Few Formula One teams can boast a history lasting decades but on Saturday McLaren will complete their sixth. It is a moment they have every reason to savour given struggles in recent years and their latest upturn in fortune. What is perhaps most striking about this anniversary is not only how far the team have come but how revered their founder, Bruce McLaren, remains despite his death in 1970.
The New Zealander was killed aged just 32 when he crashed while testing his team’s M8D sportscar at Goodwood. It was just seven years since he had formed McLaren on 2 September 1963 and only four years after they made their F1 debut at Monaco, while McLaren himself had claimed their first F1 win at Spa in 1968.
