McLaren


McLaren
McLaren Racing Limited, trading as Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, is a British Formula One team based in Woking, Surrey, England, United Kingdom. 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 (after Ferrari) and one of the most successful teams in Formula One, having won 182 races, 12 drivers' championships and 8 constructors' championships.
Founded in 1963 by New Zealander Bruce McLaren, the team won its first Grand Prix at the 1968 Belgian Grand Prix but their greatest initial success was in Can-Am, where they dominated from 1967 to 1971. Further American triumph followed, with Indianapolis 500 wins in McLaren cars for Mark Donohue in 1972 and Johnny Rutherford in 1974 and 1976. After Bruce McLaren died in a testing accident in 1970, Teddy Mayer took over and led the team to their first Formula One constructors' championship in 1974, with Emerson Fittipaldi and James Hunt winning the drivers' championship in 1974 and 1976 respectively. 1974 also marked the start of a long standing sponsorship by Phillip Morris' Marlboro cigarette brand.
In 1981 McLaren merged with Ron Dennis' Project Four Racing; Dennis took over as team principal and shortly after organised a buyout of the original McLaren shareholders to take full control of the team. This began the team's most successful era: with Porsche and Honda engines, Niki Lauda, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna took between them seven drivers' championships and McLaren six constructors' championships. The combination of Prost and Senna was particularly dominant—together they won all but one race in 1988—but later their rivalry soured and Prost left for Ferrari. Fellow English team Williams offered the most consistent challenge during this period, the two winning every constructors' title between 1984 and 1994. However, by the mid-1990s Honda had withdrawn from Formula One, Senna had moved to Williams and the team went three seasons without a win. With Mercedes-Benz engines, West sponsorship and former Williams designer Adrian Newey, further championships came in 1998 and 1999 with driver Mika Häkkinen and during the 2000s the team were consistent front-runners, driver Lewis Hamilton taking their latest title in 2008. In 2009 Dennis retired as team principal of McLaren handing the former role to longtime McLaren employee Martin Whitmarsh.
                           
                       Source :  wikipedia 



Some Statistics on Mercedes

First race in Formula 1
Monaco Grand Prix 22/05/1966
last race in Formula 1
Malaysia Grand Prix 24/03/2013
drivers
S  PEREZ ..and.. J Button
constructor championship
8
Drivers Championship
12
Grand Prix entered
728
Podiums
390
The first point of departure
154
Winning the Grand Prize
182
Total points in both races
4804,5
Fastest lap
150
Number of laps
76320

Top drivers who drove a Mercedes

driver
races
Podiums
place1
place2
place3
laps
points
David Coulthard
150
51
12
21
18
7755
412
Mika Hakkinen
131
51
20
14
17
6277
407
Lewis Hamilton
110
49
21
16
12
6017
913
Alain Prost
107
63
30
21
12
5832
458,5
Ayrton Senna
96
55
35
12
8
5157
451
Kimi Raikkonen
87
36
9
15
12
4253
337
Danny Hulme
86
21
6
5
10
4862
174
John Watson
73
13
4
4
5
3717
109
Jenson Button
60
25
8
10
7
3267
674
Niki Lauda
58
15
8
6
1
2783
128

Place occupied by the team

2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
7th
3rd
2nd
2nd
3rd
2nd
11th
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
3rd
2nd
5th
3rd
3rd
2nd
2nd


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