Category: McLaren

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Honda McLaren

McLaren-Honda deal could extend to road cars

McLaren P1 prototype

The recently announced McLaren-Honda Formula 1 partnership could extend to road cars Martin Whitmarsh says.

“It’s a pure Formula 1 contract, but we’ve already been looking at automotive technology and we’re sharing that very openly,” said McLaren’s Team Principal at the Hungarian Grand Prix. “Our road car strategy at the moment has no other automotive partner and 
Honda would be a good place 
to collaborate.”

If any such deal was to transpire the shared benefits between the two car companies would not be seen for some time. “If you look at our product range, 12C is running and will run for a few more years,” added Whitmarsh. “P1 has just been launched and P13, which is the follow-up car, is relatively developed, so actually it is something that you would see in quite a few years to come.”

[Source: Autocar]

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2013 Hungarian Grand Prix in pictures

2013 Hungarian Grand Prix

We’re fairly certain is Lewis Hamilton is still over the moon at his first win for Mercedes-Benz, which he achieved at the 2013 Hungarian Grand Prix. But we’re not so sure he’ll check into AUSmotive to relive his victory. So, it’s just as well you’re here to fill Lewis’ shoes.

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Formula 1 Lotus McLaren Red Bull Racing

Lewis Hamilton wins 2013 Hungarian GP

Lewis Hamilton wins 2013 Hungarian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton said he couldn’t win the Hungarian Grand Prix, despite starting from pole position. But he made a quick start off the line to hold P1 and managed to hang on for a well deserved win—his first for Mercedes AMG.

We were also told that the Hungaroring is notoriously difficult to pass on but we saw some great overtaking moves during this race right through the field.

The closing laps saw a great scrap between Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) and Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) for the minor podium positions. Kimi was able to hold Sebastian at bay to finish the race in P2.

Making his second great start in a row Mark Webber (Red Bull) started from P10 and improved to P7 by the end of the first lap. He bagn the race on new medium compound tyres, while all those in front were on used softs. Fresh tyres allowed Mark to stay out much longer on his opening stint and he led the race for several laps before making his first of three tyre stops.

With 10 laps to go, while in second place, Webber pitted for the final time taking on a brand new set of soft tyres. He rejoined the track in P4 some 12 seconds behind the Raikkonen–Vettel scrap but was unable to close enough ground to fight for a podium finish. Still, after his qualifying woes he should be happy with fourth.

Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) had a non-descript race and was never really in the hunt, in that context he may be happy with P5 today. However, we’re certain he won’t be happy with Ferrari’s current form.

In P6 was Romain Grosjean (Lotus) who, we think, was a little unlucky to be penalised for a great overtaking move on Jenson Button (McLaren). To complete the move Grosjean had all four wheels off the race track, ever so slightly, and was given a drive through penalty for his sins. He had shown good pace all race and had the package to fight for more.

Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso) was barely sighted on the television feed all race and dropped from his starting position of eighth down to thirteenth. Crucially, he finished one place behind teammate Jean-Eric Vergne.

Formula 1 now heads into its mid-season break and will return for the Belgian Grand Prix in the last weekend of August.

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Formula 1 Honda McLaren

Sound of Honda: Ayrton Senna 1989

As far as tributes go this one is hard to beat. We can’t tell you a lot about it other than Honda has literally created a sound track to give an audio visual representation of Ayrton Senna driving a McLaren MP4/5 around the famous Suzuka grand prix circuit. Oh, and you’re going to like it, a lot!

[Thanks to Ryan for the tip]

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McLaren

McLaren P1 “XP2R” spied at the Ring

McLaren P1 XP2R

This very tasty looking McLaren P1 was seen in testing at the Nürburgring recently. It looks like any old P1, but was carrying discrete XP2R badging. A more extreme version of the already extreme 908hp petrol-electric hybrid P1 perhaps?

No, apparently it’s just a bog standard P1 prototype. McLaren employs a strict lettering system for its test vehicles:

  • XP: Experimental prototype
  • VP: Validation prototype
  • PP: Pre-production protoype

Accordingly XP2R means the car pictured is an early prototype, the 2 means it’s the second XP model and the R denotes it is a revised spec.

