THE TALE OF BRUCE MCLAREN

Bruce McLaren was born in Auckland, New Zealand in 1937. He arrived in the UK in 1958 with his mentor, Jack Brabham to start his racing career. Jack introduced Bruce to Cooper Cars, the small London-based team who were unknowingly about to create a revolution with compact, lightweight, mid-engine Grand Prix cars.  Following an auspicious start to his F2 career in 1958 he joined the F1 team for 1959 and stayed with Cooper for seven years.

Bruce won the 1959 US Grand Prix at 20 years old, which made him at that time the youngest GP winner. As a child he was surrounded by cars and practical engineering at his parent’s service station and workshop. At the ripe age of 14 he entered a local hill climb in an Austin 7 Ulster where showed promise as a driver and an engineer.

In 1964 Bruce and his small team built the first true McLaren sports car – the M1A – which would dominate sports car racing both in Europe and America. In 1965 Bruce decided to leave Cooper to build his own Formula 1 car for the first season of the new 3 litre formula. The first McLaren F1 car was born, the M2B was ready for its debut at the Monaco GP.

Mclaren would go on to see success in the Can-Am series as well as multiple Formula One championships with Senna and Prost and their Honda Powerplants. The first season of the partnership saw a scrappy battle between the two teammates and yielded nearly a perfect season for Mclaren (Senna 8, Prost 7), leaving just one for the other teams. Their tale continues, and the partnership with Mclaren and Honda in Formula One is back but is yet to show any sparks of brilliance seen under Senna and Prost.

Below, Chris Harris talks with Mclaren's Chief Test Driver, Chris Goodwin on the McLaren P1.