Origins
Bruce McLaren founded McLaren and was team principal from 1966 until his death in 1970.
Bruce McLaren Motor Racing was founded in 1963 by New Zealander
Bruce McLaren.
[7] Bruce was a
works driver for the British
Formula One team
Cooper with whom he had won three
Grands Prix and come second in the
1960 world championship. Wanting to compete in the
Australasian Tasman Series,
Bruce approached his employers, but when team owner Charles Cooper
insisted on using 1.5 litre Formula One-specification engines instead of
the 2.5 litre motors permitted by the Tasman rules, Bruce decided to
set up his own team to run him and his prospective Formula One team-mate
Timmy Mayer with custom-built Cooper cars.
[8] Bruce won the
1964 series, but Mayer was killed in practice for the final race, prompting his brother and manager
Teddy Mayer to become involved with the running of the team.
[9][10] In 1964 and 1965 McLaren were based in
New Malden, then
Feltham before settling on premises in
Colnbrook. During this period Bruce drove for his team in
sports car races in the United Kingdom and North America and also entered the
1965 Tasman Series with
Phil Hill but didn't win it.
[11]
He continued to drive in Grands Prix for Cooper but judging that team's
form to be waning, decided to race his own cars in 1966.
[12]
Racing history: Formula One
1960s
Bruce made the team's Grand Prix debut at the
1966 Monaco race (of the current Formula One teams only
Ferrari are older
[13][nb 2]).
[7] His race ended after nine laps due to a terminal oil leak.
[15] The
1966 car was the
M2B designed by
Robin Herd but the programme was hampered by a poor choice of engines: a 3.0 litre version of
Ford's
Indianapolis 500 engine and a
Serenissima V8 were used, the latter scoring the team's first point in
Britain, but both were underpowered and unreliable.
[12][15] For
1967 Bruce decided to use a
British Racing Motors (BRM)
V12 engine, but due to delays with the engine, was forced initially to use a modified
Formula Two car called the
M4B powered by a 2.1 litre BRM V8, later building a similar but slightly larger car called the
M5A for the V12.
[15] Neither car brought great success, the best result being a fourth at
Monaco.
For
1968, after driving McLaren's sole entry for the previous two years, Bruce was joined by 1967 champion and fellow New Zealander
Denny Hulme, who was already racing for McLaren in
Can-Am.
[18][19] That year's new
M7A car, Herd's final design for the team, was powered by
Cosworth's new and soon to be ubiquitous
DFV engine
[20][21] (the DFV would go on to be used by McLaren until 1983) and with it a major upturn in form proceeded. Bruce won the
Race of Champions at the
Brands Hatch circuit and Hulme won the
International Trophy at
Silverstone, both non-championship races,
[22] before Bruce took the team's first championship win at the
Belgian Grand Prix.
[23] Hulme also won the
Italian and
Canadian
Grands Prix later in the year, helping the team to second in the
constructors' championship. Using an updated 'C' version on the M7,
[24] a further three podium finishes followed for Bruce in
1969, but the team's fifth win had to wait until the last race of the 1969 championship when Hulme won the
Mexican Grand Prix. That year McLaren experimented with
four-wheel drive in the
M9A but the car had only a single outing driven by
Derek Bell at the
British Grand Prix; Bruce described driving it as like "trying to write your signature with somebody jogging your elbow".
[25]
1970s
1970 started with a second place each for Hulme and Bruce in the first two Grands Prix, but in June Bruce was killed in a crash at
Goodwood while testing the new M8D Can-Am car.
[24] After his death, Teddy Mayer took over effective control of the team;
[10] Hulme continued with
Dan Gurney and
Peter Gethin
partnering him. Gurney won the first two Can-Am events at Mosport and
St. Jovite and placed ninth in the third, but left the team mid-season,
and Gethin took over from there.
1971 began promisingly when Hulme led the opening round in
South Africa before retiring with broken suspension,
[26] but ultimately Hulme, Gethin (who left for BRM mid-season
[27]) and
Jackie Oliver
again failed to score a win. The 1972 season saw improvements though:
Hulme won the team's first Grand Prix for two-and-a-half years in
South Africa and he and
Peter Revson scored ten other podiums, the team finishing third in the constructors' championship. McLaren gave
Jody Scheckter his Formula One debut at the
final race at
Watkins Glen.
