The McLaren Group’s electronics business has been awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise for its work in international trade. McLaren Electronic Systems (MESL) sells electronics, software and components internationally, with the company saying export sales are up by more than 60% since 2008. MESL is the supplier of the official engine control unit for all teams in the Formula 1 World Championship – a contract which the company has had for 20 years – and also provide the same service to the American Nascar Sprint Cup stock car and IndyCar single-seater series’. Outside of motorsport, the company sells its products – More…
A few weeks after announcing that its title sponsorship deal with Vodafone would end in December, McLaren has today unveiled a new sponsorship with Gillette, initially focussed on Asia. And it offers some pointers to McLaren’s long term commercial plans. The deal begins as of this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix. Despite strong signals that money supply is tight for many teams in F1, this deal also indicates that there is a willingness for global companies to enter the sport, following on the heels of the arrival of Emirates, Rolex, UPS, Blackberry and Experian in the last few months. Gillette Brazil More…
McLaren’s first ever world champion Emerson Fittipaldi will write a regular column for the team’s rebranded website this season. Fittipaldi, who won the second of his two world championships while driving a McLaren in 1974, won 14 grands prix during his career. The Brazilian became the sport’s youngest ever Formula world champion when he won his first title with Lotus – aged 25 years and 273 before losing the record to Fernando Alonso in 2005. Fittipaldi, 66, is also one of only five men to have won both the Indianpolis 500 and the F1 World Championship – Jim Clark, Graham More…
Mexican driver Sergio Perez says he’s not feeling the pressure ahead of McLaren debut in Australia this weekend as he sets his sights on winning the world championship. Perez, 23, scored three podiums last season, and just missed out on victory in Malaysia, which prompted McLaren to sign him as a replacement for Lewis Hamilton. Despite only having two seasons under his belt before stepping into a front-running car, Perez told the latest edition of the JA on F1 podcast that he’s unfazed. “Every time you come to a big team, you’re going to replace a big name driver,” said More…
They may have lost Lewis Hamilton, but McLaren moved forward into the future with a proud and confident message, underlining their 50 years of F1 heritage, as they launched their 2013 challenger today. Jenson Button said he aims to win the world championship and believes the car capable of it. The new silver McLaren does not have Hamilton’s name on the side for the first time in seven years, instead Jenson Button and Sergio Perez lead the challenge against the Red Bull, Ferrari, Lotus and Mercedes team. The 50th anniversary was acknowledged by a cavalcade of former McLaren race winning More…
This year will see the 50th anniversary of the McLaren racing team, and the Woking-based squad has announced that it will host a number of events throughout the year leading up to its celebration half a century on from the inauguration of Bruce McLaren Motor Racing, on September 2nd 1963. The eight-time Constructors’ Championship winners will display a special ‘McLaren 50’ logo on this years MP4-28 and on their team shirts, whilst a heritage video is also in the making to mark the achievement. Ron Dennis CBE, executive chairman, McLaren Group and McLaren Automotive, said: “McLaren’s history is long and More…
McLaren today officially unveiled its new driver Sergio Perez, in McLaren colours, at media events in the team’s HQ at Woking and in Central London And the 22 year old Mexican made a bullish start, saying that he hopes to fight for the world title from the first race onwards and that he will be disappointed if he does not beat Jenson Button during their scheduled three-year partnership. Button will start his 229th Grand Prix in Melbourne while Perez will be starting only his 38th. To have landed a McLaren seat so soon is remarkable, but Perez is mindful that More…
Sam Michael believes there are no hidden motives behind Lewis Hamilton leaving McLaren and that the driver’s desire to take on a new challenge simply outweighed everything else, even the chance to continue driving a proven race-winning car. The McLaren sporting director gave his assessment on Hamilton’s momentous decision to swap Woking for Mercedes from 2013 while looking back on some of the major talking points of the season alongside a panel of fellow experts in the December edition of the JA on F1 podcast (click here to download). When Hamilton’s three-year Mercedes deal was made public at the end More…
Lewis Hamilton’s final race for McLaren in Brazil represented a clear closing of an era for the Woking squad both in terms of its long-standing relationship with its one-time protégé and, after three season and 58 races in tandem, the team’s high-profile all-British world champion driver line-up. While Hamilton’s hopes of saying farewell with an Interlagos victory were scuppered when Nico Hulkenberg slid into him at turn one, Jenson Button was able to pick up the pieces and lay down a marker for 2013 when he will inevitably assume additional responsibility and expectation at the team given the relative inexperience More…
Lewis Hamilton’s father, Anthony, has given a revealing insight into how his relationship with his son has evolved over the last couple of years and why the move to Mercedes is another example of him flying the nest. Hamilton Snr’s presence in McLaren’s post-race celebrations of Hamilton’s brilliant victory in Austin pointed towards father and son having firmly been reconciled this year after a period in which their relationship, publicly at least, has appeared more distant. The pair had been famously more akin to a double act as Lewis came through the motorsport ranks and into his record-breaking early years More…
If Lewis Hamilton felt that Sebastian Vettel’s had been “lucky” to rescue a third place finish in Abu Dhabi, it was certainly not a word you could apply to the McLaren driver’s own race on Sunday, or indeed his season as a whole. Although Hamilton has been effectively out of the title running for several races now, confirmation that his wait for a second drivers’ title would stretch into a fifth season, and beyond the end of his McLaren career, officially arrived under the lights at Yas Marina the moment his MP4-27 pulled off the road with a fuel pressure More…
A few weeks have passed since it was confirmed that Lewis Hamilton will leave McLaren for Mercedes at the end of the 2012 season. Today Jenson Button admitted that he would be a “big loss”, while Hamilton has addressed the mountain he will have to climb next season with a Mercedes team which has failed to score points in the last three races. “The team loses a very fast driver, a guy that’s achieved a lot with the team, the last guy to win a world championship for the team,” said Button in the Abu Dhabi paddock this afternoon. “It’s More…
McLaren sporting director Sam Michael believes it is possible for the team to take the fight to Red Bull over the remaining races and says nothing changes in the team’s approach to the end of the season despite its championship challenge being effectively over. Since Lewis Hamilton’s gearbox failed while leading in Singapore a month ago Red Bull has not been toppled from the top of the order in either qualifying or the race while in contrast McLaren have suffered a run of reliability problems with both of its cars. That run of results has laid the platform for Red More…
Martin Whitmarsh spoke today of his feelings on losing Lewis Hamilton, his lack of regrets about the situation and denied that the McLaren’s wings were being protested by Ferrari. He also said that he thinks new recruit Sergio Perez can win his first Grand Prix for McLaren in Melbourne, next March. Speaking in a Vodafone phone in for leading F1 websites, Whitmarsh said that the offer McLaren made to Hamilton exceeded the pay of any F1 driver, “The offer that we made was higher I believe than any driver in Formula 1 is currently receiving or will receive next year, More…
Fernando Alonso
Kimi Räikkönen
Felipe Massa
Sebastian Vettel
Mark Webber Nico Rosberg
Paul di Resta Jenson Button
Sergio Perez Daniel Ricciardo Sebastian Vettel Kimi Räikkönen Fernando Alonso Lewis Hamilton Felipe Massa Mark Webber
Romain Grosjean Paul di Resta Nico Rosberg Jenson Button Sergio Perez Daniel Ricciardo Adrian Sutil Nico Hulkenberg Jean-Eric Vergne Esteban Gutierrez Valtteri Bottas
Pastor Maldonado Jules Bianchi Charles Pic
Giedo van der Garde Max Chilton
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