News: McLaren's P1 supercar upstages its new F1 racer
We are, let's face it, absolutely nuts about Formula One here at Motors-IRL Towers, so the unveiling today of McLaren's 2013 challenger, the MP4-28, was getting us up to boiling point pretty easily. But then, just as the presentation was getting going, all thoughts of F1 and the new racer went, pfffft, out of our brains as Jenson Button pulled up in the stunning new P1 supercar.
There are not many car makers whose new road car could so successfully upstage an F1 car launch, let alone when they're from the same brand, but the P1 managed it.
McLaren's new driver, Sergio ‘Checo’ Perez (who replaces Lewis Hamilton following his departure for Mercedes) arrived at the event in a 12C Spider finished in heritage McLaren Orange, while Jenson followed closely behind in a camouflaged XP prototype version of the P1. These two models brought proceedings fully up-to-date as they joined a spectacular grid of racing cars showcasing the brand’s history, and kicked off a year of 50th anniversary celebrations.
The parade brought to life a string of race- and championship-winning McLarens from across the decades, including 1970s M8D CanAm sportscar, Emerson Fittipaldi’s iconic 1974 M23, Ayrton Senna’s dominant 1988 MP4/4, our 1995 Le Mans-winning F1 GTR, Mika Hakkinen’s MP4-13 car from 1998, and the most recent championship winning car to wear the McLaren badge, the MP4-23 from 2008.