[27]
The
McLaren M23, designed by Gordon Coppuck, was the team's new car for the
1973 Formula One season.
[27] Sharing parts of the design of both McLaren's Formula One
M19 and Indianapolis M16 cars (itself inspired by
Lotus's
72),
[28] it was a mainstay for four years.
[29] Hulme won with it in
Sweden and Revson took the only Grand Prix wins of his career in
Britain and
Canada. In
1974 Emerson Fittipaldi, world champion with Lotus two years earlier, joined McLaren.
[30] Hulme, in his final Formula One campaign,
[31] won the
Argentinian season-opener; Fittipaldi, with wins in
Brazil,
Belgium and
Canada, took the drivers' championship. It was a close fight for Fittipaldi who secured the title with a fourth at the season-ending
United States Grand Prix, putting him three points ahead of Ferrari's
Clay Regazzoni. With Hulme and multiple motorcycle world champion
Mike Hailwood he also sealed McLaren's first constructors' championship.
1975 was a less successful year for the team: Fittipaldi was second in the championship behind
Niki Lauda. Hulme's replacement
Jochen Mass took his sole GP win in
Spain.
At the end of 1975 Fittipaldi left to join his brother's
Fittipaldi/Copersucar team.
[30] With the top drivers already signed to other teams, Mayer turned to
James Hunt, a driver who biographer Gerald Donaldson reflected on as having "a dubious reputation".
[32] In
1976 Lauda was again strong in his
Ferrari; at mid season he led the championship with 56 points whilst Hunt had only 26 despite wins in
Spain (a race from which he was initially disqualified
[33]) and
France. But at the
German Grand Prix Lauda crashed heavily, was nearly killed and missed the next two races.
[34] Hunt capitalised by winning four more Grands Prix giving him a three-point deficit going into the finale in
Japan.
Here it rained torentially, Lauda retired because of safety concerns
and Hunt sealed the drivers' championship by finishing third.
[33] McLaren, though, lost the constructors' championship to Ferrari.
In
1977 the M23 was gradually replaced with the
M26, the M23's final works outing being
Gilles Villeneuve's Formula One debut with the team in a one-off appearance at the
British Grand Prix.
[35][36]
Hunt won on three occasions that year but the Lauda and Ferrari
combination proved too strong, Hunt and McLaren managing just fifth and
third in the respective championships. From there, results continued to
worsen. Lotus and
Mario Andretti took the
1978 titles with their
78 and
79 ground effect cars
[37] and neither Hunt nor Mass's replacement
Patrick Tambay were able to seriously challenge with the non ground effect M26.
[38] Hunt was dropped at the end of 1978 in favour of Lotus's
Ronnie Peterson, but when Peterson was killed by a crash at the
Italian Grand Prix,
John Watson was signed instead.
[39] 1979 saw no improvement; Coppuck's
M28 design was described by Mayer as "ghastly, a disaster" and "quite diabolical" and the
M29 did little to change the situation.
[39] Tambay scored no points and Watson only 15 to place the team eighth at the end of the year.
1980s
Five years after his first retirement, Lauda won his third title driving a
McLaren MP4/2.
Equipped with
Honda engines and the driving strength of Prost and
Ayrton Senna for
1988,
McLaren dominated the season, winning all but one race. Senna won his
first world championship after a season-long battle with Prost.
The 1980s started much as the 1970s had ended:
Alain Prost took over from Tambay
[40] but he and Watson rarely scored points. Under increasing pressure since the previous year from principal sponsor
Philip Morris and their executive John Hogan, Mayer was coerced into merging McLaren with
Ron Dennis's Project Four Formula Two team, also sponsored by Philip Morris.
[41][42] Dennis had designer
John Barnard who, inspired by the
carbon-fibre rear wings of the
BMW M1
race cars that Project Four was preparing, had ideas for an innovative
Formula One chassis constructed from carbon-fibre instead of
conventional
aluminium alloy.
[43] On their own they lacked the money to build it, but with investment that came with the merger it became the
McLaren MP4 (later called MP4/1) of
1981, driven by Watson and
Andrea de Cesaris.
[44][45] In the MP4, Watson won the
British Grand Prix
and had three other podium finishes. Soon after the merger McLaren
moved from Colnbrook to a new base in Woking and whilst Dennis and Mayer
initially shared the managing directorship of the company, by 1982
Mayer had departed and his and Tyler Alexander's shareholdings had been
bought by the new owners.
