231027 Collection Digital Cover 1 - Flipbook - Page 123
“1988 was one of those eras, a period that
saw a formidable group of individuals
operating at the peak of their abilities.”
Formula One teams, like rock bands and actors, enjoy what is often
referred to as an ‘imperial’ phase. This is one of those periods in time
when everything simply seems to go right. The wins lead to
championships, the hit songs keep flowing, the roles get juicier,
and all involved can apparently do no wrong.
For McLaren, 1988 was one of those eras, a period that saw a formidable
group of individuals operating at the peak of their abilities. Ron Dennis
had taken control of the team in 1981 and, newly emboldened, McLaren
would subsequently pioneer the use of carbon fibre in the construction
of an F1 car’s chassis. This stands as one of the great game-changers
in the history of motorsport – carbon fibre isn’t just lighter than steel
or aluminium, it’s also much stronger – and it’s a perfect example of
McLaren’s questing mindset. Such was the team’s upward trajectory
at this point that double world champion Niki Lauda had come
out of retirement to drive for them; he would win his third and final
F1 world championship in 1984 by just half a point.
By ’88, however, the stars had truly aligned. Dennis had hired the
astonishing Ayrton Senna to drive alongside the professorial Frenchman,
Alain Prost (the former was supernaturally fast, the latter “wanted to
win… as slowly as possible.”) Honda supplied the engines and was the
master of the turbocharging technology that had revolutionised F1.
Then there was the team’s technical director, the prodigiously talented
Gordon Murray, a laconic South African whose collection of band
T-shirts and shoulder-length hair was in stark contrast to the brilliant
but uptight Dennis.
Between them, they won 15 of that year’s 16 Grands Prix, establishing
a record that was only broken in 2023 by Red Bull. The thought of Senna
and Prost together under the same racing roof seems more incredible
with each passing year; this is widely thought to be the greatest driver
pairing in motorsport history. Meanwhile, the 1988 racing car, the MP4-4,
remains an unsurpassable piece of design and engineering, as beautiful
as it was fast.
Something else significant happened that year. Gordon Murray had
been plotting a road car for years, and as he and McLaren’s directors
sat at Milan’s Linate airport following the Italian GP – ironically the
only race that year they didn’t win – the conversation turned to that
subject. The project was soon approved, Murray drawing up a typically
rigorous manifesto. This would be his baby, the antithesis of a committee
car. “No compromise, three seat layout, use F1 technology to create
ground effect, composite monocoque and body, F1 engine, 200mph-plus
top speed…” Murray also noted that the marketing would be “all about
mystique… the product should sell itself.”
He and the car were, as ever, far ahead of their time. The result wouldn’t
appear until 1992 and was known simply as the McLaren F1. Just as
the company’s racing cars had proven transformative, so the F1 would
establish a new template for ultra-high performance road cars. Few got
to drive it but those who did were awestruck. “Working with such a
compact and varied group of exceptionally creative engineers always
proves stimulating,” Dennis reflected years later. “Yet the F1 project
also proved intensely frustrating on occasions and extremely expensive.”
It was also expensive to purchase, at £540,000 (about £1.1m now),
and with just 106 manufactured – 64 road cars, 42 racing iterations –
nor was it commercially successful. Yet in the decades since, its status
has grown to the extent that it is now acknowledged as one of the alltime greats. Indeed, Elon Musk bought one when he banked his first
fortune in 1999. A case, perhaps, of one singularly focused individual
recognising the work of another. Note that a McLaren F1 is currently
worth anything up to £20m, as desired and revered as the most soughtafter contemporary art.
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