8 Days Until the 2008 Australian GP
March 9th, 2008 | by Farzad |McLaren has won the Constructors’ Championship eight times, ranking third behind Ferrari (15) and Williams (9). The first championship came in 1974 when Emerson Fittipaldi’s driver title formed the basis of McLaren’s championship. The Brazilian scored 55 of the 73 points for the team. However, it wasn’t until the last race of the season that both titles were secured. An exceptional bad race for both Ferrari drivers, Niki Lauda and Clay Regazzoni, made sure that a fourth place for Fittipaldi was enough for both championships. It would take ten years for the second title to arrive. In 1984 McLaren were the strongest team by far, winning by 86 points as Niki Lauda and Alain Prost finished first and second in the championship. The next year was less of a walk over, but McLaren still won both championships. With a lead of ten points and both cars out after 57 laps in the final race, it was a tense few laps until the Ferrari of Michele Alboreto broke down, handing McLaren the championship.
Then after two years of finishing second came McLaren’s strongest year. With Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, the team won 15 of the 16 races, scoring a massive 199 points, 134 more than number two Ferrari. It was the beginning of four consecutive championships for the Woking team. After that it was another long period without much success until Mika Hakkinen won the drivers championship in 1998 and with the help of David Coulthard secured McLaren’s eight constructor’s championship.
The most significant championship for McLaren is arguably be the one that got away. In 2007 the McLaren team dominated the field with consistency and reliability. They had two driver fighting for the driver’s title but controversy and off track trouble plagued the team and they were eventually excluded from the constructors championship handing the title to to Ferrari.