[46][47]
In the early 1980s, teams like
Renault, Ferrari and
Brabham were using 1.5 litre
turbocharged engines in favour of the 3.0 litre
naturally aspirated engines that had been standard since 1966.
[21] Seeing the need for a turbo engine of their own, in
1982 Dennis convinced
Williams backer
Techniques d'Avant Garde (TAG) to fund
Porsche-built, TAG-branded turbo engines made to Barnard's specifications; TAG's founder
Mansour Ojjeh
would later become a McLaren shareholder. In the meantime, they
continued with Cosworth engines as old rival Lauda came out of
retirement to drive alongside Watson in that year's 1B development of
the MP4.
[44][48][49] They each won two races, Watson notably from 17th place on the grid in
Detroit,
[44] and McLaren were second in the constructors' title race. As part of a dispute with
FISA, the sport's governing body, they boycotted the
San Marino Grand Prix.
[50] 1983 was not so fruitful but Watson did win again in the United States, this time from 22nd on the grid at
Long Beach.
[51]
Having been fired by Renault, Prost was once again at McLaren for
1984.
[52]
Now using the TAG engines, the team dominated, scoring 12 wins and
two-and-a-half times as many contructors' points as nearest rival
Ferrari. In the drivers' championship, Lauda prevailed over Prost by
half a point, the narrowest margin ever.
[53] The McLaren-TAGs were again strong in
1985; a third constructors' championship came their way whilst this time Prost won the drivers' championship. In
1986, the
Williams team were resurgent with their
Honda engine and drivers
Nigel Mansell and
Nelson Piquet, whilst at McLaren, Lauda's replacement, 1982 champion
Keke Rosberg couldn't gel with the car. Williams took the constructors' championship, but for Prost, wins in
San Marino,
Monaco and
Austria
combined with the fact that the Williams drivers were taking points
from each other meant that he retained a chance going into the last
race, the
Australian Grand Prix.
There, a puncture for Mansell and a precautionary pit stop for Piquet
gave Prost the race win and his second title, making him the first
driver to win back-to-back championships since
Jack Brabham in
1959 and 1960.
[54] In
1987 Barnard departed for Ferrari to be replaced by
Steve Nichols (who himself joined Ferrari in 1989).
[55][56][57] In the hands of Prost and
Stefan Johansson though, Nichols's
MP4/3 and the TAG engine couldn't match the Williams-Honda.
For
1988 Honda switched their supply to McLaren and, encouraged by Prost, Dennis signed
Ayrton Senna to drive.
[58]
Despite regulations reducing the boost pressure and fuel capacity (and
therefore, power) of the turbo cars, Honda persisted with a turbocharged
engine.
[59] In the
MP4/4, Senna and Prost engaged in a season long battle, winning 15 of the 16 races (at the other race at
Monza, Senna had been leading comfortably but collided with back-marker
Jean-Louis Schlesser[60]). At the
Portuguese Grand Prix,
their relationship soured when Senna squeezed Prost against the pit
wall; Prost won but afterwards said, "It was dangerous. If he wants the
world championship that badly he can have it."
[61]
Prost scored more points that year, but due to the fact that only the
best 11 results counted, it was Senna who took the title at the
penultimate race in
Japan.
[62][63]
The next year, with turbos banned Honda supplied a new 3.5 L naturally aspirated
V10 engine[64] and McLaren again won both titles with the
MP4/5. Their drivers' relationship continued to deteriorate though, especially when, at the
San Marino Grand Prix Prost felt that Senna had reneged on an agreement not to pass each other at the first corner.
[65]
Believing that Honda and Dennis were favouring Senna, Prost announced
mid-season that he would leave to drive at Ferrari the following year.
[66] For the second year in succession, the drivers' championship was decided at the
Japanese Grand Prix,
this time in Prost's favour after he and Senna collided (Senna
initially recovered and won the race but was later disqualified).
[67]
1990s
With former McLaren men Barnard, Nichols and Prost, Ferrari pushed the British team more closely in
1990. McLaren in turn brought in Ferrari's
Gerhard Berger but, like the two seasons before, the drivers' championship was led by Prost and Senna and settled at the penultimate race in
Japan.
Here, Senna collided with Prost at the first corner forcing both to
retire, but this time Senna escaped punishment and took the title;
[68] McLaren also won the constructors' championship.
1991 was another McLaren and Senna year with the ascendent
Renault-powered Williams team their closest challengers. By
1992 Williams, with their advanced
FW14B car,
[69] had overtaken McLaren breaking their four year run as champions, despite the latter winning four races.
