2018 Mclaren 570s Spider on 2040-cars

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Lewis Hamilton has Vettel in crosshairs at Canadian Grand Prix

MONTREAL - The Canadian Grand Prix has been a happy hunting ground for Lewis Hamilton, and he will look to bag a sixth career win on the island circuit on Sunday to refuel his hopes of another Formula One drivers title. With 14 races remaining on the calendar, it is far from do-or-die for Hamilton, but the pressure is mounting on the Briton and Mercedes with arch rival Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari threatening to widen the gap at the top of the championship standings. Only Michael Schumacher has won the Canadian Grand Prix more times (seven), and Hamilton intends to close the gap further in Montreal as the race marks its 50th anniversary. Hamilton needs to do so, at the scene of his first ever Formula One victory a decade ago, to reel in Vettel after the German led a Ferrari one-two in Monaco and powered 25 points clear. "Montreal has been a great hunting ground for me in the past, and I plan for it to continue," the triple world champion told reporters. With five wins and five poles from previous visits to Quebec, Hamilton would normally be the favorite, but champions Mercedes are no longer the dominant team. "The Ferrari seems to work everywhere. The next 14 races are going to be very, very difficult," he said after struggling to seventh place in Monaco. "They have had arguably the strongest car all year. They look like our car which just worked everywhere last year." The race will also mark the return of twice world champion Fernando Alonso to the Formula One grid after the Spaniard skipped the Monaco Grand Prix last month to chase IndyCar glory at Indianapolis 500. Alonso turned in an impressive performance at the famed Brickyard, qualifying fifth fastest and running at the front but late in the race suffered a familiar fate with his Honda engine giving up. Little has changed at struggling McLaren during Alonso's brief sabbatical with the team still hampered by an uncompetitive Honda engine. There is plenty of reason to party around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve this week with the city celebrating its 375th anniversary, Canada its 150th birthday and the Canadian Grand Prix its 50th. Williams driver Lance Stroll will be hoping to contribute to the party atmosphere. For the first time since the days of 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve, the Canadian Grand Prix will have some true home interest with teenager Stroll on the starting grid for Williams.

McLaren GT reveals new track-bound 650S Sprint

McLaren has been keeping itself busy over the summer preparing for Pebble Beach – especially at the Special Operations and GT divisions. The former will roll in to the Concours d'Elegance this month with a pair of specially prepared supercars, but it's McLaren GT that's sure to steal the spotlight. Because it will not only unveil the P1 GTR in Monterey this year, but also the 650S Sprint you see here. As we anticipated back in April, the 650S Sprint will replace the outgoing 12C Sprint as McLaren's new track toy. Slotting in between the road-going 650S and the new 650S GT3 racer, the 650S Sprint is optimized for the race track, but not homologated for any particular racing series. In other words, it's designed as a play thing for wealthy enthusiasts. Presented in an inverse color scheme to the 650S GT3, with black and orange over white bodywork, the new Sprint car features a number of upgrades over the road-going model. For starters, it's got more downforce and better cooling for the 3.8-liter twin-turbo V8. Though McLaren hasn't specified increased output, it has confirmed that both the engine and gearbox have been recalibrated for track duty. It's also got a competition-spec fuel tank with quick-fill cap, enlarged radiator, retuned suspension, Pirelli racing slicks on 19-inch center-lock wheels, upgraded brakes, on-board air jack system, fire suppression system and a stripped-out cabin with FIA-approved roll cage, HANS-ready racing buckets and six-point harnesses. Given that a large share of these are sure to find homes on tracks along the Persian Gulf, keeping the air conditioning system in place, despite the focus on saving weight, was probably a good idea. McLaren GT is pricing the 650S Sprint in the UK at GBP198,000 (including local taxes). That's negligibly few grand more than the road-going 650S (or, for that matter, the previous 12C Sprint), but since the 650S Sprint is confined to the track, it's a an even more indulgent purchase. TRACK-FOCUSED 650S SPRINT TO MAKE GLOBAL PREMIERE AT 2014 PEBBLE BEACH CONCOURS D'ELEGANCE McLaren GT has today confirmed that it will premiere its latest model at this year's Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, with the wraps set to come off the track-only 650S Sprint. The stripped-out racer will make its global debut alongside a number of other models from McLaren Automotive, and completes the brand's display with four global debuts planned for the Californian event, including the McLaren P1™ GTR.

McLaren launches 650S Le Mans edition, Sports Series to offer 4 variants

Even before you take other model lines into consideration, Porsche has done quite a job broadening its 911 range with an ever-expanding array of variants – from different engines and transmissions to distinct body styles. Little wonder, then, that its rivals are working to emulate the same model. Just the other day, we brought you news that Mercedes is planning to follow a similar formula with its 911-baiting AMG GT, and now it seems McLaren is preparing to go the same route as well. As we reported back in March, the upcoming McLaren Sport Series – which will take on the upper end of the 911 family – will be offered in multiple body styles. Just how many, exactly, we still don't know for sure, but Holland's Autovisie reports that the baby Mac will spawn "at least four variants" – which could explain the "Series" part of the nameplate. The first version we're expecting to see in New York will likely be the standard coupe. That will be followed by a Spider version just like there's been of the 12C and 650S. But those won't be the end of the story. This past June, reports suggested that McLaren was planning a GT version with an "unconventional trunk." Autovisie now reports that it'll encompass a luggage compartment fitted over the engine and accessible from the side, making the prospect of driving Woking's smallest every day a more realistic one – relatively speaking, that is. This could take the form of the Shooting Brake rumored to be in the works years ago. But what about the fourth variant, you asked? That could come down to a GTR model. McLaren has already announced that it's bringing the track-bound P1 GTR to the Geneva Motor Show, and just the other day we reported on the possibility of a 650 GTR that would essentially fill in for the previous 12C Can-Am edition. A similar hard-core treatment could feasibly be applied to the Sports Series as well, whether bound to the track or open to use on public roads as well. The proliferation of variants wouldn't be without precedent for Working, after all. The original McLaren F1 bred GTR and LM versions, though they were almost too rare to count. The SLR it built for Mercedes spawned more derivatives than we would dare count. The MP4-12C gave us a few as well. And the 650S has already appeared in coupe, Spider, 625C and soon GTR versions. So the idea of the company's upcoming entry-level model following the same path would only make sense.