking his place. While Williams dominated in 1996 , McLaren, now with David Coulthard alongside Häkkinen, went a third successive season without a win. In 1997 , however, Coulthard broke this run by winning
3125-530: The 2017 Monaco Grand Prix as he was participating in the Indianapolis 500 . Instead Jenson Button returned for the one race as his replacement. McLaren finished 2017 9th with 30 points in total. McLaren announced during the 2017 Singapore Grand Prix weekend that they would split from engine supplier Honda at the end of the 2017 season and had agreed on a three-year customer deal to be supplied with Mecachrome -assembled Renault engines. Team boss Éric Boullier described their performance between 2015 and 2017 as
3250-659: The 2020 season. The season was significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The season was shortened to 18 races, with the season opener to take place in Austria . At the Austrian Grand Prix , Norris achieved his first ever podium, finishing in third. Sainz achieved the team's second podium in 2020 at the Italian Grand Prix , where he finished second. The team finished the 2020 season third in
3375-614: The Argentinian season-opener; Fittipaldi, with wins in Brazil , Belgium and Canada , took the Drivers' Championship. It was a close fight for Fittipaldi, who secured the title with a fourth at the season-ending United States Grand Prix , putting him three points ahead of Ferrari's Clay Regazzoni . With Hulme and multiple motorcycle world champion Mike Hailwood , he also sealed McLaren's first Constructors' Championship. The year 1975
3500-639: The Benetton team), Ferrari pushed the British team more closely in 1990 . McLaren, in turn, brought in Ferrari's Gerhard Berger , but like the two seasons before, the Drivers' Championship was led by Prost and Senna and settled at the penultimate race in Japan . Here, Senna collided with Prost at the first corner, forcing both to retire, but this time Senna escaped punishment and took the title; McLaren also won
3625-840: The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in February, Alonso suffered a concussion and, as a result, Kevin Magnussen replaced him for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in March. At that inaugural race of the season, Jenson Button finished 11th, but was lapped twice and finished last of the finishing cars. Following considerable unreliability and initial suggestions that the Honda engine was underpowered relative to its competitors, steady performance gains eventually resulted in Button managing to score
3750-521: The Luxembourg and Japanese Grands Prix gave both him the Drivers' Championship and McLaren the Constructors' Championship. Häkkinen won his second Drivers' Championship the following season , but due to a combination of driver errors and mechanical failures, the team lost the constructors' title to Ferrari. In 2000 McLaren won seven races in a close fight with Ferrari, but ultimately Ferrari and Schumacher prevailed in both competitions. This marked
3875-615: The MP4-29 , which was revealed on 24 January 2014. They had a largely unsuccessful 2014; their best result was in Australia where – after Daniel Ricciardo 's disqualification from second place – Magnussen finished second and Button third. Button subsequently finished fourth in Canada , Britain , and Russia . Their highest grid position was in Britain with Button's third place on
McLaren MP4/2 - Misplaced Pages Continue
4000-612: The MP4/9 was driven by Häkkinen and Martin Brundle , despite achieving eight podiums over the season no wins were achieved. Peugeot was dropped after a single year due to multiple engine failures/unreliability which cost McLaren potential race victories and they switched to a Mercedes-Benz -branded, Ilmor -designed engine. For 1995 season onwards, McLaren ended their engine deal with Peugeot Sport and started an engine full-works partnership with Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines for
4125-563: The Russian Grand Prix . At the following United States Grand Prix , Button scored his best result of the season with sixth place. The team finished ninth in the constructors' standings with 27 points, McLaren's worst performance since 1980. McLaren retained the Alonso - Button pairing for the 2016 season. The second year of the Honda partnership was better than the first, with the team being able to challenge for top 10 positions on
4250-588: The Williams team were resurgent with their Honda engine and drivers Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet , while at McLaren, Lauda's replacement, 1982 champion Keke Rosberg could not gel with the car. Williams took the Constructors' Championship, but for Prost, wins in San Marino , Monaco , and Austria combined with the fact that the Williams drivers were taking points from each other meant that he retained
4375-523: The carbon-fibre rear wings of the BMW M1 race cars that Project Four was preparing, had ideas for an innovative Formula One chassis constructed from carbon-fibre instead of conventional aluminium alloy . On their own, they lacked the money to build it, but with investment that came with the merger it became the McLaren MP4 (later called MP4/1) of 1981 , driven by Watson and Andrea de Cesaris . In
4500-503: The Österreichring , where all 3 variations of the MP4/2 won in successive years ( 1984 , 1985 and 1986 ), beginning with Lauda's only ever win in his home Grand Prix in 1984 cheered on by thousands of his countrymen and women. McLaren comfortably won the constructors' championship from Ferrari with a score of 143.5 to just 57.5 from the Prancing Horse. Although the MP4/2 was not the fastest car in qualifying (since they were
