Racer-In-Chief

MCLAREN CEO MIKE FLEWITT TALKS COMPANY GROWTH, TARGETING FERRARI, AND IF WE’LL SEE A MCLAREN SUV...

- Gavin Green

ON WEEKDAYS, MIKE FLEWITT wears a suit and tie and sits behind a desk in McLaren’s very white temple of technology in Surrey, UK. But today he’d rather talk about racing his Lotus Elan, his historic Formula 2 car (a McLaren, unsurprisingly), his 570S GT4 sports racer, and how he’s looking forward to driving at the Arizona Motorsports Park in the new McLaren 600LT Spider.

Running a car company is Flewitt’s job and his life. But racing is his love. As it is for wife Mia, who joins us in Arizona. Mia is reigning champion of the FIA Pure McLaren GT Series, the one-make championship for McLaren owners, driving the Flewitt family’s 570S GT4. She won 2018’s inaugural series, winning five of the 12 rounds, including victories at Spa, Hockenheim, and Silverstone.

So we’re here together – me, Mike and Mia – 25 kilometers west of Phoenix, about to drive the new 600LT Spider. We eat burgers at the trackside cafe. There is nothing else on the lunch menu. Welcome to Arizona.

It’s warm and dusty and flat. Around us are desert and a lot of cacti, and also some rather wonderful F-35A Lightning II fighter jets, because the Luke Air Force base is right next door. Any of those babies would silence a 600LT, no matter how energetically we rev the twin-turbo V8. Sadly, they’re in hangars today – a Sunday – and their Right Stuff pilots have the day off. The new McLaren has the stage to itself.