Honda withdrew from the sport at end of the year and a deal to secure
Renault engines fell through so McLaren switched to customer
Ford engines for the
1993 season.
[70] Senna—who initially agreed only to a race-by-race contract before later signing for the whole year
[71][72]—won five races, including a record-breaking sixth at
Monaco and at the
European Grand Prix where he went from fifth to first on opening lap.
[73] His team-mate 1991
IndyCar champion
Michael Andretti fared much worse however; he scored only seven points and was replaced by test driver
Mika Häkkinen for the final three rounds.
[74][75] Williams ultimately won both titles and Senna—who had flirted with moving there for 1993—signed with them for the
1994 season.
[70][76] During the 1993 season McLaren took part in a seven part
BBC Television documentary called
A Season With McLaren.
[77]
For
1994, McLaren tested a
Lamborghini V12 engine as part of a prospective deal with then Lamborghini owner
Chrysler before eventually deciding to use
Peugeot engines. Thus powered, the
MP4/9 was driven by Häkkinen and
Martin Brundle but no wins resulted and Peugeot was dropped after a single year in favour of a
Mercedes-Benz-branded,
Ilmor-designed engine.
[78] But the alliance with Mercedes started slowly:
1995's
MP4/10
car was not a front-runner and Brundle's replacement, former champion
Nigel Mansell was unable to fit into the car at first and departed after
just two races with
Mark Blundell taking his place.
[79] While Williams dominated in
1996, McLaren, now with
David Coulthard alongside Häkkinen,
[80] went a third successive season without a win. But then Coulthard broke this run by winning
1997's season-opening
Australian Grand Prix and he and Häkkinen won another race each before the end of the year, whilst in August, highly rated designer
Adrian Newey joined from Williams.
[81]
Despite the car's improved pace, unreliability proved costly throughout
the season, with retirements at Britain and Luxembourg occurring whilst
leading the race.
With Newey able to take advantage of new technical regulations for
1998[82] and Williams losing their works Renault engines, McLaren were once again able to challenge for the championship;
F1 Racing magazine stated that the only way to increase their championship hopes was to hire Ferrari's double champion
Michael Schumacher.
[83]
Häkkinen and Coulthard won five of the first six races, despite the
team's system that allowed the rear brakes to be operated individually
in order to reduce
understeer being banned after a protest by Ferrari at the second race in
Brazil.
[84][85][86]
It was Schumacher and Ferrari who provided the greatest competition,
the former levelled on points with Häkkinen with two races to go, but
wins for Häkkinen at the
Luxembourg and
Japanese
Grands Prix gave both him the drivers' championship and McLaren the
constructors' championship. The following season, Häkkinen won his
second drivers' championship but due to a combination of driver errors
and mechanical failures, the team lost the constructors' title to
Ferrari.
2000s
2000
was not a repeat of recent successes: McLaren won seven races in a
close fight with Ferrari, but ultimately Ferrari and Schumacher
prevailed in both competitions. This marked the start of a decline in
form as Ferrari cemented their position at the head of Formula One. In
2001,
Häkkinen was out-scored by Coulthard for the first time since 1997 and
retired (ending Formula One's longest ever driver partnership), his
place taken by
Kimi Räikkönen,
[87] then in
2002 Coulthard took their solitary win at
Monaco while Ferrari repeated McLaren's 1988 feat of 15 wins in a season.
2003
started very promisingly, with one win each for Coulthard and Räikkönen
at the first two Grands Prix. However, they were hampered when the
MP4-18 car designed for that year suffered crash test and reliability problems, forcing them to use a 'D' development of the year-old
MP4-17.
[88]
Despite this, Räikkönen scored points consistently and challenged for
the championship up to the final race, eventually losing by two points.
The team began
2004 with the
MP4-19, which technical director Adrian Newey described as "a debugged version of [the MP4-18]."
[88]
It was not a success though, and was replaced mid-season by the
MP4-19B. With this, Räikkönen scored his and the team's only win of the
year at the
Belgian Grand Prix, as McLaren finished fifth in the constructors' championship, their worst ranking since 1983.
Coulthard left for
Red Bull Racing in
2005 to be replaced by former CART champion
Juan Pablo Montoya
for what was McLaren's most successful season in several years as he
and Räikkönen won ten races. However, the unreliability of the
MP4-20 cost a number of race victories when Räikkönen had been leading or in contention to win allowing Renault and their driver
Fernando Alonso to capitalise and win both titles.
