Looking back - McLaren exhibition in Bahrain
04/22/2012
On the occasion of the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Bahrain (April 22, 2012), McLaren flew a selection of cars to the crisis-ridden kingdom for a special exhibition.
Unfortunately, the selection of models on display was not really well chosen. For example, a car by company founder Bruce McLaren from the 1960s is missing, as is a car from the 1970s. Instead, you can see the M15, the Indy car from 1970 with the Offenhauser four-cylinder turbo engine from Peter Revson and Carl Williams ...
... as well as Jody Scheckter's F2 winning car from Crystal Palace in 1970.
The McLaren-TAG-Porsche of Lauda and Prost is still a feast for the eyes.
Senna's MP4/4 from 1988, including the Brazilian's fascinating Palmares, remains unforgettable. On May 1, 1994, Senna was the last F1 driver to die in an accident.
Since then, 18 years have passed without a fatal accident. Only a good handful - namely Karl Wendlinger at the 1994 Monaco GP, Luciano Burti at the 2001 Belgian GP in Spa, Takuma Sato at the 2002 Austrian GP in Zeltweg, Robert Kubica at the 2007 Canadian GP in Montreal and Felipe Massa at the 2009 Hungarian GP - have knocked on heaven's door since then - but without entering.
Racing is much safer today, as are many other extreme sports. Unfortunately, company founder Bruce McLaren was not yet able to benefit from today's high level of safety at Goodwood in 1970. He died after an accident during test drives at 200 km/h in his CanAm racing car.
Bruce McLaren founded his own racing team in 1966 and scored 3 world championship points with his first own design, the M2B. Together with Dennis Hulme, things went better in the second season in 1968. They finished 3rd (Hulme) and 5th (McLaren) in the drivers' world championship and 2nd in the constructors' world championship. In 1969, McLaren's 3rd place brought a further improvement.
After the death of Bruce McLaren, Teddy Mayer took over as team principal. He was then replaced by Ron Dennis in 1981.