4625-533: The 3.0-litre naturally aspirated engines that had been standard since 1966. Having seen in 1982 the need for a turbo engine of their own, Dennis had convinced Williams backer Techniques d'Avant Garde (TAG) to fund Porsche -built, TAG-branded turbo engines made to Barnard's specifications; TAG's founder Mansour Ojjeh would later become a McLaren shareholder. In the meantime, they continued with Cosworth engines as old rival Lauda came out of retirement in 1982 to drive alongside Watson in that year's 1B development of
4750-730: The British Formula One team Cooper with whom he had won three Grands Prix and come second in the 1960 World Championship. Wanting to compete in the Australasian Tasman Series , Bruce approached his employers, but when team owner Charles Cooper insisted on using 1.5-litre Formula One-specification engines instead of the 2.5-litre motors permitted by the Tasman rules, Bruce decided to set up his own team to run him and his prospective Formula One teammate Timmy Mayer with custom-built Cooper cars. Bruce won
4875-404: The Constructors' Championship, their worst ranking since 1983. Coulthard left for Red Bull Racing in 2005 to be replaced by former CART champion Juan Pablo Montoya for what was McLaren's most successful season in several years as he and Räikkönen won ten races. However, both the team not being able to work out why the car could not heat its tyres properly in the early stages of the season and
5000-526: The Constructors' Championship. The 1991 year was another for McLaren and Senna, with the ascendant Renault-powered Williams team their closest challengers. By 1992 , Williams, with their advanced FW14B car, had overtaken McLaren, breaking their four-year run as champions, despite the latter winning five races that year. As Honda withdrew from the sport at end of 1992, McLaren sought a new engine supplier. A deal to secure Renault engines fell through, subsequently McLaren switched to customer Ford engines for
5125-587: The Drivers' Championship for much of the year, but tensions arose within the team, BBC Sport claimed that Alonso was unable to cope with Hamilton's competitiveness. At the Hungarian Grand Prix , Alonso was judged to have deliberately impeded his teammate during qualifying, so the team were not allowed to score Constructors' points at the event. An internal agreement within the McLaren team stated that drivers would alternatively have an extra lap for qualifying, however, Lewis Hamilton refused to accept for
McLaren MP4/2 - Misplaced Pages Continue
5250-540: The Drivers' Championship heading into the final race in Brazil , Räikkönen in the Ferrari won the race and the Drivers' Championship, a single point ahead of both McLaren drivers. In November, Alonso and McLaren agreed to terminate their contract by mutual consent, Heikki Kovalainen filling the vacant seat alongside Hamilton. In 2008 , a close fight ensued between Hamilton and the Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Räikkönen; Hamilton won five times and despite also crossing
5375-662: The Drivers' Championship in 1974 and 1976 respectively. The year 1974 also marked the start of a long-standing sponsorship by the Marlboro cigarette brand. In 1981, McLaren merged with Ron Dennis ' Project Four Racing ; Dennis took over as team principal, and shortly afterwards organised a buyout of the original McLaren shareholders to take full control of the team. This began the team's most successful era; with Porsche and Honda engines, Niki Lauda , Alain Prost , and Ayrton Senna won seven Drivers' Championships between them and
5500-430: The Honda's, but their Ferrari F1/86 was uncompetitive on all but the smoothest of tracks and was generally not a threat. Prost won his second championship in dramatic circumstances at the season ending Australian Grand Prix . Going into the race, Prost trailed Mansell by 7 points with Piquet a further 2 behind Prost. Rosberg, in his last ever F1 Grand Prix, cleared out early and built up a 30-second lead before suffering
5625-649: The Hungarian Grand Prix. Subsequently, the McLaren team was investigated by the FIA for having proprietary technical blueprints of Ferrari's car – the so-called "Spygate" controversy . At the first hearing, McLaren management consistently denied all knowledge, blaming a single "rogue engineer". However, in the final hearing, McLaren was found guilty and the team was excluded from the Constructors' Championship and fined $ 100 million. The drivers were allowed to continue without penalty, and while Hamilton led
5750-464: The Lauda and Ferrari combination proved too strong, Hunt and McLaren managing just fifth and third in the respective championships. From there, results continued to worsen. Lotus and Mario Andretti took the 1978 titles with their 78 and 79 ground-effect cars and neither Hunt nor Mass's replacement Patrick Tambay were able to seriously challenge with the nonground-effect M26. Hunt was dropped at
5875-718: The M7, a further three podium finishes followed for Bruce in 1969 , but the team's fifth win had to wait until the last race of the 1969 championship when Hulme won the Mexican Grand Prix . That year, McLaren experimented with four-wheel drive in the M9A , but the car had only a single outing driven by Derek Bell at the British Grand Prix ; Bruce described driving it as like "trying to write your signature with somebody jogging your elbow". The year 1970 started with
6000-571: The MP4, Watson won the British Grand Prix and had three other podium finishes. Soon after the merger, McLaren moved from Colnbrook to a new base in Woking and Dennis and Mayer initially shared the managing directorship of the company; by 1982, Mayer had departed and Tyler Alexander's and his shareholdings had been bought by the new owners. In the early 1980s, teams like Renault , Ferrari and Brabham were using 1.5-litre turbocharged engines in favour of