That’s the official word from McLaren at least. Given some details of the P1 hypercar have already been released, including predicted performance figures, isn’t it a bit late to still be trundling around in an experimental test car so close to its expected launch?

What if that R actually meant something more? The niche sportscar maker wouldn’t like that its claimed performance numbers for the P1 are down on the equally impressive 963hp LaFerrari. So could the R indicate a new range-topping model to sit above the P1? If this is the case McLaren is unlikely to confirm as much when asked by inquisitive journos.

[Source: Autocar | Pic: PistonSpy]

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2013 Goodwood FoS in pictures – gallery 2

2013 Goodwood Festival of Speed

This is your second fix of images from the 2013 Goodwood Festival of Speed. We start with McLaren and take you all the way to Vuhl, plus a few bonus pics at the end.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s final gallery which is a dedicated set of Porsche images.

See also: 2013 Goodwood FoS in pictures – gallery 1

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2013 German Grand Prix in pictures

2013 German Grand Prix

Here we are with a bumper edition of F1 pics this week. There’s over 100 photos from the 2013 German Grand Prix for you below, there’s some really great images too. We hope you like them.

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2013 British Grand Prix in pictures

2013 British Grand Prix

Here’s your pics from an epic British Grand Prix at Silverstone. If not for a customary dodgy start we may have been looking at Mark Webber with hands raised in triumph in the photo above. Instead Mark almost won, on the back of a gutsy recovery effort.

Ifs, buts and maybes—as likeable and charismatic as Mark has been during his F1 career—that pretty much sums him up. Now that his Porsche move has been confirmed, we can enjoy the Mark Webber F1 farewell tour. Certainly a win at Silverstone would have been a great way to start the journey, but a win at the Nürburgring, the venue of his maiden grand prix victory would have a nice symmetry to it as well.

Oh yeah, well done Nico Rosberg. A solid win for you. There’s over 90 pics from the British GP ready to be enjoyed after the break.

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2013 Canadian Grand Prix in pictures

2013 Canadian Grand Prix

The 2013 Canadian Grand Prix was a pretty easy day out for Sebastian Vettel. Indeed those ‘Mounties’ were as close as anyone got to him on race day. We didn’t want you to miss out on the fun, so here’s 86 images from the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve that will bring you as close to Vettel as any of his competitors got.

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Formula 1 Honda McLaren

2015 McLaren-Honda livery concept

McLaren-Honda concept livery

Hats off to F1 fan Patrick Viola for this livery concept he has created for the return of the McLaren-Honda partnership in 2015.

We can’t say we’re really expecting to see a Marlboro-inspired livery to return to F1 tracks, but as far as fan creations go this one looks pretty good.

[Source: wtf1 | Thanks to Ryan for the tip]

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McLaren

Well this is a little embarrassing

McLaren P1 breakdown at 2013 Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este

McLaren proudly took along its P1 hypercar to the recent Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este held adjacent to Italy’s famous Lake Como. The annual event attracts some of the world’s greatest classic cars and modern day creations too (remember the BMW Zagato from last year?).

So it was a great chance for McLaren to show off the P1 in front of the several wealthy individuals at the show. They do have 375 new cars to sell after all.

Unfortunately things didn’t quite go to plan and the gorgeous looking McLaren P1 would not start thereby suffering the indignity of being pushed out of harm’s way before being loaded into a car transporter. Oh the shame; we can only imagine the look on the face of Ron Dennis!

Thanks to Marchettino for the video, which you can view after the break.

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2013 Monaco Grand Prix in pictures

2013 Monaco Grand Prix

As you can see Nico Rosberg was pretty happy to have won the 2013 Monaco Grand Prix. And who can blame him. It’s one thing to win the race for yourself, but to do so 30 years after your old man achieved the same thing is very special. Well done him and well done Keke.

The existence of the Monaco Grand Prix really is an anachronism in the 21st century, but we hope it never goes. Watching the cars fly through turns 13 and 14 is perhaps the best example of the directness of F1 cars we see all year. And the dramatic elevation changes on such a short track, although flattened out on TV screens, also makes for one of the most spectacular circuits all year.

In our latest F1 in pictures gallery we have exactly 100 images from the glitz and glamour enjoyed by all in Monte Carlo.

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