97 points ahead of the closest non-papaya car, McLaren look set to win not only the constructors’ championship, but the drivers’ too.
For a team that spent much of the 2010s battling their internal-selves, the foresight of Zak Brown and the leadership of Andrea Stella has guided them to heights, and levels of dominance, that they have not enjoyed for nearly four decades.
But which drivers have won a championship, for McLaren, previously? It is not only a stacked list but a storied one, and one that either Oscar Piastri or Lando Norris would be honoured to join.
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Emerson Fittipaldi (1974)
Having left Lotus at the end of the previous year, where he had won the 1972 championship, the Brazilian swapped black and gold for red and white.
Much of this stemmed from a common issue with teams, having two drivers good enough to lead it. While Fittipaldi was engaged in a championship tussle with Tyrell’s Jackie Stewart, his Lotus teammate, Ronnie Peterson, had been able to win that year’s Italian Grand Prix which worsened the Brazilian’s chances of winning the prize back-to-back.
But Fittipaldi’s consistency, in 1974, proved crucial, and despite entering the last race level on points with Maranello’s Clay Regazzoni, he did not finish in the points, while Emerson did.
Subsequently, McLaren won their first drivers’ and constructors’ championships.
James Hunt (1976)
Alike Fittipaldi, but on a more immortalized stage, Hunt won the title in his debut season for McLaren, but how the story captured the world’s attention, including Hollywood.
Lauda looked destined to win his second successive title, when his Ferrari led the leader board by 23 points. This was despite the changing in results, Hunt had initially been stripped of his Spanish GP win, only to have it re-instated two months later.
And the Brit also won his home race, at Brands Hatch, but a savvy route to the pit lane, under the red flag, wrecked his hopes of keeping the win.
But the season’s inarguable turning points occurred at the ‘Green Hell,’ the Nordschleife. Lauda’s Ferrari veered and thundered into the wall, yielded an inferno and threatened his own life.
Such were the fumes that he had inhaled, a priest had administered him the last rites. The flames had also burned his face, and cost the Austrian much of his right ear.
Surely the championship leader would not return? Well, just six weeks later, he did. And this most direct and demanding of gladiators remarkably still had a title to win.
Hunt had eaten into his lead and entered the final race just three points behind the Austrian. At the soaking Fuji circuit, Lauda opted to retire from the race, while Hunt overcame a late puncture to take third place, and the championship by a single point.
#OnThisDay 45 years ago, James Hunt claimed the 1976 World Championship by finishing the #JapaneseGP in third place. 🏆
Bad weather saw a number of drivers withdraw from the race. Niki Lauda’s withdrawal meant that Hunt had to finish in P4 or better to snatch the title. 🌧🇯🇵 pic.twitter.com/cgZyNf5Jc2
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) October 24, 2021
The McLaren driver crossed the line thinking he had lost the championship, it was only until members of the pit lane got to him, that the play-boy Englishman’s anger turned into championship-worthy joy.
The story was so unbelievable, Ron Howard directed a film about this titanic battle: ‘Rush’.
Niki Lauda (1984)
By the time of his astonishing F1 comeback, Lauda had signed for McLaren and was partnered with Alain Prost for the 1984 season. The MP4/2 was the grid’s benchmark, by a long way.
The squad would go on to win 12 of the year’s 16 races, seven for Prost and five for Lauda. But the Austrian’s fastidious approach to race days, and his ability to finish more races, earned him the title by half a point, which is the closest title win in current F1 history.
This was sealed at the year’s final round, at the Portuguese Grand Prix, where the Austrian jumped from outside the top ten, into the second place that he needed.
But why half a point? That year’s Monaco Grand Prix had been cut short after torrential downpours, and was red flagged at a moment where the Toleman of Ayrton Senna (more to come from him later) was catching Prost’s McLaren at a rate of knots.
The race’s early finish meant that only half points were awarded.
Alain Prost (1985, ’86, ’89)
Prost won his first championship the year after, following a consistent run in the season’s second half, which downed Ferrari’s Michele Alboreto.
