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McLaren MCL33 F1 challenger debuts in Papaya Spark

New Zealander Bruce McLaren founded his eponymous race team in 1963, entered the Formula 1 World Championship in 1966, but fielded his first "McLaren orange" car in the 1967 Can-Am Championship. The following year, Bruce's F1 cars got the orange juice and birthed a mythology. McLaren F1 returns to those 50-year-old roots this year with its MCL33, painted Papaya Spark with contrasting Burton Blue and Cerulean Blue. The team hopes you won't be able to miss the #14 and #2 cars emerging from the weeds they've been lost in for three years while under Honda power. With little change in the regulations beyond the advent of the halo, the MCL33 evolves last year's MCL32. Other than the halo, the big work involved reworking the engine compartment for the Renault power unit — the first time in McLaren's 52 years in F1 that the team has used a Renault engine. There are two engine architecture philosophies in the sport now, one used by Mercedes-Benz and Honda, the other by Renault and Ferrari. Accommodating the new partner meant redesigning the back of the car, including the cooling layout, gearbox bell-house area, and rear suspension. Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne continue their tenures with the Woking, England, team. Playing it cautious after three years of disappointments, Alonso said, "I feel incredibly excited — but also apprehensive. I know just how important this car is to the team, and I just hope that it delivers in the way we all want it to." Executive Director Zak Brown will hope so, too, so he can please the same fans who petitioned for that classic papaya livery, and so he can hide more of that paint under sponsor logos. A curious note on that Petrobras sponsorship — McLaren will actually be using fuel and lubrication products from the sponsor it signed last year, BP Castrol, while Petrobras spends this year developing fuel and lubricants for the team. The MCL33 hits the track today for a film session, then begins eight days of pre-season testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya next Monday. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

'Trouble-free day! No joke': Honda-powered Toro Rosso F1 car debuts

LONDON — Honda's Formula One partnership with the Toro Rosso team got off to a positive start on Wednesday with a seemingly smooth track debut of their new car on a limited mileage filming day in Italy. "Trouble-free day!! No joke," commented French driver Pierre Gasly on Twitter. New Zealander Brendon Hartley, who was at the wheel of the TR13 car at the wet Misano circuit, reported on Instagram that "the new girl ran super smooth." This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Honda is starting over with the Red Bull-owned team this season after three seasons of failure with former champions McLaren left the Japanese engine manufacturer's reputation in tatters. A behind-the-scenes documentary, "Grand Prix Driver," released on Amazon recently shone a spotlight on the tension between McLaren and Honda that eventually led to the relationship tearing apart. It also revealed how the troubles had started before the launch of the car and were fully exposed once testing in Barcelona started when the car broke down repeatedly due to engine failures. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. McLaren, who finished ninth out of the 10 teams last season, is now using Renault engines and hoping to be far more competitive. How Toro Rosso, and McLaren, fare this season will be among the intriguing sub-plots to the 21-race season that starts in Australia on March 25, with Mercedes and Ferrari again expected to be the frontrunners. Italy-based Toro Rosso, one of the smaller outfits on the starting grid, has taken the cynicism and gloom-mongering about its prospects in good heart. It put out a tongue-in-cheek Q&A at the time of the first engine fire-up that included the questions: "Did it take like six attempts to fire up?", "Did the engine blow up?" and "Did your factory catch fire after the engine started?" The respective answers were "Nope, the engine fired up on the first attempt," "Quite the opposite, it started just as planned" and "Our factory is perfectly fine, thanks for the concern." The final 'question' was simply, "Good luck, you'll need it." Reporting by Alan BaldwinRelated Video: Motorsports Honda McLaren Racing Vehicles F1 toro rosso

