2015 Mclaren 650s on 2040-cars

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Race Recap: 2015 US Grand Prix was wet, wild, and historic

Hurricane Patricia made landfall in Mexico this weekend, and made her presence known throughout the South. For two of the three days of the grand prix weekend it rained non-stop in Austin, so badly on Saturday that qualifying had to be postponed until Sunday morning, and then it only stayed dry enough to conduct the first two sessions. At the end of a tricky, slippery Q2 Nico Rosberg had put his Mercedes-AMG Petronas on the front row, one tenth ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton. The German had done the best he could to keep his hair-thin chances of a World Championship fight alive. Daniel Ricciardo lined his Infiniti Red Bull Racing chassis in third ahead of teammate Daniil Kvyat, both drivers having moved up a place because Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel took a ten-spot grid penalty for using a fifth engine and dropped to 13th. Continuing the two-up theme, Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg were fifth and sixth for Force India. After that came variety: Felipe Massa in seventh for Williams, Max Verstappen for Toro Rosso in eighth, Fernando Alonso looking good in the rain for McLaren in ninth, and Romain Grosjean for Lotus in tenth. When the lights went out, Turn 1 set the tone. Pole position is on the outside line at Circuit of the Americas, and Hamilton had got himself far enough under Rosberg by the time the two got up the hill that Rosberg had to stick to the outside through the corner. At the corner exit Hamilton used the entire track, pushing Rosberg wide, their cars touching. As Rosberg left the track and dropped back to fourth, Hamilton radioed to the team to say the contact was unintentional. The two Mercedes' and two Red Bulls animated the front. Rosberg passed Ricciardo at the end of a Virtual Safety Car period employed to let the marshals clean the debris at Turn 1. Kvyat started chasing down Hamilton until the Russian ran wide and let Rosberg and Ricciardo through, then Rosberg ran wide on the next lap to let Ricciardo through. On Lap 15, Ricciardo passed Hamilton through the esses to take the lead. After the first round of pit stops the Aussie still had the lead, followed by Rosberg, Kvyat, Hamilton, and Vettel. Then Rosberg got around to take the lead and Vettel closed in on Hamilton as the Brit duked it out with the Russian. Rosberg showed excellent speed, building up a nine-second gap on Ricciardo, but a Safety Car period erased that when Marcus Ericsson had to park his dead Sauber on the inside of the track after Turn 10.

McLaren weighing dedicated P1 Track version

Start drawing parallels between Ferrari and McLaren and you're not likely to be left with much white space on the page when you're done. Both are Formula One racing teams first and foremost, and only started building cars for the road once they'd proven themselves on the racetrack. They both top the leaderboards for the most F1 championships, and have probably swapped more drivers (not to mention sponsors) than any other teams on the grid, but have both fallen behind in recent years and fired their team principals as a result. Their road-going supercars compete for largely the same customers, from the ~$250k, mid-engined V8s of the 458 and 650S all the way up to the latest million-dollar, 900-plus-horsepower hybrid hypercars. But Ferrari is a bigger company and has been in the game much longer, and as a result offers its customers two things that McLaren does not. One is front-engined GTs like the F12 Berlinetta, FF and California. The other is the exclusive XX track program. While McLaren may be showing no intention of taking on the former, the latter could be in the cards. In correspondence with Autoblog, McLaren spokesman Wayne Bruce confirmed a report from Autocar stating that, following requests from a number of P1 owners, the company has contacted all 375 buyers to gauge interest in a dedicated track-only version of the P1. Similar to the Ferrari FXX or the upcoming LaFerrari XX, the P1 Track would be set up specifically for the circuit. According to Bruce, "the P1 'Track' will have (even) more power and (even) torque than the road legal P1. It will also have (even) more extreme, aero tuned styling and an (even) more minimalist interior." All of which sounds pretty promising, considering the starting point is a hybrid hypercar with 903 horsepower and 664 pound-feet of torque on tap. But that's not all: "McLaren will organise a series of track events dedicated to the P1 'Track' and its owners. There will be one-to-one driver training for this very exclusive group, too." In other words, a similar approach to what Ferrari takes with its top clients, only likely without the pretense of paying to serve as a factory test driver. Production of the P1 Track would only start once all 375 road-going versions were completed, and though "the number to be produced has not been established yet... we envisage it being in the low double digits," with application open exclusively to existing P1 owners.

McLaren 570S priced at $184,900

McLaren broke new ground when it launched the new 570S at the New York Auto Show this week, moving in into lower-priced but higher-volume territory for the first time. But that's just the tip of the proverbial iceberg: there will be an entire Sports Series to follow, with additional body styles and more affordable (a relative term in this case) levels of specification. The second model, dubbed 540C, is set to debut at the Shanghai Motor Show. US dealers will exchange $184,900 for keys to a 570S, which is $2,200 more than Porsche's base price for the 911 Turbo S. Based on 540C pricing already announced in the United Kingdom, we estimate that model will cost about $160,000 if it comes Stateside. The 540C is to the 570S as the Asian-market 625C is to the 650S. The smaller number designates a lower level of equipment and a little less power, but also a lower price tag. In the case of the 540C, that's 533 horsepower instead of 562 hp. The carbon-ceramic brakes on the 570S will most certainly disappear from the standard features list for the 540C, among other features. Of course that doesn't mean the 540C will be offered Stateside. The 625C at the bottom end of the Super Series is only offered in Asia, and with the new 540C set to be unveiled at the Shanghai Motor Show later this month, McLaren could follow a similar formula. Show full PR text McLAREN 570S: A NEW BENCHMARK FOR THE SPORTS CAR MARKET PREMIERES IN NEW YORK · Sports Series completes the McLaren three tier model range, priced from $184,900 · Highest power and lightest car in the sports car segment by almost 150 kg (331 lbs) means a class-leading power-to-weight ratio of 434PS per ton (5 lbs per hp) · Two examples of the 570S unveiled in New York showcase some of the customization options available with the new 'By McLaren' designer interiors The all-new McLaren Sports Series brings McLaren race-derived technologies and supercar driving exhilaration to the sports car market for the first time. Launching with two power outputs, the Sports Series offers class-leading performance, lightweight construction including a carbon fiber chassis, recognizable McLaren design values and a comprehensive specification list. Pricing for the higher-powered 570S, shown for the first time at the New York International Auto Show, will retail from $184,900 USD. Global deliveries of the Sports Series will commence later this year.