Panini Star Wars

History

McLAREN IN FORMULA 1

The McLaren Formula One team is rich in heritage, having been formed in 1963 by New Zealander Bruce McLaren. Bruce McLaren Motor Racing Limited as it was then known set to work on building a Formula One car, and three years later the team made its debut at the 1966 Monaco Grand Prix.

The team scored their first race win in 1968, when Bruce McLaren piloted a McLaren-Ford to victory. Tragically though the New Zealander lost his life at a Can Am testing accident at the Goodwood Circuit in 1970, but the team continued his legacy, winning races in Formula One and expanding into Indy and Can-Am Racing.

In 1974 the team celebrated its first Formula One Drivers' and Constructors' Championship win, with Emerson Fittipaldi in the McLaren-Ford M23. The next Drivers' Championship came courtesy of English driver James Hunt, behind the wheel of the McLaren-Ford M23 in 1976.

To date the team has achieved the highest number of double race wins of any pair of Formula 1 drivers with team-mates Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost notching up 14 wins between them in the 1988 / 89 season. The Senna / Prost partnership also holds the accolade for the most grands prix wins in a season. In 1988 the pair won 15 out of the 16 races on the calendar.

The team has won four consecutive Drivers' and Constructors' Championships (1988-1991) and secured eight Constructors' World Championship titles, the first of which was in 1974. Today the team now has a record 11 Drivers' World Championship titles and eight Constructor's World Championships.

FORMULA 1 STATISTICS

* Number of races - 631
* Grand Prix victories - 156
* Formula One Drivers' World Championships - 11
* Formula One Constructors' World Championships - 8
* Pole Positions - 134
* Podiums - 417
* Double Wins (1-2s) - 44
* Fastest Laps - 135