F1 to offer track rides with Alonso, Verstappen, Hakkinen

It's not often that a Formula 1 fan gets to experience what an F1 track feels like from the point of view of a racing driver. An in-car camera just goes so far, and tracks are not always open for the public, or even for track days. Now, a special Hot Laps program announced by Formula 1 and Pirelli means some lucky participants are able to take part in ridealongs on the same F1 tracks where all the racing action happens. The first two manufacturers that have announced their participation are Aston Martin and McLaren, and as a result the Vantage and 720S will be used in the program. More car manufacturers have reportedly signed up, and they will be named in the near future. The first Hot Laps will be driven at the 2018 Bahrain GP. The best is still to come. The professional racing drivers that have enlisted for the Hot Laps program are Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen for Aston Martin, and the McLarens will be driven by Mika Hakkinen, Lando Norris, Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne. Imagine being taken for a ride by such wheelmen! Just doing a grocery run with Alonso behind the wheel would probably be exciting enough, let alone getting a track experience. Of course, the one thing that hasn't yet been mentioned is the price. We can't imagine a lap can be very modestly priced in this case, but it will sure be a once-in-a-lifetime thing. Unless you can afford two laps, that is. Related Video: Motorsports Aston Martin McLaren Luxury Performance Pirelli Max Verstappen lando norris

Alonso can do full WEC season after date changed to avoid F1 race

McLaren Formula One driver Fernando Alonso can compete for Toyota in every round of the World Endurance Championship this season after organizers moved the Japanese event to avoid a U.S. Grand Prix clash. They announced at a presentation in Paris on Friday that the Six Hours of Fuji had been brought forward to Oct. 14, ensuring that the Spaniard can feature for Toyota at the manufacturer's home track. Alonso wants to win the Le Mans 24 Hours endurance race in France as part of the "triple crown of motorsport" achieved only by the late Briton Graham Hill. Hill, like Alonso a two-times Formula One world champion, won Le Mans, the Monaco Grand Prix and the Indianapolis 500 in the 1960s and early 1970s. Toyota announced last month that Alonso, whose main focus remains Formula One, would be racing all the rounds of the endurance season that did not clash with his McLaren commitments. The Fuji race had originally been pushed back a week to Oct. 21 to avoid a clash with the IMSA Petit Le Mans round at Road Atlanta in the United States. The eight round 2018-19 WEC "super season" includes two editions of Le Mans as a move towards a championship that will start in the European summer and end with the French endurance classic. The top LMP1 category will have 10 cars, with Toyota the only factory team following the departure of reigning champions Porsche. Alonso will share a car with Switzerland's Sebastien Buemi and Japanese Kazuki Nakajima, both former F1 drivers. Reporting by Alan Baldwin Related Video:

7 things you need to know about the McLaren Senna

McLaren doesn't care if you think it's ugly. Why would it? Even at $958,966, it didn't struggle to sell all 5 00 Senna supercars sight unseen, nearly a third of those heading to U.S. owners. "It's not meant to be pretty," McLaren boss Mike Flewitt tells us. "Ultimate Series cars are about focus in one area. In the Senna, it's aero and track performance first." Still think it's too ugly? Save your breath. It goes harder than the McLaren P1 What would the McLaren P1 have been like without the electric motor, battery pack and associated heft? The Senna is your answer. Sure, 789 horsepower from an evolution of the 4.0-liter V8 in the 720S plays the P1's hybrid-assisted 903 bhp. But the Senna's lightest possible dry weight of 2,641 pounds is more than 400 pounds less than the P1, twin-scroll turbos compensating for the lack of torque-filling electric boost. On paper it pushes the P1 hard, 0 to 60 mph coming up in just 2.7 seconds and 0 to 124 mph in 6.8 seconds – the latter a whole second faster than the 720S. The P1's takes half a second out of the Senna's 0 to 186 mph, and it's faster overall at 217 mph against 211 mph. But next-gen aero and chassis control systems mean a P1 is unlikely to see which way the Senna went in the corners. The looks make sense when you see it With its goofy front overhang, undernourished wheel arches, gaping intakes and towering rear wing, the Senna isn't conventionally beautiful. McLaren's social media manager admits as much, sighing, "It's not an easy car to photograph." In comparison with the shrink-wrapped sensuality of the P1, the Senna has shades of some of the fussier, aero-heavy F1 cars such as Lewis Hamilton's 2008 championship-winning MP4-23. But in the flesh, it's more successful, the front view startling in its aggression, your eye instinctively tracking the flow of air over and through the car and making visual sense of how the aero works. It's got too much downforce If the P1 was a transformer switching between suave hypercar and track monster, the Senna is permanently the latter, which is good news if you needed to drive your P1 everywhere in Race mode to prove your manhood. With a 25-degree range of movement, the wing contributes to a total of 1,763.7 pounds of downforce at 155 mph, the P1 generating 1,323 pounds at the same speed. Meanwhile, active, contrast-colored aero blades within the front fenders adjust airflow over their fixed downstream equivalents to maintain correct aero balance.

