McLaren’s Greatest Drivers: From Bruce McLaren To Senna, Prost, Lauda And Häkkinen

There isn’t a single fan of Formula One alive who wouldn’t recognise the name McLaren. It is one of F1’s greatest teams that gave the sport some of the most incredible intra-team rivalry we have ever seen. Senna-Prost, Alonso-Hamilton. What years, what battles! From 1966, when it started racing in F1, to now, the team has won the Driver’s Championship 13 times and the Constructor’s Championship 10 times. Feats bested only by Ferrari, and that’s a team that had a 16-year headstart over McLaren, having been a part of the Formula One circus since it started in 1950. Since its debut in 1966, team McLaren has fielded 62 different drivers in the sport over the years. Here we pick five who we think are the greatest.

We start with the OG. The man whose name the team bears. The tough New Zealander with the permanent limp started racing in local hill climbs and club races in Auckland but soon earned a seat with the Cooper F1 team. At 22 he went on to become the sport’s youngest driver to win a GP in 1959, a record that would remain for a staggering 44 years until 2003! Bruce founded Bruce McLaren Motor Racing Ltd in 1963 and fielded his first F1 team in 1966 with him in the driver’s seat. A man who led from the front, Bruce raced his cars, designed and engineered them, built them, ran the team, swept the garage floor and even drove the team transporter. A true racer.

We all remember Rush and know all about the famous Hunt vs Lauda story. While James and Niki both hung their driving shoes in 1979, Niki was tempted to put them back on in 1982 by McLaren’s legendary team principal Ron Dennis. In 1984, Niki won his third F1 world title battling his new team mate Alain Prost by a miniscule half a point, making it the closest ever Championship finish on points alone. Niki finally hung his driving shoes for good at the end of 1985.

Alain was a prodigy and showed his gifts quite early on. His domination of the Formula Three championship was evidence enough long before he stepped in as Niki’s team mate at McLaren and even before he had stepped into F1 with team Renault. Alain was a pioneer of the focused Championship-first approach that favoured caution over theatrics. In fact his first Championship in 1985 came on the back of more points and fewer outright wins. He used the same strategy to win in ’86 as well and in ’87 he took three significant wins to become the most successful GP driver of all time after breaking Sir Jackie Stewart’s record of 27 wins. 1988 saw Alain become a main character in what would become one of F1’s fiercest ever rivalries with the arrival of Brazilian Ayrton Senna. Alain won his last F1 Driver’s Championship in 1989, before winning a fourth F1 title in 1993 with Williams.

Mika, the man who recently drove the team’s first ever F1 car—the M2B around Monaco to celebrate McLaren’s 1000th grand prix—was also the man who Michael Schumacher fans remember the most. His complete domination of the 1998-99 seasons is the stuff of legends, as were his epic on-track battles with Schumacher in his Ferrari. His blinding speed inevitably resulted in breathtaking moments, like the famous overtake at Spa-Francorchamps at the 2000 Belgian GP. His completely unexpected double pass on arch rival Michael and back marker Ricardo Zonta is hailed as one of the greatest overtaking maneuvers in Formula One history.

Ayrton was the sensation that never really aged. From the time he stormed into F1 in 1984 at the wheel of a Toleman to his tragic demise at Imola a decade later behind the wheel of a Williams-Renault, Ayrton set ablaze the world of top tier motor racing. Raw talent, sheer speed and unimaginable passion is what he brought to the game. Nothing mattered more than winning. Every race, every season. It was always about the win. No matter the car. In 1985 at the Portuguese GP he took his Lotus 97T with its iconic John Player Special livery to the chequered flag and scored his first of 41 wins in pouring rain. Whenever it rained, Ayrton ruled and few can argue that there has been a finer wet-weather driver since. Michael Schumacher probably came close. Ayrton was also a spectacular driver who provided the on-track drama that spectators really want to watch. Not to mention, he was one of the greatest advocates of driver safety in the sport.