The current company, McLaren International was formed in September 1980 as a result of a merger between Team McLaren and Project Four, a British company owned by the current Managing Director, Ron Dennis. Project Four had already won international Formula 3 Championships.

The TAG ("Techniques D'Avant Garde") Group first joined forces with McLaren International in 1982 when it financed the development of a new Grand Prix Turbo engine. Built by Porsche to McLaren's specification, the engine dominated Formula One in 1984 and 1985. The TAG Group then became a major shareholder in McLaren International in 1985.

It is TAG McLaren Holdings that now owns McLaren International, TAG McLaren Marketing Services (formed in 1987), McLaren Cars (formed in 1989) and TAG Electronics Systems (formed in 1989).

McLaren's first Formula One victory was in Belgium in 1968 with Bruce McLaren driving a McLaren Ford.

Throughout its 33 years of racing, McLaren has proven to be one of the most successful Formula One teams of all time with 126 Grands Prix wins.

McLaren has won 8 Constructors' World Championship titles, the first of which was in 1974, when it also won the first of its 11 Drivers' World Championship titles. McLaren's total of 19 Formula One World Championship titles surpasses that of any other team in the history of Formula One.

McLaren is the only team to have won four consecutive Drivers and Constructors Championships (1988-1991).

McLaren has had 14 double wins from one pair of drivers, the highest ever in F1 history. These were achieved by Senna and Prost in 1988 and 1989.

Over the years, McLaren's victorious drivers have been:


No of Grands Prix
wins for McLaren No of Championships
won whilst driving
for McLaren
Ayrton Senna 35 3
Alain Prost 30 3
Mika Hakkinen 17 2
David Coulthard 9 0
James Hunt 9 1
Niki Lauda 8 1
Denny Hulme 6 0
Emerson Fittipaldi 5 1
John Watson 4 0
Gerhard Berger 3 0
Peter Revson 2 0
Bruce McLaren 1 0
Jochen Mass 1 0


Championships have been won with the aid of Ford, TAG Porsche, Honda,and Mercedes engines.

In addition, McLaren cars have won the Indianapolis 500 three times, the Can-Am sportscars championship five times consecutively, and the McLaren GTR won Le Mans in 1995. In 1997 the McLaren GTR finished first and second in class and second and third overall at Le Mans.

McLaren International is located in Woking, England, with expertise supplied by a 325 strong team of designers, engineers and skilled staff, complemented by advanced Computer-Aided Design and Manufacturing (CAD/CAM) facilities.

The group covers an area of approximately 200,000 square feet.

The TAG McLaren Group, including the McLaren Formula One team, will move to a new state-of-the-art technology centre called Paragon in 2002. See TAG McLaren Group page for pictures and details.

TIM GOSS \x26amp; DELIVERANCE

Posted by Tim Goss at 11:45 AM 0 ...