40 FACTS FOR 40 YEARS – McLAREN CELEBRATES ITS 40TH
ANNIVERSARY IN MONACO
On May 22nd 1966 Manfred Mann was top of the UK charts with
"Pretty Flamingo", the Rolling Stones had the top
album "Aftermath" and the Beach Boys had just released
the legendary "Pet Sounds". On that same day Bruce
McLaren debuted his M2B at the Monaco Grand Prix marking the
beginning of one of the most successful teams in Formula 1
history.
In the 40 years since that day McLaren has:
1 competed in 602 Formula 1 Grands Prix.
2 won a total of 148 of the races they have competed in.
3 won 11 Formula 1 Drivers' World Championships and been crowned
Formula 1 Constructors' World Champions a total of eight times.
4 Won the Indianapolis 500 three times, the Can Am Championship
on five occasions as well the 24 Heures du Mans.
5 finished one-two on the podium on 40 occasions.
6 started 122 races from pole position.
7 on 70 of these occasions gone on to win the race from pole
position.
8 started 255 Grand Prix from the front row.
9 on 51 occasions occupied both spots on the front row of
the grid.
10 set the fastest lap of the race 126 times.
11 been on the podium a total of 387 times, this would be
the equivalent of 1161 litres of champagne that could have
been sprayed by the drivers.
12 raced on six continents and in 28 countries, of which the
team has won races in 25.
13 been the only team to date to have won all but one race
in a whole season when they finished 15 out of a possible
16 races on the top step of the podium in 1988 with Ayrton
Senna and Alain Prost.
14 had 42 different drivers race for the team with 16 different
nationalities.
15 employed 10 World Champions over the 40 years. Of these
six have won a total of 11 Drivers' World Championship between
them whilst driving for McLaren.
16 maintained the longest partnership in the sport, with HUGO
BOSS supplying the team uniforms for the past 25 years.
17 only had a total of three Title Partners throughout its
40 year history.
18 built and moved into the award winning McLaren Technology
Centre which was officially opened by Her Majesty The Queen
in May 2004.
In 1995 Mercedes-Benz joined McLaren and since then:
19 the McLaren Mercedes Partnership has claimed 44 victories,
43 pole positions, 58 fastest laps, 134 podiums, 224 point
finishes, 14 one-two finishes, in a total of 192 starts.
Since McLaren's Formula 1 debut in Monaco, the team
has been dominant on the streets of Monte Carlo.
20 In 1966 the Monaco Grand Prix consisted of 100 laps at
3.130km each, the qualifying lap was 1m29.9 seconds with the
top speed reaching 126.080km/h. In 2005 there were 78 laps
of 3.340km in length. The pole position set by Kimi Raikkonen
was 1m13.644 and the top average speed 158.540km/h.
21 The livery of the original car was white with a green stripe.
The reason for this was due to the film Grand Prix. The car
featured heavily in the John Frankenheimer movie as McLaren
had offered to assist the filmmakers in order to fund their
first season in Formula 1. The three hour long film won three
Academy Awards.
22 There were a total of four employees that assisted Bruce
at the Monaco Grand Prix in 1966. In contrast Team McLaren
Mercedes will be sending 137 people to Monte Carlo this year;
this figure includes drivers, engineers, mechanics, support
crew, marketing personnel and hospitality.
23 Of the original workforce in 1966, two are still currently
working within McLaren Racing. Tyler Alexander travels with
the team as a systems engineer and Ray Rowe works as a gearbox
mechanic.
24 Following their debut it only took 24 races before McLaren
won their first ever Grand Prix at the 1968 Belgium Grand
Prix with Bruce at the wheel.
25 McLaren first won on the streets of the principality with
Alain Prost securing the first victory in Monaco in 1984.
26 Since this win, McLaren have gone on to win the Monaco
Grand Prix a total of 13 times. This is more than any other
team in the history of the sport. In addition since the 1998
Monaco Grand Prix, McLaren Mercedes has taken victory in the
Principality on four occasions.
27 Two years later in 1986 McLaren scored the first of 40
one-two finishes for the team in Monaco with Alain Prost crossing
the line in front of team-mate Keke Rosberg.
28 Past McLaren World Champion Ayrton Senna also holds the
record for most wins at this track with a total of six, five
of which he scored whilst driving a McLaren.
29 McLaren have started the Monaco Grand Prix from pole position
on 10 occasions.
30 Last year Team McLaren Mercedes drivers Kimi Raikkonen
and Juan Pablo Montoya raced at Monaco with the most precious
helmets ever worn by a Formula 1 driver. Both helmets were
adorned with a total of 600 Steinmetz diamonds.
31 With Kimi Raikkonen winning the Monaco Grand Prix in 2005
and Juan Pablo Montoya winning in 2003 for Williams, Team
McLaren Mercedes will be the only team on the grid competing
with two past winners this year.
As we are celebrating our first race 40 years ago,
it is a good time to look back on some of the firsts McLaren
have introduced to Formula 1 in the last 40 years:
32 In 1981 McLaren raced the first carbon fibre composite
chassis, the MP4/1.
33 The 1993 challenger, MP4/8, was the first car to feature
bargeboards.
34 Another feature of today's cars, the mid-wing, was originally
seen on the MP4/10 in 1995.
35 An important cooling feature on the car, the chimney, was
first introduced on the MP4-15 in 2000.
36 McLaren were the first constructor to win in Formula 1,
Can Am, Indy 500 and Le Mans.
37 In 1998 Team McLaren Mercedes introduced the first two-seater
Formula 1 car the MP4-98T, which has taken 151 passengers
for the ride of their life, including His Majesty King Juan
Carlos, Jim Corr, Murray Walker, Vanessa Mae and the Russian
cosmonaut Vasili Tsieliyev.
38 Over the years McLaren has pioneered in the arena of trackside
hospitality, being the first team to introduce double-decker
motorhomes and more recently the innovative Team Communications
Centre in 2002.
39 McLaren, in conjunction with Corporate Partner HUGO BOSS,
were the first to introduce bespoke clothing for the team
to wear whilst travelling to and from Formula 1 grand prix
and tests.
40 McLaren were the first team to produce their own in-house
monthly magazine. Racing Line will publish its 100th edition
this June
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