McLaren Formula 1

The Woking-based Formula 1 team has hit a rich vein of form that recaptures its past glories.

- JAMES ATTWOOD

The McLaren Technology Centre still looks futuristic enough to double for a spaceport on Coruscant, so it’s staggering to reflect on the fact that it’s now 21 years old. Even more staggering given its age is that a constructors’ championship-winning McLaren had never been built there - until last year.

When Lando Norris crossed the line to win the 2024 season-closing Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, McLaren ended a 26-year constructors’ championship drought - the longest in the history of the sport. The team came close a few times and clinched the 2008 drivers' title with Lewis Hamilton, but there had also been some humiliating lows: in 2017 the Woking squad finished ninth out of 10 teams.

McLaren’s dogged climb back up the ranks and return to title-winning glory is why we have named the team the winner of our Motorsport Award. It would be easy to distil success in Formula 1 down to building a fast car, sticking a powerful engine in it (a Mercedes, in this case) and having two quick drivers - and in Norris and Oscar Piastri, McLaren might have F1’s strongest line-up. But there’s more to it than that.

McLaren’s rise has been built on the efforts of the 1000 or so staff working incredibly hard in the Mclaren Technology Centre.