McLaren facts for kids

Arrow McLaren SP
Principal(s)	Gil de Ferran; Sam Schmidt; Ric Peterson
Base	Indianapolis, Indiana, United States
Series	IndyCar Series
Race drivers	05. Patricio O'Ward; 07. Felix Rosenqvist
Manufacturer	Chevrolet
Career
Debut	1970 Indianapolis 500 (Indianapolis)
Latest race	2020 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg (St. Petersburg)
Indy 500 victories	2 (1974, 1976)
Race victories	18
Pole positions	17

Quick facts for kids
McLaren-Mercedes
Full name	McLaren F1 Team
Base	McLaren Technology Centre; Woking, Surrey, UK
Team principal(s)	Zak Brown; (Chief Executive Officer); Andreas Seidl; (Team Principal)
Technical director	James Key
Formula One World Championship Career
Debut	1966 Monaco Grand Prix
Races competed	884 (880 starts)
Constructors' Championships	8 (1974, 1984, 1985, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1998)
Drivers' Championships	12 (1974, 1976, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1998, 1999, 2008)
Race victories	182
Pole positions	155
Fastest laps	158

McLaren Racing Limited is a British motor racing team based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey, England. McLaren is best known as a Formula One constructor and also has a history of competing in American open wheel racing as both an entrant and a chassis constructor, and has won the Canadian-American Challenge Cup (Can-Am) sports car racing championship.

The team is the second oldest active, and second most successful Formula One team after Ferrari, having won 182 races, 12 Drivers' Championships and eight Constructors' Championships. The team is a subsidiary of the McLaren Group, which owns a majority of the team.

Founded in 1963 by New Zealander Bruce McLaren, the team won its first Grand Prix at the 1968 Belgian Grand Prix, but their greatest initial success was in Can-Am, which they dominated from 1967 to 1971. Further American triumph followed, with Indianapolis 500 wins in McLaren cars for Mark Donohue in 1972 and Johnny Rutherford in 1974 and 1976. After Bruce McLaren died in a testing accident in 1970, Teddy Mayer took over and led the team to their first Formula One Constructors' Championship in 1974, with Emerson Fittipaldi and James Hunt winning the Drivers' Championship in 1974 and 1976 respectively. The year 1974 also marked the start of a long-standing sponsorship by Phillip Morris' Marlboro cigarette brand.

In 1981, McLaren merged with Ron Dennis' Project Four Racing; Dennis took over as team principal and shortly after organised a buyout of the original McLaren shareholders to take full control of the team. This began the team's most successful era: with Porsche and Honda engines, Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, and Ayrton Senna took between them seven Drivers' Championships and the team took six Constructors' Championships. The combination of Prost and Senna was particularly dominant—together they won all but one race in 1988—but later their rivalry soured and Prost left for Ferrari. Fellow English team Williams offered the most consistent challenge during this period, the two winning every constructors' title between 1984 and 1994. However, by the mid-1990s, Honda had withdrawn from Formula One, Senna had moved to Williams, and the team went three seasons without a win. With Mercedes-Benz engines, West sponsorship, and former Williams designer Adrian Newey, further championships came in 1998 and 1999 with driver Mika Häkkinen, and during the 2000s the team were consistent front-runners, driver Lewis Hamilton taking their latest title in 2008.

McLaren announced in 2013 that they would be using Honda engines from 2015 onwards, replacing Mercedes-Benz.

The team raced as McLaren Honda for the first time since 1992 at the 2015 Australian Grand Prix.

In September 2017, McLaren announced they had agreed on an engine supply with Renault from 2018 to 2020. McLaren will return to use Mercedes-Benz engines from the 2021 season until at least 2024.

After initially returning to the Indianapolis 500 in 2017 as a partner to Andretti Autosport to run Fernando Alonso, McLaren announced in August 2019 that they would run in conjunction with Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports starting in 2020 to run the full IndyCar Series, the combined entry being named Arrow McLaren SP.

Images for kids

The McLaren Racing team's founder Bruce McLaren
The McLaren M2B the team's first Formula One car
McLaren's original logo was designed by Michael Turner and featured a kiwi bird, a New Zealand icon.
Emerson Fittipaldi won the 1974 Drivers' Championship with McLaren.
Five years after his first retirement, Lauda won his third title driving a McLaren MP4/2.
Mechanics push Kimi Räikkönen's MP4-19 into the garage during qualifying for the US Grand Prix at Indianapolis in 2004.
Sergio Pérez driving for McLaren at the 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix
Jenson Button driving the last Mercedes-powered McLaren at the 2014 Chinese Grand Prix
Alonso (no.14) and Button (no.22) line astern at the 2015 Malaysian Grand Prix
Fernando Alonso during qualifying for the 2016 Malaysian Grand Prix.
Fernando Alonso driving for McLaren at the 2018 Chinese Grand Prix
The McLaren M1A sports car of 1964 was the team's first self-designed car. The 'B' version raced in Can-Am in 1966.
Bruce McLaren was killed testing a McLaren M8D at Goodwood in 1970.
The McLaren M16C was driven by Peter Revson in the 1972 Indianapolis 500
The car entered by McLaren at the 2017 Indianapolis 500, which was driven by Fernando Alonso.
The McLaren F1 GTR, competing during the 1995 BPR Global GT Series season
Ron Dennis, here pictured at the 2000 Monaco Grand Prix, was team principal from 1980 to 2009 and was chairman of the McLaren Group until 2017.
McLaren's Formula One team was sponsored for 23 years by Philip Morris's Marlboro cigarette brand.