6125-670: The MP4. They each won two races, Watson notably from 17th place on the grid in Detroit , and at one stage of the season McLaren were second in the constructors' championship. As part of a dispute with FISA , they boycotted the San Marino Grand Prix . Although 1983 was not so fruitful, Watson did win again in the United States, this time from 22nd on the grid at Long Beach . Having been fired by Renault, Prost returned to McLaren once again for 1984 . Now using
6250-451: The McLaren cars managed only eighth place (Hamilton) and 10th place (Button), while the drivers' and Constructors' Championships were being dominated by Red Bull Racing and Ferrari, whose cars occupied the first four places of the British Grand Prix , this was partially due to pit stop problems and Button's temporary dip in form after not adapting as well as Hamilton to the new Pirelli tyres. The car also suffered reliability problems which cost
6375-410: The McLaren's evaporated as Lauda won and de Angelis suffered gearbox failure on lap 14. The race at Monza was also Prost's shortest of the year, ending after just three laps with a blown TAG engine. For 1985, the MP4/2 was updated with cleaner aerodynamics and redesigned wings (to comply with new regulations which banned the "winglets" on the rear wings of the cars which had been in use since 1983) and
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#17327930932176500-668: The Mercedes engines to help Brawn run. Mercedes still continued providing engines to McLaren, albeit under a supplier-customer relationship rather than the works partnership as before, while it sold its 40% shares of McLaren over two years. McLaren signed 2009 champion, Jenson Button , to replace Kovalainen alongside Hamilton in 2010 . Button won twice (in Australia and China ) and Hamilton three times (in Turkey , Canada , and Belgium ), but they and McLaren failed to win their respective championships, that year's MP4-25 largely outpaced by Red Bull's RB6 . Hamilton and Button remained with
6625-401: The TAG engines, the team dominated, scoring 12 wins and 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 times as many constructors' points as nearest rival Ferrari. In the Drivers' Championship, Lauda prevailed over Prost by half a point, the narrowest margin ever. The McLaren-TAGs were again strong in 1985 ; a third Constructors' Championship came their way while this time Prost won the Drivers' Championship. In 1986 ,
6750-489: The allowed 220 litres and the driving skill of Lauda and Prost saw the MP4/2 score 12 wins in 1984, at the time the highest number of wins in a season by a single team. Lauda beat Prost to the championship by just half a point in the final race, even though Prost had 7 wins to Lauda's 5 (at the final round in Portugal , Prost needed to win and have Lauda finish 3rd or worse to take the title. Lauda finished second). This remains
6875-526: The best 11 results counted, Senna took the title at the penultimate race in Japan . The next year, with turbos banned, Honda supplied a new 3.5-L naturally aspirated V10 engine and McLaren again won both titles with the MP4/5 . Their drivers' relationship continued to deteriorate, though, especially when, at the San Marino Grand Prix , Prost felt that Senna had reneged on an agreement not to pass each other at
7000-527: The best constructor behind Mercedes, Ferrari, and Red Bull. At the Brazilian Grand Prix , Sainz recorded the team's first podium since the 2014 Australian Grand Prix , finishing fourth on the road but later promoted to third after Lewis Hamilton received a post-race penalty, meaning that the team missed out on the official podium ceremony. McLaren ended the season in 4th place with 145 points, their best result since 2014 and 54 points ahead of their nearest competitor, Renault. McLaren retained Norris and Sainz for
7125-460: The best driver in Formula One and just needed a fast and reliable car to prove it. Lauda, the 1975 and 1977 World Champion, had proven in the Cosworth engined car that he was still a winner and was always a danger, despite openly admitting that he often made the races harder for himself by being a poor qualifier (Lauda's average qualifying position in 1984 was eighth, Prost's was third with the Austrian never out-qualifying his team mate). The MP4/2
7250-445: The best result being a fourth at Monaco . For 1968 , after driving McLaren's sole entry for the previous two years, Bruce was joined by 1967 champion and fellow New Zealander Denny Hulme , who was already racing for McLaren in Can-Am . That year's new M7A car, Herd's final design for the team, was powered by Cosworth 's new and soon to be ubiquitous DFV engine (the DFV would go on to be used by McLaren until 1983) and with it
7375-532: The car being powered by a TAG - Porsche engine, designed by Hans Mezger at Porsche. Like most of its major competitors (other than the Williams FW09 ), the car used an all carbon fibre chassis pioneered by the car's designer John Barnard with its predecessor, the MP4/1. The car was powered by a 1.5 Litre, 90° V6 TAG - Porsche turbo engine that produced 650 bhp (485 kW; 659 PS) in race set-up and up to 800 bhp (597 kW; 811 PS) in qualifying set-up i.e. with maximum turbo pressure. It
7500-402: The championship up to the final race, eventually losing by two points. The team began 2004 with the MP4-19 , which technical director Adrian Newey described as "a debugged version of [the MP4-18]". It was not a success, though, and was replaced mid-season by the MP4-19B. With this, Räikkönen scored the team's and his only win of the year at the Belgian Grand Prix , as McLaren finished fifth in
