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The Fast Lane

June 9: A Historic Date for McLaren

thefastlane | 11 June, 2008 01:09

McLaren is a Formula One team based in UK, founded in 1963. It was founded by the New Zealander Bruce McLaren. In 1966, they used the Kiwi as their first entry for the Grand Prix, which was held in Monaco. Bruce himself won a non-championship race using the M7A chassis. History says that June 9, 1968 is the first time that the team tasted glory in a Full World Championship event. Using the Cosworth DFV engine, the McLaren team had continuous success over the years. 

Winning the Grand Prix race for the first time marks June 9 as a historic day for the successful team. It also set the subsequent decades as McLaren great years. Its prominence was maintained for four decades to date.

Turning back to the team first successful Grand Prix, Bruce McLaren, the second driver who used a car named after him, finished the race and won without him knowing that he did, and then a teammate said, “You’ve won, didn’t you know?” Bruce later recalled: “It was about the nicest thing I’d ever been told!”

The McLaren personnel were only counted as few as 30 persons. But now it counts of up to 1115 persons, all concerned of the team’s success. Two of the original team member still work for Vodafone McLaren Mercedes today. These persons are Tyler Alexander and Ray Rowe who works as a system engineer and a gearbox mechanic, respectively.

On December 14, 2007, McLaren confirmed that Heikki Kovalainen would drive the McLaren Mercedes for the 2008 Formula One season and continue the great legacy. They also launched the very powerful MP4-23 model last January 7, 2008 which somehow promises to get the championship crown back to their team.

 

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