But he stunningly won the following year’s title too, after he got the better of the pair of faster Williams cars, Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell, after a storied season of squabbling.
The season finale, at Adelaide, saw fate be cruel to Mansell; a puncture thwarted him from finishing on the podium and winning the title, while a subsequent pit stop from Piquet allowed Prost to lead until the end.
By the time of his 1989 triumph, a teammate partnership had turned into a nightmare as Ayrton Senna made his mark at McLaren.
Senna 🆚 Prost
The infamous incident still talked about 30 years on…#JapaneseGP 🇯🇵 #F1 pic.twitter.com/KqIeds8K2h
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 9, 2019
The Frenchman would quit the team at the end of the year, but still won the championship at the Japanese Grand Prix, after Senna had been disqualified following a collision with Prost.
Such was the rivalry between the two, Senna mentioned Prost invariably by ‘he’ and not his name. He also told Prost, in light of the Suzuka mayhem, that he never wanted to see him again.
Ayrton Senna (1988, ’90, ’91)
Senna’s first year alongside Prost had been largely fruitful and the Brazilian recovered from an almost stalling-start to win the Japanese Grand Prix, and the 1988 title. This was the year in which McLaren won 15 out of 16 races, a record for the time.
But taking revenge for the previous year, and against the FIA who he believed to have placed his pole position in the wrong place, Senna’s 1990 title would be won as he deliberately crashed into Prost at the first turn.
He would deny his intentions for a year, but was defiant in his response and criticised Prost’s part in the clash.
In 1991, Suzuka was again the scene of a Senna title win, and he did so when that year’s rival, Nigel Mansell, spun off the circuit.
Perhaps no driver in McLaren history had evoked the emotions of his team than Senna had, and his three titles alongside McLaren would become the stuff of legend, even the one that was laid to rest after a fatal crash at Imola, in 1994.
Mika Hakkinen (1998, ’99)
Ron Dennis, who had steered the team into success in the modern times, had reeled from Senna’s departure, and it would take four years for his team to win again.
But with the signing of tech guru Adrian Newey, a Mercedes engine, and a team in order, another title assault was on.
And it was Mika Hakkinen, who took victory at the final race of the 1997 season, who would claim a pair of titles to close out the 20th century.
A season-long battle with Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher came to a head at Suzuka, but the German’s mid-race puncture sealed Hakkinen’s place in history.
And at the end of 1999, a season which saw Schumacher subjected to the side lines; after he broke his leg during a heavy crash at the British Grand Prix, Hakkinen defeated the other Ferrari of Eddie Irvine to the championship.
#OnThisDay 45 years ago, James Hunt claimed the 1976 World Championship by finishing the #JapaneseGP in third place. 🏆
Bad weather saw a number of drivers withdraw from the race. Niki Lauda’s withdrawal meant that Hunt had to finish in P4 or better to snatch the title. 🌧🇯🇵 pic.twitter.com/cgZyNf5Jc2
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) October 24, 2021
The Ulsterman could not muster more than third on a day where the Finn rocketed away from second place on the grid, and waltzed past the helpless pole-sitter of Michael Schumacher.
Lewis Hamilton (2008)
“Is that Glock?” They were the evocative words of commentator, Martin Brundle, as Lewis Hamilton passed the Toyota of Timo Glock, through the last braking zone of the last lap, of the last race of the season.
The significance of the pass, that would earn Hamilton fifth place? He won the title by one points over Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, at his home Brazilian Grand Prix.
It was a mind-boggling win for Hamilton, in just his second season in F1. He had been denied the previous season, after he scored just two points in as many races, to lose the title by a point.
But the season was his. Or was it? As Felipe Massa has taken the case to court. Not because of Glock, but because of the ‘Crashgate’ scandal at the Singapore Grand Prix, where Renault fixed the race for their own benefit.
If the result were to be reversed, Massa would be the champion. That would mean that no McLaren driver would have won the championship in the 21st century.
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