In
2006
the team failed to build on the previous year's good form as the
superior reliability and speed of the Ferraris and Renaults prevented
the team from gaining any victories for the first time in a decade.
Montoya parted company acrimoniously with the team to race in
NASCAR after the
United States Grand Prix where he crashed into Räikkönen at the start; test driver
Pedro de la Rosa deputised for the remainder of the season.
[89] The team also lost Räikkönen to Ferrari at the end of the year.
[90]
Steve Matchett
argued that the poor reliability of McLaren in 2006 and recent previous
years was due to a lack of team continuity and stability.
[91] His cited examples of instability are logistical challenges related to the move to the
McLaren Technology Centre, Adrian Newey's aborted move to
Jaguar and later move to Red Bull, the subsequent move of Newey's deputy to Red Bull and personnel changes at Ilmor.
[91]
The
2007 season saw Fernando Alonso, who had been contracted over a year previously,
[92] race alongside Formula One debutant and long-time McLaren protege
Lewis Hamilton.
[93]
The pair scored four wins each and led the drivers' championship for
much of the year, but tensions arose within the team, some commentators
claiming that Alonso was unable to cope with Hamilton's competitiveness.
[94] At the
Hungarian Grand Prix
Alonso was judged to have deliberately impeded his team-mate during
qualifying and so the team were not allowed to score constructors'
points at the event.
[95]
Subsequently the McLaren team were investigated by the FIA for being in
possession of proprietary detailed technical blueprints of Ferrari's
car – the
so-called "Spygate" controversy.
At the first hearing McLaren management consistently denied all
knowledge, blaming a single "rogue engineer". However, in the final
hearing McLaren were found guilty and the team were excluded from the
constructors' championship and fined $100M.
[96]
The drivers were allowed to continue without penalty, and whilst
Hamilton led the drivers' championship heading into the final race in
Brazil,
it was Räikkönen in the Ferrari who won the race and the drivers'
championship, a single point ahead of both McLaren drivers. In November,
Alonso and McLaren agreed to terminate their contract by mutual
consent,
Heikki Kovalainen filling the vacant seat alongside Hamilton.
[97][98]
In
2008 a close fight ensued between Hamilton and the Ferraris of
Felipe Massa and Räikkönen; Hamilton won five times and despite also crossing the finish line first at the
Belgian Grand Prix
he was deemed to have gained an illegal advantage by cutting a chicane
during an overtake and was controversially demoted to third.
[99] Going into the
final race in Brazil
Hamilton had a seven point lead over Massa. Massa won there but
Hamilton dramatically clinched his first drivers' championship by moving
into the necessary fifth position at the final corner of the final lap
of the race. Despite winning his first Grand Prix in
Hungary, Kovalainen finished the season only seventh in the overall standings, allowing Ferrari to take the constructors' title.
Before the start of the
2009 season, Dennis retired as team principal, handing responsibility to
Martin Whitmarsh.
[100] But the year started badly: the
MP4-24 car was off the pace and the team was given a three race suspended ban for misleading stewards at the
Australian and
Malaysian Grands Prix.
[101] Despite these early problems, a late revival saw Hamilton win at the
Hungarian and
Singapore Grands Prix. McLaren signed that year's champion,
Jenson Button, to replace Kovalainen alongside Hamilton in
2010.
[5]
2010s
Button won twice (in
Australia and
China) and Hamilton three times (in
Turkey,
Canada and
Belgium), but they and McLaren failed to win their respective championships, that year's
MP4-25 largely out-paced by Red Bull's
RB6.
Hamilton and Button remained with the team into
2011, with Hamilton winning 3 races –
China,
Germany and
UAE and Button also winning three races –
Canada,
Hungary and
Japan. Button finished the driver's championship in second place with 270 points behind 2011 Driver's Champion
Sebastian Vettel of
Red Bull Racing, ahead of Hamilton's 227 points. McLaren were second in the constructor's championship to Red Bull Racing.
2012 saw McLaren win the first race of the year in Melbourne,
Australia with a 1–3 finish for Button and Hamilton, while Hamilton went
on to win in Canada, but by the mid-way mark of the season at the
team's home race at Silverstone, the McLaren cars managed only 8th place
(Hamilton) and 10th place (Button), while the drivers' and
constructors' championships were being dominated by Red Bull Racing and
Ferrari, whose cars occupied the first 4 places of the 2012 British
Grand Prix, this was partially due to pit stop problems and Button's
loss of form after not working as well with the new car as Hamilton and
the car not adapting to the Pirelli tyres. The car also suffered
reliability problems which cost the team and its drivers numerous
potential points, most notably in Singapore and Abu Dhabi where Hamilton
had been leading from the front in both races.