Future McLaren cars will be hybrids and autonomous

You may want to look away supercar purists, McLaren views its future as partially electrified and autonomous. Autocar reported today that McLaren's CEO Mike Flewitt wants to bring in hybrid technology for next-generation McLaren sports cars, with the electrified tech baked in from the beginning rather than adding it on after the fact. "Hybrid design is part of the next platform," Flewitt said. "It is designed-in from day one rather than having to adapt an existing chassis." The British manufacturer would even offer hybrid-only models in most product lines, rendering conventional, non-hybrid McLarens as limited editions only. The powertrain in the strongest-selling hybrid cars would feature a turbo V6, reports Autocar. The upcoming BP23 hypercar will already have an electric motor and a battery pack backing up its 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8. Flewitt also confirms that future McLaren cars will have autonomous capabilities, which is certainly an interesting move by a driver-centric specialty car manufacturer. Flewitt acknowledged this, but noted that "Autonomy in its own right isn't that appealing to our customers, but we need to have capabilities designed in for safety, legislation and emissions." The first model to be replaced with a hybrid successor would be the entry-level 570S, reportedly by next year. The electrification would then continue until the 2022 replacement of the 720S. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. News Source: AutocarImage Credit: McLaren Green McLaren Future Vehicles Hybrid Luxury Supercars mclaren automotive

Fernando Alonso will drive for McLaren in F1, Toyota at Le Mans, WEC

Fernando Alonso will drive for Toyota in this year's Le Mans 24-hour race and the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), his McLaren Formula One team said on Tuesday. The Spanish double F1 world champion has been considering taking part in endurance events as he bids to emulate Graham Hill, the late Briton who won the Formula One world title, Indianapolis 500 and Le Mans in the 1960s. "I've never been shy about my aim of winning motorsport's Triple Crown — the Monaco Grand Prix, the Indy 500 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. We tried for Indy last year, came close, but just missed out," Alonso said in a statement. "This year, I have the chance thanks to McLaren to race for the win at Le Mans. It is a big challenge — much can go wrong — but I am ready, prepared and looking forward to the fight." Following his appearance in the 24 Hours of Daytona last week, a deal has been reached with Toyota for the 36-year-old Alonso to take part in as many WEC rounds as possible. McLaren and Alonso have agreed, however, that Formula 1 remains their shared priority and he will miss the Japanese leg of the WEC season on Oct. 21 due to it clashing with the U.S. Formula One Grand Prix. Reporting by Hardik VyasRelated Video:

