Hi all,
Today was a very exciting day for me (and 9 others) since we had a tour of the fantastic McLaren Technology Centre (MTC) based in Woking, Surrey, UK.
The MTC is home of the McLaren F1 team plus McLaren Automotive which is where they make the McLaren road cars.
So I thought I would share the photos I took. Whilst we were shown some of the F1 areas (such as the workshops / offices / Mission Control) and a tour of McLaren Automotive, there was no photography allowed in these areas sadly.
The MTC is enclosed in it's own lake with the building designed by Norman Foster. It really is a stunning looking building:
Some local wildlife too:
The view of the lake from inside:
The boulevard:
Inside signed by Emerson Fittipaldi:
Daniel Ricciardo's actual race winning car from the 2021 Italian Grand Prix (minus it's power unit):
The McLaren F1 collection
Never forget what power these!
Our host said that when Ron Dennis first signed up Lewis Hamilton, Ron said to Lewis that if you win the championship in your first year, you will get a McLaren F1 LM (which recently sold for $23m). Anyway, when Lewis got to F1 and in his first year, he missed out on the championship by half a point! So Ron did a new deal saying that if you win 3 consecutive championships with McLaren, then you get the car. Unfortunately, Lewis left for Mercedes so never did it.
Ultimate series road cars:
The LEGO Senna:
This room is entered through a secret door and contains several more F1 cars (and show cars). Apologies for the poor quality of the photos - it was a very dark room so I had to bump up the ISO significantly!
The all white car seen on the extreme right is the test Lamborghini powered McLaren:
The Trophy Room where we were told that this is the largest collection of F1 trophies in the world (just a few photos below rather than all of them). It's written into the driver's contract that they are not allowed to keep the trophy.
The blue Fosters trophy is Ayrton Senna's last trophy win with McLaren (he went to Williams the following year). As Ron went to congratulate Ayrton on the win, he whispered into his ear "it's not too late you know".
Le Mans trophy:
