231027 Collection Digital Cover 1 - Flipbook - Page 126
“If Bruce had walked into the workshop one morning
and told us we were all going to march across the
Sahara Desert… we’d have immediately downed tools
and followed him.”
Yet McLaren’s relentless pursuit of perfection has humble roots. As is so
often the case in motorsport, the team’s success is ascribed to the vision
of one person, in this case the man whose name appeared above the office
– or workshop – door. Bruce McLaren was born in Auckland, New Zealand
in 1937, and aged nine was diagnosed with a growth disorder in his hip
that that would leave his left leg shorter than his right. This resulted in
a permanent limp but, rather than deterring him, it may have actually
spurred him on. From local hillclimbs, he was soon competing in the
New Zealand F2 series, and his performances earned him a bursary
to race in Europe.
Having joined the Cooper F1 team in 1959, he astounded the racing world
when he won the US GP later that year, becoming the youngest driver
to win in F1 (Fernando Alonso’s victory in Hungary 44 years later finally
usurped him). Having established Bruce McLaren Motor Racing Ltd. in
1963, he entered F1 as a driver/constructor in 1966, the new team scoring
its debut win in the Belgian GP in ’68, with Bruce McLaren driving
alongside fellow Kiwi, Denny Hulme. As was the way in that compelling
but dangerous era, McLaren was also a fearless competitor in other race
series. He won the Le Mans 24 Hours in a Ford GT40 in 1966 (a race
that was documented in the 2019 film Le Mans ’66) but was particularly
successful in the wild North American Can-Am championship. Indeed,
McLaren’s cars – beautiful beasts all, but particularly the M8B – were
unbeatable during the 1969 season, winning all 11 races.
But it was while he was testing the latest Can-Am machine at the
Goodwood circuit in Sussex, on June 2nd 1970, that Bruce McLaren
was killed. Some rear bodywork had detached itself, compromising the
aerodynamic balance sufficiently for the car to spin off the track. In one
of motorsport’s cruel twists of fate, Bruce had been planning to retire
from driving at the end of the year to focus on the business. He was only
32 when he was killed but had done enough in his short life to inspire
everyone who met him.
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“If Bruce had walked into the workshop one morning and told us we were
all going to march across the Sahara Desert,” driver and former McLaren
employee Howden Ganley recalled, “we’d have immediately downed
tools and followed him.”
The name, of course, lived on. There were wins in the celebrated
Indianapolis 500 race in 1972 and 1974, and under new owner,
American entrepreneur Teddy Mayer, the F1 team soared to new
heights. There were world championships in 1974 and 1976 with
Emerson Fittipaldi and James Hunt leading the charge. (The latter’s
valiant campaign against Ferrari’s star driver, Niki Lauda, was the
subject of another film, 2012’s Rush). This was also the era in which
McLaren began a sponsorship arrangement with Marlboro,
the distinctive red and white livery dominating the F1 grid for
decades to come.
One of the fascinations of Formula One is whether, or how often,
the imperial phases can be repeated. The Senna/Prost era truly did
capture lightning in a bottle, and perhaps creating the F1 road car
had been a distraction. However, following a relatively fallow Nineties,
McLaren was resurgent by the decade’s end. Team Principal Ron
Dennis had built the team around Finnish driver Mika Hakkinen,
who had survived a huge crash and life-saving track-side tracheotomy
during the 1995 Australian GP. He went on to win back-to-back driver’s
championships in 1998 and 1999. The other key figure was technical
director Adrian Newey, perhaps the most influential designer in F1
history, who deepened his reputation for innovation during his years
with the Woking-based team. (Interestingly, it was Newey who designed
the Red Bull RB19 that broke McLaren’s 1988 record for the most
consecutive wins – what goes around comes around…).
