McLaren F1 Team
TEAM PROFILE
Founded by New Zealander Bruce McLaren, the team from Woking is the second oldest team on the grid behind Ferrari having started Grand Prix racing in 1966. McLaren himself raced for the team in the early years, forming an all-NZ lineup with Denny Hulme, becoming the first driver to win in a car bearing their name at the 1968 Belgian Grand Prix. Tragedy struck the team in 1970, McLaren killed in a CanAm crash aged just 32. The team continued his legacy, Hulme racing with the team until the end of 1973. The team’s first taste of Championship success came in 1974 – winning the Driver’s and Constructor’s double with Emerson Fittipaldi taking the second of his two titles. From 1974 on, McLaren did not look back and were consistently either fighting or winning championships. A memorable championship victory followed Fittipaldi’s 74 success in the epic 1976 season, with James Hunt taking the title in the final race of the season after Niki Lauda’s fiery accident and inspirational return for Ferrari. Formula One dominance came for McLaren in the 1980s, with Lauda, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna all winning titles with the team as well as five Constructor’s titles in the decade. The 1988 success in particular was one of the most dominant by any team in F1 history – McLaren winning all bar one race for the season. Senna took two more titles for the team in 1990/91, before a key part of McLaren’s success departed F1 in 1992 – Honda engines. Senna stayed on with the team for 1993, however with less competitive Ford engines, Senna was no match for the dominant Williams team – despite taking five wins. Struggling for performance in 1994, McLaren began a long and fruitful partnership with Mercedes from 1995-2014. During this time period McLaren returned to the top, winning titles with Mika Hakkinen in 1998/99. Falling just short of three titles in a row with Hakkinen in 2000 and his retirement from the sport in 2001, the team fielded another promising Finn in Kimi Raikkonen alongside long-serving David Coulthard for 2002. The 2003 season saw Raikkonen in his McLaren push Michael Schumacher and Ferrari all the way to the final race of the season, missing out on the title by just two points. Another close call for Raikkonen and McLaren followed in 2005, before the team signed young British star Lewis Hamilton alongside Fernando Alonso for 2007. With a rookie driver and double-world champion battling for the title, intra team tension was at a high and Raikkonen – now with Ferrari – snatched the title from Hamilton and Alonso’s grasp by a single point, the McLaren pair finishing equal on points. Another final race title battle followed in 2008, this time Hamilton and McLaren coming out on top, taking the championship at the final corner of the final race of the season. Hamilton continued with the team until the end of 2012, with fellow championship winner Jenson Button driving with Hamilton and staying with the squad until his retirement in 2017. McLaren have not won another title since Hamilton’s success in 2008, with the best finish being Button’s runner up effort in 2011. After Hamilton’s departure and an uncompetitive season in 2014, McLaren and Honda rekindled their relationship with hopes to emulate the success of the 1980s. This also brought Alonso back into the fold – however the McLaren/Honda partnership was disastrous, the team only battling for the lower ends of the points and failing to even take a podium finish, let alone a win. The Honda split was made official in 2018, McLaren taking Renault engines for three seasons, and the pairing of Carlos Sainz Jr and Lando Norris returning the team to the podium between 2018-20. McLaren returned to Mercedes engines, the team winning their first race since 2012 with Daniel Ricciardo leading Norris home for a 1-2 finish at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix. Norris almost made it back-to-back wins in Russia before late rain cost him and McLaren a popular victory. McLaren took a single podium in 2022 with Norris with Ricciardo departing the team and the end of the season. Replacing Ricciardo is fellow Australian Oscar Piastri, who will make his F1 debut with the team in 2023 alongside Lando Norris.