7625-399: The claims). Prost and Lauda proved to be a formidable combination and gave McLaren what many considered to be the strongest driver line up of the season. Both were excellent development drivers, and both gave technical feedback on the car and the engine which pushed the car's development far further than the other teams. Prost, who before 1984 had won nine races for Renault, was considered to be
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#17327930932177750-528: The closest finish to a championship in Formula One history. Often the MP4/2s were the only cars to finish on the same lap, such was their domination. The MP4/2 and both its updated successors were very aerodynamically efficient cars and had excellent rear-end traction, and as a result they clearly handled the best in long, high speed corners- their superiority was more obvious on high-speed circuits made up of these long, fast corners, such as Jacarepagua, Dijon, Silverstone, Zandvoort, Spa and Kyalami, and particularly
7875-404: The combined entry being named Arrow McLaren SP . Initially having no ownership interest in the team, McLaren would purchase 75% of the operation in 2021. McLaren entered the electric off-road racing series Extreme E in 2022 , and also joined Formula E in the 2022–23 season . Bruce McLaren Motor Racing was founded in 1963 by New Zealander Bruce McLaren . Bruce was a works driver for
8000-409: The comments were made for Round 2 of the championship in South Africa where Lauda and Prost scored the first of four 1-2 finishes for the year and had lapped the entire field, a feat even more remarkable since Prost was forced to start from the pit lane, it proved to be an accurate summary for McLaren's season long dominance. It was lucky that both McLarens actually started the race at Kyalami . This
8125-419: The constructors' championship with 202 points. Sainz finished the driver's championship in sixth with 105 points and Norris in ninth with 97 points. 1984 Portuguese Grand Prix Niki Lauda needed second place to secure the title, and gained it when Nigel Mansell spun out with 18 laps to go. As a result, he took the title by just half a point from team-mate Alain Prost . The point-scoring drivers won
8250-399: The design of both McLaren's Formula One M19 and Indianapolis M16 cars (itself inspired by Lotus 's 72 ), it was a mainstay for four years. Hulme won with it in Sweden and Revson took the only Grand Prix wins of his career in Britain and Canada . In 1974 , Emerson Fittipaldi , world champion with Lotus two years earlier, joined McLaren. Hulme, in his final Formula One campaign, won
8375-411: The end of 1978 in favour of Lotus's Ronnie Peterson , but when Peterson was killed by a crash at the Italian Grand Prix , John Watson was signed, instead. No improvement occurred in 1979 ; Coppuck's M28 design was described by Mayer as "ghastly, a disaster" and "quite diabolical" and the M29 did little to change the situation. Tambay scored no points and Watson only 15 to place the team eighth at
8500-406: The end of 2013, after the team's worst season since 2004, Whitmarsh was ousted. McLaren announced in 2013 that they would be using Honda engines from 2015 onwards, replacing Mercedes-Benz. The team raced as McLaren Honda for the first time since 1992 at the 2015 Australian Grand Prix . In September 2017, McLaren announced they had agreed on an engine supply with Renault from 2018 to 2020. McLaren
8625-444: The end of the year. The 1980s started much as the 1970s had ended: Alain Prost took over from Tambay but Watson and he rarely scored points. Under increasing pressure since the previous year from principal sponsor Philip Morris and their executive John Hogan, Mayer was coerced into merging McLaren with Ron Dennis 's Project Four Formula Two team, also sponsored by Philip Morris. Dennis had designer John Barnard who, inspired by
8750-404: The final lap of the race. Despite winning his first Grand Prix in Hungary , Kovalainen finished the season only seventh in the overall standings, allowing Ferrari to take the constructors' title. Before the start of the 2009 season, Dennis retired as team principal, handing responsibility to Martin Whitmarsh , but the year started badly: the MP4-24 car was off the pace and the team was given
8875-446: The final race of the 1983 season in South Africa , Lauda proved the car was competitive, running at the front of the field and challenging for the lead of the race. He was running second with only six laps remaining, but his race ended with electrical failure on lap 71 of the Kyalami circuit. Lauda was joined for 1984 by Alain Prost , who had narrowly lost the 1983 championship to Brabham 's Nelson Piquet by just two points. Prost
9000-508: The final three rounds of the season. Williams ultimately won both titles and Senna—who had flirted with moving there for 1993—signed with them for the 1994 season. During the 1993 season McLaren took part in a seven part BBC Television documentary called A Season With McLaren . McLaren tested a Lamborghini V12 engine ahead of the 1994 season, as part of a potential deal with the then-Lamborghini owner Chrysler , before eventually deciding to use Peugeot engines. With Peugeot power,
9125-565: The finale in Japan . Here it rained torrentially, Lauda retired because of safety concerns, and Hunt sealed the Drivers' Championship by finishing third. McLaren, though, lost the Constructors' Championship to Ferrari. In 1977 , the M23 was gradually replaced with the M26 , the M23's final works outing being Gilles Villeneuve 's Formula One debut with the team in a one-off appearance at the British Grand Prix . Hunt won on three occasions that year, but