[102]
Sergio Pérez will replace Hamilton for 2013, with Hamilton replacing
Michael Schumacher at
Mercedes.
[103][104]
Racing history: other series
Can-Am
The McLaren M1A
sports car of 1964 was the team's first self-designed car. The 'B' version raced in
Can-Am in
1966.
McLaren's first sports-racing car was the Group 7 M1 – with a
small-block Chevrolet engine in a modified Elva chassis. The car was
raced in North America and Europe in 1963 and 1964 in various G7 and
USRRC events. For the Can-Am Series, which started in 1966, McLaren
created the M3 which Bruce and
Chris Amon drove – customer cars also appeared in a number of races in the
1966 season.
With the M3, they led two races but scored no wins, and the inaugural
title was taken by John Surtees in a Lola T70. The following year Robin
Herd purpose-designed the
Chevrolet V8 powered
M6A,
delays with the Formula One programme allowing the team to spend extra
resources on developing the Can-Am car which was the first to be painted
in McLaren orange. With Denny Hulme now partnering Bruce, they won five
out of six races and Bruce won the championship, setting the pattern
for the next four years. In
1968
they used a new car, the M8, to win four races—non-works McLarens took
the other two—but this time Hulme was victorious overall.
1969
saw McLaren domination become total as they won all eleven races with
the M8B; Hulme won five, Bruce won six and the driver's championship.
[19]
From 1969 onwards, McLaren M12 – the customer "variant" of the M8 – was
driven by a number of entrants, including a version modified by Jim
Hall of Chapparal fame. McLaren's success in Can-Am brought with it
financial rewards, both prize money and money from selling cars to other
teams, that helped to support the team and fund the nascent and
relatively poor paying Formula One programme.
[19][105]
Bruce McLaren was killed testing a McLaren M8D at
Goodwood in 1970.
When Bruce was killed testing the
1970 season's M8D, he was at first replaced by
Dan Gurney, then later by
Peter Gethin.
They won two and one races respectively while Hulme won six on the way
to the championship. Private teams competing in the 1970 Can-Am series
included older M3Bs as well as the M12 – the customer version of the
team's M8B. In
1971 the team saw off the challenge of 1969 world champion
Jackie Stewart in the
Lola T260, winning eight races, with Peter Revson taking the title. Hulme also won three Can-Am races in
1972 but the
McLaren M20 was defeated by the
Porsche 917/10s of
Mark Donohue and
George Follmer. Faced by the greater resources of Porsche, McLaren decided to abandon Can-Am at the end of 1972 and focus solely on
open-wheel racing.
[19] When the original Can-Am series ceased at the end of
1974, McLaren were by far the most successful constructor with 43 wins.
[106]
Indianapolis 500
McLaren first contested the
United States Auto Club's (USAC) Indianapolis 500 race in
1970, encouraged by their tyre supplier
Goodyear who wanted to break competitor
Firestone's
stranglehold on the event. With the M15 car, Bruce, Chris Amon and
Denny Hulme entered, but after Amon withdrew and Hulme was severely
burned on the hands in an incident in practice, Peter Revson and
Carl Williams
took their places in the race to retire and finish seventh
respectively. The team also contested some of the more prestigious races
in the USAC championship that year, as they would do in subsequent
years.
[107]
For 1971 they had a new car, the M16, which driver Mark Donohue said
"...obsoleted every other car on track..." At that year's Indianapolis
500, Revson qualified on pole and finished second, whilst in
1972, Donohue won in
privateer Team Penske's M16B.
[108] The
1973 event saw
Johnny Rutherford join the team; he qualifed on pole but finished ninth, Revson crashed out.
[109] McLaren won their first Indianapolis 500 in
1974 with Rutherford. The McLaren and Rutherford combination was second in
1975 and won again in
1976.
[110]
Developments of the M16 had been used throughout this period until the
new M24 car was introduced in 1977. The team didn't reproduce their
recent success at Indianapolis in
1977,
1978 or
1979, and although they continued to win other USAC races, by the end of 1979 they decided to end their involvement.
[111]
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