McLaren F1 Team
DRIVER LINE-UP
Lando Norris
Key Data:
DOB: 13th November 1999
Nationality: British
Lives in: Monaco
Current team: McLaren F1 Team
Background info:
Starting a little older than most, 2013 saw Lando Norris begin his career in motorsport in junior karting series. After a karting title, Norris would move into Formula Renault in 2016, winning this title while also competing in British Formula 3. These junior successes grabbed the attention of Zak Brown and McLaren who promptly signed Norris as a McLaren junior. A graduation to European Formula 3 followed in 2017 – a title he also won on his debut season. 2018 saw Norris move one step closer to his Formula One dream, competing in Formula 2. While a successive title win eluded him, Norris finished runner up in F2 in what was a strong field – F1 drivers such as George Russell, Alex Albon, Nyck De Vries and Nicholas Latifi all competitors of Norris. Indeed the top 3 in Russell, Norris and Albon all earned F1 seats for the 2019 season. Norris himself was signed for McLaren for 2019, in what was an all-new driver line-up with Carlos Sainz Jnr. Norris showed his talent from the get-go, qualifying 8th on debut and scoring points in his second race – finishing 6th at the Bahrain Grand Prix. Norris would go onto finish in the points on eleven occasions in his debut season, showing flashes of his speed and helping McLaren take 4th place in the Constructor’s Championship after a string of disappointing seasons for the team. Norris and Sainz continued in the shortened 2020 season, Norris taking his first F1 podium in the first race of the season in Austria. More consistent performances followed for Norris, only finishing out of the points in four races on his way to 9th in the Driver’s Championship. Boosted by this and a stronger car, 2021 was even better for Norris – now partnered with Daniel Ricciardo – taking four podiums across the season, finishing 2nd in the Italian Grand Prix behind teammate Ricciardo. Norris’ first win were mere laps away in the following race in Russia, Norris leading the race for the majority of the race before a late rain shower hit. Norris and the team opted to stay out which resulted in Norris losing a guaranteed victory in heart-breaking fashion. Despite this, Norris managed 6th in the Driver’s Championship, comfortably ahead of the highly regarded Ricciardo. 2022 saw Norris and Ricciardo paired again, with Norris’ dominance over the Australian continuing. Norris’ single podium at Imola in 2022 was the only one by a driver outside of the top three teams of Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes. Such was Norris’ dominance over Ricciardo, the team and Ricciardo opted to part ways a year early, Norris now the senior member of team McLaren for 2023 – paired with rookie Australian Oscar Piastri. Away from the circuit, Norris is a popular Twitch streamer and is heavily invested in eSports, starting up Team Quadrant who regularly stream eSports and produce apparel.
Oscar Piastri
Key Data:
DOB: 6th April 2001
Nationality: Australian
Lives in: UK
Current team: McLaren F1 Team
Background info:
Before kicking off his karting career, it was motorsport of a slightly different kind that sparked Oscar Piastri’s love for motorsport, starting out racing remote control cars. Moving to the UK in 2016, Piastri began his meteoric rise to the pinnacle via Formula 4. Spending two seasons in F4, Piastri won Formula Renault in 2019 – his first taste of championship success. Piastri graduated to F3 for the 2020 season, winning the title by in his rookie season, defeating Sauber junior Theo Pourchaire by 3pts. It was at the end of 2020 that Piastri was snapped up by the Renault (now Alpine) Academy – promoting him to F2 for 2021. Piastri took six wins on his way to a comfortable F2 Championship victory, joining successful F1 names such as Lewis Hamilton, Nico Hulkenberg, Nico Rosberg, George Russell and Charles Leclerc in winning the F2 Championship at the first attempt. Despite this success, there was no room for Piastri at the Alpine team with Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon signed on multi-year contracts. Opting not to place Piastri at another team in a similar fashion to Mercedes with Russell, Alpine instead opted to run Piastri as the team’s reserve driver for 2022, spending time in the team’s simulator and driving in test and free practice sessions with an eye on a 2023 race seat. This was all turned on its head midway through the 2022 season, Sebastian Vettel’s retirement from the sport putting into place one of the craziest driver market silly seasons – with Piastri right in the middle of it all. Alonso announced he was taking Vettel’s seat at Aston Martin with Alpine subsequently announcing Piastri as Alonso’s replacement. Immediately after Alpine’s press release however, Piastri announced he was in fact not racing for Alpine in 2023. Piastri had in fact signed for McLaren replacing fellow Australian Daniel Ricciardo. The matter went to court, and McLaren were successful in securing Piastri’s services. Piastri will make his Formula One debut alongside Lando Norris in 2023, ensuring that there will be an Australian driver on the grid for the 22nd consecutive season.
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My husband and I had a wonderful experience with The Grand Prix Tours. The accommodation was amazing, communication with this company was brilliant when I had a few questions and the seating for the actual Grand Prix qualifying and race day was perfect, as we got to see all the overtaking on the corner. I would highly recommend this company and look forward to using them again in the future!!
Myself and my son became Grand Prix Grand Tourists for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa…. GPGT took care of everything, flight were perfect, airport transfers ran smoothly, hotel in Brussels was stunning and comfortable, seats in the gold 4 grandstand were beyond anything we could have expected,transfers from hotel to race were good fun and interesting especially trying to exit the carpark at the end of both days!! But hey, it was expected…Stefan our guide and the drivers were really friendly and looked after us well.Please thank Jamie at your office, he was brilliant, kept us informed on every item….I would recommend you guys 100% to anyone thinking of using your services
Thank you GPGT for organising the trip to Spa for me. My husband and son had the most amazing time.My specific wishes of where they wanted to sit at the circuit were fulfilled perfectly. The organisation, communication and clear instructions by GPGT from start to finish has been first class, well done everyone.I look forward to using this company again and would recommend their services over and over again. Easily 5 ⭐️
We had a fantastic time at the Hingarian Grand Prix. Everything was organised for us. In particular, the communication from booking to race day was excellent. We look forward to travelling with GPGT again.
Just got back from the Hungarian Grand Prix. I booked this as a surprise for my partner’s birthday and GPGT were great from the start. I wouldn’t have known where to start arranging this myself but everything was organised, communication great and everything happened exactly as they said it would! hotel was nice, all transfer pick ups were on time and seats at the Grand Prix were great! I booked the flights separately myself but was really pleased when GPGT still sorted airport transfers for us. They made it a simple, stress free and very enjoyable weekend!
Freshly back from a superb trip to the Spanish Grand Prix - what a weekend and experience! All arrangements from point of booking, pre-travel, and the weekend itself, were seamless and very well coordinated.Our grand stand seats were spectacular, in front of the starting grid and pits, with brilliant views of all the action.We’re already planning which race to book for next year. Thanks to everyone on the GPGT team for making it a very easy and unforgettable experience 🙂
So pleased to have chosen GPT for F1 Monaco - they were really responsive to all emails and phone calls. The advice for hotel in Nice walking distance to the rail station was really perfect (23 minutes to central Monaco). Hotel was great choice for this weekend as we were only there to sleep and it was comfortable clean with helpful staff. Transfers from airport to hotel and return were very efficient and professional - they anticipated late arrival and departure so were ready and waiting to take us both ways in high quality vehicles. Our seats were in one of the main grandstands (K 4) with great views of the track and harbour with a huge screen opposite to see all the action around the track. It was a big decision choosing the company to supply the Grand Prix experience, I read many reviews and GPT stood out, very happy to have chosen them.
We chose GPGT for our 1st F1 experience and we were not disappointed. Bahrain was an incredible experience everything went like clockwork. Well done to the team at GPGT’s we are very much looking forward to our next event.
Having never done a package for a GP I wasn’t sure what to expect. I need not have worried. From the start the communication was excellent with clear instructions regarding flights, transfers and hotel.The airport transfers were easy and the driver was professional and attentive and the hotel was out of this world. The circuit transfers were easy and informative with a local guide who gave us information on local areas of historic importance and local facts and recommendations for nice places to eat.I would recommend this company to anyone who is looking to attend a GP abroad. You won’t be disappointed.
From the moment we booked our Monaco GP tour until the end of the trip, we had nothing but a brilliant experience with this company. Our initial trip was postponed due to Covid and Simon and Jay were always at the end of the phone to answer any questions and reassure us. As for the trip itself, everything was well thought out - from the flight and transfers to the hotel in Nice (clean, comfortable and an easy walk to the train station so we could easily get to Monaco and back). We upgraded our tickets for the Grand Prix after chatting to Simon about the kind of view we wanted and they were superb - right in the middle of the action. It was a once-in-a-lifetime trip that we will never forget and we can’t wait to book our next F1 tour with the company . Thanks all
Like to say a massive thanks to John and the team for a totally hassle free Monaco F1 weekend.Start to finish they are totally professional, quick to respond to emails, and providing all the relevant information required before flying out!The trip itself went without any issues, accommodation chosen in Nice, with its roof top bar, was a perfect way to relax after full day trying to pack everything in, and only a 10-15 minutes walk to/from the station.Our chosen seats which gave access to the mooring pontoons of the big super Yacht’s, with live music that filled the gaps between races. We also got to see plenty of action, (Ricardo’s & Schumacher’s crashes, plus others over the weekend), you could also at a distance see some of the pit activity and even the podium presentations, (depending on the seats we had each day). It had the big screen central to our stand (P), so you didn’t miss any action.Thanks again for a totally awesome F1 experience.Regards Dave
Delighted with the whole experience. The hotel was superb in every way, the seats at the Barcelona Grand Prix were exceptional. Will definitely book with you again and recommend friends to do the same.We were kept informed through the weekend with various tel numbers should we run into difficulties during our stay which we didn’t.Anyone can book with you very confidently!
Monaco Historic GP 2022 with Grand Prix Grand Tours.These guys are top notch. You get exactly what is in the package, airport transfers, flights, hotel, Grandstand Tickets (great seats).I can not speak highly enough of the organisational skills these guys have.Thank you
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