McLaren MSO X is a bespoke 570S GT4 Le Mans car for the road

We like the McLaren 570S a lot. Few vehicles combine sharp looks, raw speed and genuine usability like McLaren's entry-level model. Still, there's always room for some custom changes. That's where McLaren Special Operations steps in. MSO builds bespoke vehicles like the MSO R and MSO HS (both based on the McLaren 675LT) for customers willing to shell out the dough. Usually it's a one or two-car run, but McLaren just announced a run of 10 road-legal cars done up like the 570S GT4 race car and painted like McLaren F1 GTR Le Mans cars from the '90s. One look at the McLaren MSO X and you'll know it means business. If the paint scheme, roof snorkel and pylon-mounted rear wing don't give it away, the stripped-down interior (complete with a fire extinguisher) probably will. This is a race car for the road, and since all the cars were commissioned by McLaren Newport Beach, they're actually legal in the US. McLaren wants the owners to be able to drive their cars to the track, so each MSO X retains parking sensors, rear-view cameras, air conditioning and a lift for speed bumps and driveways. MSO did as much as possible to make the cars look like the 570S GT4, adding a few other touches here and there. The rear wing adds 220 lbs of downforce to the rear. The roof snorkel was inspired by the 1997 F1 GTR Longtail and improves air induction. The hood has intakes that help channel air to the snorkel and rear wing. Dive planes on the front add some stability up front. Other changes include MSO Titanium Super Sports Exhaust and Pirelli PZero Corsa tires. The roof, hood, side skirts, engine cover, front and rear bumpers and rear diffuser are all done in a satin carbon fiber finish. McLaren says the cutouts in the bumper are there to shave weight. The rest of the car is painted in a different race livery. The interior of the standard 570S features carbon fiber on the steering wheel, instrument cluster and center console. The MSO X removes the carpeting and leather, exposing the McLaren's carbon-fiber Monocell 2 on the car's door sills. Each carbon-fiber seat is fitted with a six-point racing harness. The standard seat belts are still there for non-track driving. There's space behind the seats for a helmet. The McLaren Track Telemetry from the 720S adds cameras so you can review your laps. MSO doesn't ever list costs, but if you're ordering a bespoke supercar, money usually isn't an issue. We just want pictures of the other eight cars.

McLaren, unlike Ferrari or Lamborghini, won't build an SUV

Lamborghini now has one, and Ferrari says it will introduce one by late 2019 or 2020. But don't expect McLaren to taint its supercar DNA by giving into the temptation to tap into the hot-selling sport utility vehicle segment. "I'm not the first person to point out an SUV is neither particularly sporty or utilitarian," McLaren's chief designer, Dan Parry-Williams, told Top Gear. "It's not 'everything for a reason,' unless the reason is to clutter up the streets," referring to a McLaren design mantra ("everything for a reason", a nod to minimalism and purposefulness in the company's cars). In other words, they're not going to build one since it doesn't fit with the mission of the company: to build ultra high-performance sportscars. Lamborghini showed off its new Urus SUV at an event on the sidelines of the Detroit auto show earlier this week, making for its first presence at the Detroit auto show in several years. It'll start at $200,000. Meanwhile, Ferrari CEO Sergio Marchionne said at the auto show Tuesday that the Italian brand will make not only a battery-electric supercar without peer, but also its first SUV, which will be the "fastest on the market" when it arrives in late 2019 or 2020, according to Bloomberg. McLaren has already said that it aims to increase production, invest GBP1 billion (about $1.38 billion at current exchange rates) and expand its product portfolio, saying that half of its new models will be hybrids by 2022. It's also talked about making a fully electric powertrain for a future Ultimate Series model based on the hybrid P1. Just don't plan on any of them sitting on a new SUV platform — for now, at least.Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Image Credit: Drew Phillips McLaren SUV Hybrid Performance supercar mclaren p1 hypercar Sport Utility

2018 McLaren 570GT can be as sporty as the 570S

We're getting the feeling that McLaren is not a company that likes compromise. When it introduced the 570S Spider, it had the exact same performance as the coupe, and barely weighed any more than the coupe, despite having a retractable top. Now, McLaren is bringing the 570GT up to 570S performance parity with the Sports Pack. The Sports Pack costs an extra $5,950, which isn't cheap, but shouldn't scare someone willing and able to drop over $200,000 on a car. For that money, McLaren swaps in the 570S Coupe's steering rack, shocks, and stability control and driving mode settings. And now that all 570GTs get standard carbon ceramic brakes, there shouldn't be much of a difference in driving experience between the GT and S Coupe. Except for the fact that you'll actually be able to bring more than a large wallet with you on the drive. In addition to the Sports Pack, McLaren now offers an electrochromic glass roof option for the 570GT which allows the driver to pick the preferred amount of tinting. A number of new color options are also now available on the 570GT as well as the 570S Coupe. Finally, the entire 570-line now puts the rear-view camera display in the instrument cluster, when the camera option is added. Related Video: