Drivers: Heikki Kovalainen | Lewis Hamilton

Website: www.mclaren.com

After an agonising 2007 season, McLaren fought back in epic style last year by taking Lewis Hamilton to one of the most dramatic championship victories in Formula 1 history.

Hamilton’s last-lap move into fifth place at Interlagos ended the team’s nine-year title drought and made up for the trauma of the previous year.

The shocking ‘spy’ scandal of 2007 had cost McLaren $100 million and all its constructors’ points, not to mention exposing its inner flaws for public consumption.

Its relationship with Fernando Alonso – which seemed so promising when the reigning champion led a crushing McLaren 1-2 in only the second round – disintegrated acrimoniously.

And to add a final insult, Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen pipped the McLaren drivers to the championship by a single point, even though McLaren had looked unstoppable at mid-season.

But even heartache of this magnitude was tempered by the one shining light in McLaren’s hellish season: the astonishing debut of its protégé Lewis Hamilton.

The British rookie’s achievements in his first Formula 1 season were unprecedented, as he came within a couple of 11th-hour slips of taking the drivers’ title.

He then made up for that defeat by clinching the crown in 2008, and is just as hungry for a second title this year.

That would be the ideal way to start McLaren’s new era, as talismanic team boss Ron Dennis steps aside to let his long-time deputy Martin Whitmarsh take the helm.


F1 track record

McLaren has an outstanding F1 heritage.

It was founded by Kiwi racer Bruce McLaren, who took the first win for his eponymous squad at Spa in 1968, but was killed in a sportscar crash two years later.

The McLaren operation recovered to win the 1974 and 1976 world championships with Emerson Fittipaldi and James Hunt, under the management of American Teddy Mayer.

After a few lean years, Dennis took over in 1980 and McLaren’s ultra-successful modern era began.

The totally revamped squad would sweep to seven titles in 1984-86 and 1988-91.

With Honda turbo power and superstar driver pairing Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, McLaren won all but one race in 1988.

It was a glorious but turbulent period for the team, overshadowed by the notorious infighting between its two legends.

McLaren was eventually usurped by Williams-Renault in 1992.

And after Honda and Senna departed it had to endure several years in the wilderness before joining forces with Mercedes and climbing back to competitiveness.

The arrival of aero genius Newey from Williams during 1997 was the last piece in the jigsaw.

His crushingly superior designs propelled Mika Hakkinen to back-to-back championships in 1998-99.

But then McLaren had to take a back seat as Ferrari blitzed F1 in the early 2000s.

Kimi Raikkonen nearly sneaked a championship in 2003, and might have beaten Alonso to the 2005 crown had his McLaren been more reliable.

By the time Hamilton arrived in 2007, McLaren had added consistency to its speed again, allowing its new British hero to take the championship at only his second attempt.