Trading as Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, it is a Formula One team based in Woking, Surrey, United Kingdom founded in 1963 by New Zealander Bruce McLaren. McLaren is best known as a Formula One constructor but has also competed and won in the Indianapolis 500 and Canadian-American Challenge Cup (Can-Am). The team is the second oldest active team and one of the most successful teams in Formula One by having won 169 races, 12 drivers' championships and 8 constructors' championships. In 1981 McLaren merged with Ron Dennis' Project Four Racing. Then, in 2009 Dennis retired as team principal of McLaren handing the former role to longtime McLaren employee Martin Whitmarsh.
Car racing history
McLaren's early cars were named simply with the letter M followed by a number and sometimes a letter denoting the model. Since the 1981 merger with Project Four, the cars have been called "MP4/x", or since 2001 "MP4-x", where x is the generation of the chassis (e.g. MP4/1, MP4-22). "MP4" stood initially for "Marlboro Project 4", so that the full title of the cars (McLaren MP4/x) reflected not only the historical name of the team, but also the names of the team's major sponsor and its new component part. Since the change of title sponsor in 1997, "MP4" is now said to stand for "McLaren Project 4".
Thus, Bruce made the team's Grand Prix debut at the 1966 Monaco race. 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. 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. In 1980, it was equipped with Honda engines and 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. 
The next year, with turbos banned Honda supplied a new 3.5 L naturally-aspirated V10 engine. By 1993, Honda had withdrawn from F1 and the team used underpowered Ford V8 engines to power the MP4/8. 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. Besides the cars raced by the works team, a variety of McLaren racing cars have also been used by customer teams. In their formative years, McLaren built Formula Two, hillclimbing, Formula 5000 and sports racing cars. 
In Can-Am, Trojan built customer versions of the M6 and M8 cars and ex-works cars were sold to privateers when new models arrived; half of the field were McLarens at some races. Author Mark Hughes says that "over 220" McLarens were built by Trojan. In USAC competition and Formula One too, many teams used McLarens during the late 1960s and 1970s. Most recently, McLaren Racing's sister company, McLaren Cars (now McLaren Automotive) built a racing version of their F1 road car, the F1 GTR which won the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 1995 and 1996 BPR Global GT Series.
Car racing history
McLaren's early cars were named simply with the letter M followed by a number and sometimes a letter denoting the model. Since the 1981 merger with Project Four, the cars have been called "MP4/x", or since 2001 "MP4-x", where x is the generation of the chassis (e.g. MP4/1, MP4-22). "MP4" stood initially for "Marlboro Project 4", so that the full title of the cars (McLaren MP4/x) reflected not only the historical name of the team, but also the names of the team's major sponsor and its new component part. Since the change of title sponsor in 1997, "MP4" is now said to stand for "McLaren Project 4".
Thus, Bruce made the team's Grand Prix debut at the 1966 Monaco race. 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. 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. In 1980, it was equipped with Honda engines and 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. 
The next year, with turbos banned Honda supplied a new 3.5 L naturally-aspirated V10 engine. By 1993, Honda had withdrawn from F1 and the team used underpowered Ford V8 engines to power the MP4/8. 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. Besides the cars raced by the works team, a variety of McLaren racing cars have also been used by customer teams. In their formative years, McLaren built Formula Two, hillclimbing, Formula 5000 and sports racing cars. 
In Can-Am, Trojan built customer versions of the M6 and M8 cars and ex-works cars were sold to privateers when new models arrived; half of the field were McLarens at some races. Author Mark Hughes says that "over 220" McLarens were built by Trojan. In USAC competition and Formula One too, many teams used McLarens during the late 1960s and 1970s. Most recently, McLaren Racing's sister company, McLaren Cars (now McLaren Automotive) built a racing version of their F1 road car, the F1 GTR which won the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 1995 and 1996 BPR Global GT Series.
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