9250-470: The finish line first at the Belgian Grand Prix , he was deemed to have gained an illegal advantage by cutting a chicane during an overtake and was controversially demoted to third. Going into the final race in Brazil , Hamilton had a seven-point lead over Massa. Massa won there, but Hamilton dramatically clinched his first Drivers' Championship by moving into the necessary fifth position at the final corner of
9375-530: The first corner. Believing that Honda and Dennis were favouring Senna, Prost announced mid-season that he would leave to drive at Ferrari the following year. For the second year in succession, the Drivers' Championship was decided at the Japanese Grand Prix , this time in Prost's favour after Senna and he collided (Senna initially recovered and won the race, but was later disqualified). With former McLaren men Nichols and Prost (Barnard had moved to
9500-547: The first time in a decade. Montoya parted company acrimoniously with the team to race in NASCAR after the United States Grand Prix , where he crashed into Räikkönen at the start; test driver Pedro de la Rosa deputised for the remainder of the season. The team also lost Räikkönen to Ferrari at the end of the year. Steve Matchett argued that the poor reliability of McLaren in 2006 and recent previous years
9625-557: The first time, after the German manufacturer spent one year in partnership with the Sauber team. The partnership included free engines from Mercedes-Benz that built and assembled by Ilmor Engineering , Mercedes-Benz official team vehicles, financial support, also earned full-factory support from Daimler AG and Mercedes-Benz and also Mercedes-Benz and Ilmor staff would work with the team at their Woking base. McLaren's Formula One car for
9750-668: The flag. During 1984, both McLarens failed to finish a race only on two occasions in Belgium and Dallas, while recording four 1-2 finishes in South Africa, Germany , Holland and Portugal. McLaren wrapped up the Constructors' title in Round 13 with their 1-2 at Zandvoort , while the Drivers' title became a two horse race following the next race in Italy as the mathematical chance that Lotus -Renault driver Elio de Angelis had to upset
9875-574: The grid. For 2015 , McLaren ended their engine deal with Mercedes which included buying back the 40% stake that Mercedes held in the team and reforging their historical partnership with Honda. The Honda deal not only meant they would supply engines, but that Honda staff would work with the team at their Woking base as well as received full-factory support from Honda including official team vehicles and free engines. The team announced Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button as their race drivers, with Kevin Magnussen demoted to test driver. During pre-season testing at
10000-553: The hands of Prost and Stefan Johansson , though, Nichols's MP4/3 and the TAG engine could not match the Williams-Honda. For 1988 , Honda switched their supply to McLaren and, encouraged by Prost, Dennis signed Ayrton Senna to drive. Despite regulations reducing the boost pressure and fuel capacity (and therefore, power) of the turbo cars, Honda persisted with a turbocharged engine. In the MP4/4 , Senna and Prost engaged in
10125-429: The last two championships by only 2 and ½ a point respectively, did not want to risk losing for a third time). McLaren claimed their second successive constructors' championship, scoring 90 points to Ferrari's 82, with Williams - Honda and Lotus -Renault tied on 71 points, though Williams won four races to Lotus' three. Lauda retired from F1 at the end of the season, but not before adding a final victory to his tally in
10250-425: The morning warm-up he would be the fastest more often than not. The MP4/2 was little changed in 1986, with the exclusion of some tweaking in aerodynamics which saw it dubbed the "MP4/2C", while Prost was joined by Finn Keke Rosberg , the 1982 World Champion when driving for Williams. Rosberg was expected to not only be faster than Prost, but also to push for Prost's championship. However, the Finn's style of driving
10375-632: The most successful chassis in F1 history. Prost's MP4/2C was driven at the 2010 Goodwood Festival of Speed by 2009 World Champion Jenson Button who had joined McLaren in 2010 . At the 1986 Portuguese Grand Prix , Rosberg's MP4/2C were painted with yellow Marlboro logo to promote the Marlboro Lights. ( key ) (results in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap) McLaren (racing) McLaren Racing Limited ( / m ə ˈ k l ær ə n / mə- KLARR -ən )
10500-631: The only top team not using special engines for qualifying) — often beaten by the Brabham BT53 - BMW turbo of Piquet who scored 9 pole positions for the season — it was the most reliable and most consistent, attributes which helped it be so successful throughout its career. Only twice during the season were the McLarens outclassed on pure pace. These were Michele Alboreto 's win for Ferrari in Belgium at Zolder , and Piquet's first win (and points) of
10625-461: The overall unreliability of the MP4-20 cost several race victories when Räikkönen had been leading or in contention to win and also costing him grid positions in some qualifying sessions, which allowed Renault and their driver Fernando Alonso to capitalise and win both titles. In 2006 , the superior reliability and speed of the Ferraris and Renaults prevented the team from gaining any victories for
10750-443: The pole. The time to start worrying about him was at the end of the race morning warm up when the name A. Prost would be at or near the top of the timesheet with a time closer to his qualifying time than most of the grid. Then the others knew what they feared, Prost had qualified with a good race set up. Often he would be some two or three seconds off the pace in qualifying due to the TAG engine having less power than its rivals, but come
10875-672: The season with a sixth-place after qualifying third in a wet/dry session. After a disappointing display at their home race, the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, the team scored points at the next three rounds with six points in Hungary, four in Germany, and six points again thanks to an impressive seventh-place finish from Alonso at the Belgian Grand Prix . At the United States Grand Prix , McLaren matched their Monaco result with 12 points after an attacking race from Alonso saw him claim fifth position while Button once again finished ninth. After
11000-412: The season, Hamilton was involved in several incidents with other drivers including – most notably – multiple collisions with 2008 title rival Massa. In 2012 , McLaren won the first race of the year in Australia with a dominant victory by Button and a 3rd place from pole for Hamilton, while Hamilton went on to win in Canada , but by the mid-way mark of the season at the team's home race at Silverstone,
11125-447: The season, until McLaren's greater reliability and their superiority in the high-speed circuits that followed told in both championships. Prost won his first championship with 5 wins and wrapped up the title with two rounds still to run by finishing a calculated 4th in the European Grand Prix at Brands Hatch (Prost admitted that he did not like 'driving for points' like he had at Brands and the previous race in Belgium , but after losing
11250-457: The season-opening Australian Grand Prix ; Häkkinen and he would each win another race before the end of the season, and highly rated designer Adrian Newey joined the team from Williams in August that year. Despite the car's improved pace, unreliability proved costly throughout the season, with retirements at the British and Luxembourg Grands Prix occurring whilst Häkkinen was in the lead. It
11375-422: The second-worst average qualifying ranking of any team, only ahead of Williams . The team finished the disappointing season – after being helped by the exclusion of Force India 's points from the first 12 races – in 6th place with 62 points, 357 points behind their target, Red Bull Racing, with the same engine. The 2019 season was much more positive for McLaren, with the team securely establishing themselves as
11500-469: The spare car which would have left Prost a non-starter as his own MP4/2 suffered a mechanical fuel pump failure as the grid went away on their final warm up lap. Prost was able to start in the spare from the pit lane (hurriedly converted to his settings as it had been Lauda's for the weekend) and put in one of his trademark drives to be the only other driver to finish on the lead lap with his team mate, though he started his last lap only seconds before Lauda took
11625-480: The sport, McLaren were once again able to challenge for the championship. Häkkinen and Coulthard won five of the first six races despite the banning of the team's "brake steer" system, which allowed the rear brakes to be operated individually to reduce understeer , after a protest by Ferrari at the second race in Brazil . Schumacher and Ferrari provided the greatest competition, the former levelled on points with Häkkinen with two races to go, but wins for Häkkinen at
11750-546: The start of a decline in form as Ferrari cemented their dominance of Formula One and also beryllium engine material banned in Formula One that affected Mercedes engine performance. In 2001 , Häkkinen was outscored by Coulthard for the first time since 1997 and retired (ending Formula One's longest ever driver partnership), his place taken by Kimi Räikkönen , then in 2002 , Coulthard took their solitary win at Monaco while Ferrari repeated McLaren's 1988 feat of 15 wins in
11875-563: The team and its drivers numerous potential points, most notably in Singapore and Abu Dhabi , where Hamilton had been leading from the front in both races and in Italy where the team lost a 1-2 finish when Button's car failed with fuel problems on lap 33. Sergio Pérez replaced Hamilton for 2013 , after Hamilton decided to leave for Mercedes . The team's car for the season, the MP4-28 ,
12000-472: The team finishing third in the Constructors' Championship. McLaren gave Jody Scheckter his Formula One debut at the final race at Watkins Glen . All McLaren drivers used the Ford-Cosworth engines, except for Andrea de Adamich and Nanni Galli who used engines from Alfa Romeo in 1970. The McLaren M23 , designed by Gordon Coppuck, was the team's new car for the 1973 season. Sharing parts of
12125-434: The team into 2011 , with Hamilton winning three races – China , Germany , and Abu Dhabi and Button also winning three races – Canada , Hungary , and Japan . Button finished the Drivers' Championship in second place with 270 points behind 2011 Drivers' Champion Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing, ahead of Hamilton's 227 points. McLaren was second in the Constructors' Championship to Red Bull Racing. Throughout
12250-522: The team mid-season, and Gethin took over from there. While 1971 began promisingly when Hulme led the opening round in South Africa before retiring with broken suspension, ultimately Hulme, Gethin (who left for BRM mid-season, ) and Jackie Oliver again failed to score a win. The 1972 season saw improvements though: Hulme won the team's first Grand Prix for 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 years in South Africa and he and Peter Revson scored ten other podiums,
12375-458: The team took six Constructors' Championships. The combination of Prost and Senna was particularly dominant—together they won all but one race in 1988 —but later their rivalry soured and Prost left for Ferrari. Fellow English team Williams offered the most consistent challenge during this period, the two winning every constructors' title between 1984 and 1994 . By the mid-1990s, Honda had withdrawn from Formula One, Senna had moved to Williams, and
