McLaren is one of the most successful teams in Formula 1 history, with 189 race wins, nine World Constructors’ Championships, and 12 World Drivers’ Championships. Many of the best drivers in Formula 1 history drove for McLaren, including Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, and Lewis Hamilton. The first of Hamilton’s seven drivers’ championships came with McLaren in 2008, and he’ll head to Ferrari next year. McLaren took the 2024 constructors’ championship to give it nine in total, tying with Williams for second all-time behind Ferrari’s 16. McLaren is one of four teams that use Mercedes engines. The others are the Mercedes works squad, Williams, and Aston Martin.
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Mercedes finished fourth in the constructors’ standings this year with Hamilton and George Russell behind the wheel, and Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll piloted Aston Martin to a distant fifth-place finish. McLaren’s title came courtesy of youngsters Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, who finished second and fourth in the race for the drivers’ title, respectively.
The future for the team is bright, as Norris just turned 25 and Piastri will celebrate his 24th birthday next April during the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka. Norris and Piastri are committed to McLaren through 2026, when new engine regulations go into effect. The young tandem evokes memories of the 2008 McLaren squad, which featured a 23-year-old Hamilton and 27-year-old Heikki Kovalainen running Mercedes engines.
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Last year, McLaren announced that it would keep Mercedes as an engine supplier through 2030, extending the partnership that ran from 1995 through 2014 and resumed in 2021.
McLaren won previous championships with Ford and Porsche engines
While McLaren’s most recent success has come with the help of Mercedes power units, the team won earlier titles with other engines in back of its cars. McLaren took its first Formula 1 titles in 1974, winning the constructors’ championship by eight points over Ferrari and seeing Emerson Fittipaldi pilot his Ford-powered McLaren to a drivers’ title win. James Hunt won for McLaren in 1976 by one point over Ferrari’s Niki Lauda, again with a Ford engine in his car.
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McLaren’s next drivers’ championship came in 1984 with Lauda at the helm and a Porsche-built TAG engine providing the power. Lauda’s teammate Prost finished second, just a half point behind, and McLaren ran away with the team title. McLaren and Porsche bested Ferrari again in 1985, with Prost capturing the drivers’ title as well. Prost won another drivers’ championship for McLaren in 1986, but the Honda-powered WIlliams team took team honors behind the strong one-two punch of Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet.
McLaren won four straight dual titles from 1988 through 1991, with Senna winning three times, Prost once, and Honda engines providing the juice. McLaren and Mercedes joined forces in 1995, and the partnership paid off quickly when Mika Hakkinen took the 1998 and 1999 drivers’ titles.
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McLaren stuck with Mercedes through the 2014 campaign, then went to Honda engines from 2015 through 2017. From 2018 through 2020, the team’s cars were powered by Renault engines, and then the partnership with Mercedes resumed. McLaren ran in the middle of the pack when powered by Honda and Renault engines, finishing no better than third in the constructors’ standings and winning zero drivers’ titles.
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