The fascinating story behind McLaren’s most iconic F1 car

The first of its successes came on this day 35 years ago, when Alain Prost triumphed in the Brazilian Grand Prix. Here we look under its skin at the tech secrets that help make it such an F1 icon.

If we look through F1’s history books, we can see fleeting moments where the stars align and suddenly one team has every ingredient needed for the winning recipe: an insanely talented driver pairing, the ideal design personnel and management structure, an unparalleled engine and a flawless chassis. 

In 1988 McLaren had it all, a brilliant cocktail that helped it deliver one of the most dominant cars the sport has ever seen.

That’s not to say it wasn’t prepared, as the arrival of Honda as its new engine partner, had spawned the MP4/3B – a test mule that housed the Honda engine and was used to develop both the engine and car for the 1988 season.

But, with just four months to the first race of the season, the MP4/4 did not exist. And that’s not just as a car: it didn’t exist as a finished drawing either.

An extremely tight schedule prompted a no-nonsense approach, with not one aspect of the car able to take precedence over the other, as McLaren looked to create a totally solid all-rounder.

Outside the walls of McLaren a debate still rages as to who designed the MP4/4, as Gordon Murray’s arrival from Brabham in the wake of John Barnard’s move to Ferrari had seen Steve Nichols fill the management vacuum.

Looking at the lineage of cars during that era, it’s clear to see that McLaren, much like the rest of the field, had already taken note of Murray’s low-line design and also started to recline its drivers in the cockpit.

And, whether by the natural evolution of the McLaren challengers during this period or the fact it now had Murray on its side, it was clear to see the BT55’s substrain of DNA within.

But new regulations requiring drivers’ feet to be behind the front axle, and a reduction in the size of the fuel tank, meant McLaren would be able to push things further still for ’88.

McLaren MP4-2C 1986 cockpit and sidepod detail

Photo by: Giorgio Piola

A decision was also taken to move away from Barnard’s tradition of a V-shaped monocoque (seen here in 1986’s MP4/2c) in favour of vertical sides that led to a flat floor. This not only had aerodynamic benefits, but also vastly improved the cars torsional stiffness.

Allied to this was McLaren’s use of its own…