12500-521: The team went three seasons without a win. With Mercedes-Benz engines, West sponsorship, and former Williams designer Adrian Newey , further championships came in 1998 and 1999 with driver Mika Häkkinen , and during the 2000s the team were consistent front-runners, with driver Lewis Hamilton taking their latest title in 2008 . Ron Dennis retired as McLaren team principal in 2009, handing over to long-time McLaren employee Martin Whitmarsh . At
12625-576: The team won its first Grand Prix at the 1968 Belgian Grand Prix , but their greatest initial success was in Can-Am, which they dominated from 1967 to 1971. Further American triumph followed, with Indianapolis 500 wins in McLaren cars for Mark Donohue in 1972 and Johnny Rutherford in 1974 and 1976 . After Bruce McLaren died in a testing accident in 1970, Teddy Mayer took over and led the team to their first Formula One Constructors' Championship in 1974 , with Emerson Fittipaldi and James Hunt winning
12750-504: The team's Grand Prix debut at the 1966 Monaco race (of the current Formula One teams, only Ferrari is older ). His race ended after nine laps due to a terminal oil leak. The 1966 car was the M2B designed by Robin Herd , but the programme was hampered by a poor choice of engines: a 3.0-litre version of Ford 's Indianapolis 500 engine and a Serenissima V8 were used, the latter scoring
12875-522: The team's best finish since the 2016 Monaco Grand Prix with fifth, Alonso said that the team's target would be Red Bull Racing. McLaren had a relatively good start to the season with points finishes in the next four races, but in the next 16 races after Spain, McLaren only scored 22 points, 8 points less than in the same period in 2017. On 14 August 2018, Fernando Alonso announced he would not compete in Formula One in 2019, ending his four-year spell at
13000-459: The team's first (four) points of the season at the sixth round in Monaco . By contrast, Alonso scored his first point three races later at the British Grand Prix . The Hungarian Grand Prix saw the team score their best result of the season with Alonso and Button finishing fifth and ninth, respectively. However, McLaren did not score points in the next four races until Button finished ninth at
13125-613: The team's first point in Britain , but both were underpowered and unreliable. For 1967 Bruce decided to use a British Racing Motors (BRM) V12 engine , but due to delays with the engine, was forced initially to use a modified Formula Two car called the M4B powered by a 2.1-litre BRM V8, later building a similar but slightly larger car called the M5A for the V12. Neither car brought great success,
13250-457: The team's first point of the season with 10th place. The next points for McLaren came at the Russian Grand Prix with Alonso and Button finishing sixth and 10th respectively. The rain-affected Monaco Grand Prix was one of best races of the season for the team. Alonso finished fifth, having kept Nico Rosberg 's Mercedes behind him for 46 laps, while Button scored two points with ninth. At the Austrian Grand Prix , Button recorded his best result of
13375-439: The team. Carlos Sainz Jr. was signed as his replacement on a multi-year deal. On 3 September 2018, it was announced that Stoffel Vandoorne would be leaving the team at the end of the season, with Lando Norris being promoted from reserve driver to replace him in 2019. McLaren struggled with performance throughout the season, with the McLaren drivers being knocked out 21 times in the first qualifying session, and McLaren having
13500-470: The top of the table on 50 points. With Prost finishing 2nd and Alboreto 4th, it gave Prost a three-point lead in the championship, a lead he would not relinquish to become the first (and so far only) French driver to ever win the World Drivers' Championship. As it was, Alboreto's Ferrari was hit by unreliability and he failed to score in the final five races of the season following Zandvoort. The MP4/2B
13625-596: The year in Canada . The other two races the team did not win were the North American street races at Detroit (Piquet) and Dallas ( Keke Rosberg - Williams- Honda ). On the official FIA video review of the 1984 season (produced by the Formula One Constructors Association ), narrator Clive James summed up the year with the words "Anything as fast as the McLarens fell apart, anything as reliable finished later" . Even though
13750-519: Was again strong in his Ferrari; at midseason, he led the championship with 56 points while Hunt had only 26 despite wins in Spain (a race from which he was initially disqualified ) and France . At the German Grand Prix , though, Lauda crashed heavily, was nearly killed, and missed the next two races. Hunt capitalised by winning four more Grands Prix giving him a three-point deficit going into
13875-584: Was also at the start of this season that saw long time sponsor, Marlboro, shift its support to long time rival Ferrari. For the first time since the 1974 season, McLaren would have a new identity, shifting to fellow tobacco sponsor West. This saw the traditional red and white replaced with silver, grey, white and red. McLaren would retain this colour scheme (or very similar) for twenty years until 2017. With Newey able to take advantage of new technical regulations for 1998 , and with Williams losing their works Renault engines following Renault's temporary withdrawal from
14000-405: Was as good a car as its predecessor, and retained its superiority on high-speed circuits made up of long, fast corners that were not flat out such as Jacarepagua , Silverstone , the Österreichring , Kyalami , and Brands Hatch . The only times that mean anything to me are in the warm-up on race morning. If you've qualified in the first six or so, and you're in good shape for the race, overtaking
14125-544: Was dubbed the "MP4/2B", while Porsche refined the TAG engine with improved power (850 bhp (634 kW; 862 PS) in race and 960 bhp (716 kW; 973 PS) in qualifying) and fuel consumption. The suspension had to be redesigned after McLaren were forced to switch from Michelin to Goodyear tyres when the French company pulled out of Formula One. However, the competition had more or less caught up. Michele Alboreto in his Ferrari 156/85 fought Prost for most of
14250-565: Was due to a lack of team continuity and stability. His cited examples of instability are logistical challenges related to the move to the McLaren Technology Centre , Adrian Newey's aborted move to Jaguar and later move to Red Bull, the subsequent move of Newey's deputy to Red Bull, and personnel changes at Ilmor. After scoring no victories in 2006, the team returned to competitive status in 2007 . That year saw Fernando Alonso race alongside Formula One debutant and long-time McLaren protégé Lewis Hamilton . The pair scored four wins each and led
14375-558: Was due to a massive race morning warm up crash that destroyed the Osella - Alfa Romeo of Piercarlo Ghinzani and gave the Italian driver burns to his hands and face forcing him to miss the race. As a result, McLaren were given approximately 30 minutes of extra time to fix a misfire that had developed in Lauda's TAG-Porsche which required a complete electrical system replacement. Had Ghinzani not crashed Lauda would have been forced to start in
14500-509: Was due to his front left brake failing. The Englishman later told that as it was his last race for Lotus before joining Williams in 1985 , team boss Peter Warr (whom he had never got along with personally) had refused to give him the brakes he wanted for his Lotus 95T and that it was this that ultimately caused his retirement and handed Lauda the second place he needed to win the World Championship. The race also represented
14625-475: Was first used in the 1983 Dutch Grand Prix , at the insistence of veteran Niki Lauda , who felt that the new engine required race testing before a championship challenge could be mounted. Porsche built these engines while TAG Electronics paid for the whole engine program. The MP4/1, which until then had raced with the Cosworth DFY V8 engine , was modified to MP4/1E specs to take the new engine and in
14750-533: Was hurt by the increased speeds). Nelson Piquet had left Brabham to join Nigel Mansell at Williams and the two fought a fierce internal battle, while Prost cleverly built up his points total and snatched 4 wins from under the Williams teammates' noses. His second world championship was won more by stealth than speed as by now it was clear the TAG Porsche engine was past its best. The TAG-Porsche V6 engine
14875-425: Was launched on 31 January 2013. The car struggled to compete with the other top teams and the season had McLaren fail to produce a podium finish for the first time since 1980 . Kevin Magnussen replaced Pérez for 2014 , and Ron Dennis, who had remained at arm's length since stepping down from the team principal role, returned as CEO of the operation. McLaren was the first team to officially launch their 2014 car,
15000-443: Was less successful for the team: Fittipaldi was second in the championship behind Niki Lauda . Hulme's replacement Jochen Mass took his sole GP win in Spain . At the end of 1975, Fittipaldi left to join his brother's Fittipaldi/Copersucar team. With the top drivers already signed to other teams, Mayer turned to James Hunt , a driver on whom biographer Gerald Donaldson reflected as having "a dubious reputation". In 1976 , Lauda
15125-429: Was not suited to the MP4/2C and his task was made difficult by John Barnard's refusal before mid-season to allow him to change the set up to suit (coincidentally, by the time Barnard relented, he had announced he was leaving McLaren for Ferrari at the end of the year). It was only after Rosberg announced his retirement from F1 prior to the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim that Barnard allowed Rosberg to change how his car
15250-409: Was one of the few F1 cars to use carbon brakes at the time, giving it another major advantage over most of its rivals on all bar the street circuits or when conditions were hot and dry; notably, the carbon brakes were not as good as the steel brakes at tracks like the Detroit and Dallas street circuits due to the steel brakes lasting longer in the heat. That, combined to superior fuel consumption of
15375-492: Was openly critical of Renault 's failure to develop the Renault RE40 and was fired two days after the season ended. McLaren boss Ron Dennis immediately snapped up the young Frenchman in place of John Watson (negotiations reportedly broke down when Watson asked for more money than what Lauda was earning, something Dennis baulked at despite Watson having a win and two further podiums in 1983. Watson himself later refuted
15500-407: Was producing some 850 bhp (634 kW; 862 PS) in race trim by 1986 compared to 900 bhp (671 kW; 912 PS) of the Honda, Renault and BMW engines. In qualifying BMW was rated the most powerful at 1,400 bhp (1,044 kW; 1,419 PS), Renault and Honda engines had approximately 1,200 bhp (895 kW; 1,217 PS). Ferrari allegedly had the same amount of power as
15625-411: Was set up, the only race of the year Rosberg's qualified on pole position. Rosberg's main problem with the car, other than his heavy right foot which saw him run out of fuel in a few early season races, was that Barnard had originally designed the car to suit the smoother driving styles of Prost and Niki Lauda, while Rosberg had never shaken the ground effects style of late braking and throwing the car into
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