2022 Mclaren 765lt Spider on 2040-cars

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McLaren Indy 500 washout was a comedy of errors: 'We defeated ourselves'

INDIANAPOLIS — The comedy of errors that doomed McLaren's disastrous return to the Indianapolis 500 began months before Fernando Alonso failed to qualify for the race. How bad was it? A week before Alonso's first test in the car, the team realized it didn't even have a steering wheel. McLaren CEO Zak Brown acknowledged Monday the team was woefully unprepared, and small oversights snowballed into the final result. Bob Fernley, the head of the operation, was fired hours after Alonso missed the race, and Brown returned to England to digest the embarrassment of his venture. Brown on Monday provided The Associated Press a detailed timeline of the bloopers and blunders that led to Alonso missing the race, the last piece the two-time Formula One champion needs in his quest to win motorsports' version of the Triple Crown. "I don't think we came into this arrogant, I think we were unprepared," Brown said. "We didn't deserve to be in the race and it's our own fault. It's not like we showed up and gave our best. We defeated ourselves." The path to missing the 33-driver field began when the car was not ready the moment Texas Motor Speedway opened for the April test. Brown had personally secured a steering wheel the previous week from Cosworth to use for the test, and the mistakes piled up from there. "We didn't get out until midday, our steering wheel was not done on time, that's just lack of preparation and project management organizational skills," Brown said. "That's where this whole thing fell down, in the project management. Zak Brown should not be digging around for steering wheels." A cosmetic issue at the Texas test haunted McLaren deep into last week at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. McLaren purchased a car from technical partner Carlin, and though the car was orange when McLaren received it, it was not the proper McLaren "papaya orange." It had to be repainted after the test, and that still had not been completed when Alonso crashed his McLaren-built car last Wednesday. "We will look at what we learned here, and the list is a mile long." The Carlin spare was in a paint shop 30 minutes from the track, more than a month after McLaren complained about the color, and it ultimately cost McLaren almost two full days of track time. The team looked foolish as other teams were able to move into backup cars in mere hours; James Hinchcliffe crashed in Saturday qualifying and was back on track in his spare that afternoon.

Jaguar I-Pace named World Car of the Year

NEW YORK — The Jaguar I-Pace has been named World Car of the Year, an award meant to honor the most significant new car introduction and conferred by an international jury of automotive journalist judges. The group announced the winners of additional awards at the New York Auto Show, with the Audi A7 named World Luxury Car of the Year, the McLaren 720S recognized as World Performance Car of the Year, and the Suzuki Jimny named World Urban Car. The I-Pace additionally took home two other awards: World Car Design of the Year and World Green Car of the Year. The WCOTY team of 86 jurors hail from 24 countries, and the organization is independent and not tied to any publication. This is the 15th year for the awards. For this year's World Car of the Year award the top three finalists were the I-Pace, the Audi E-Tron, and the Volvo S60/V60. Previous WCOTY winners were the Volvo XC60 in 2018 and the Jaguar F-Pace in 2017. View 74 Photos

McLaren 650S replacement spotted at LAX and in Spain

With the McLaren 650S quickly approaching its fourth birthday, the British automaker is hard at work on putting its successor on the road by 2018. The replacement to McLaren's entry in its Super Series lineup wasn't expected to arrive until 2017 with a debut slated for the Geneva Motor Show. The latest spy shots of the new model, which is codenamed P14, testing in Spain reveals that the supercar is well underway. The undisguised prototype displays a radical design change from the rest of McLaren's lineup, which has been criticized for its ubiquity. The front of the spied prototype features McLaren's iconic rounded nose, but has numerous aerodynamic touches. The hood, which is similar to the one found on the McLaren 570S, has two triangular scoops, while slender LED headlights mimic the ones found on the P1. There are two large vents at the bottom of the front end, which will surely aid the supercar in creating a massive amount of downforce. Along the side, the P14 prototype features angular lines with a duct at the front of the door, which is a change from the rest of its supercars that have a large duct towards the rear of the vehicle. The prototype is wearing similar wheels to ones found on the McLaren P1, as well. At the back, the P14 still features centrally-positioned exhaust tips, but are round instead of the square-like ones on the 650S. The engine cover has been redesigned and looks similar to that of the P1's, while the entire rear ditches the 650S' square-like rear end for a more curvy design. The taillights share a similar design to single LED units found on the 570S and P1. The large panel gaps towards the top of the rear end also have us thinking that the supercar will have some sort of active aero. Autoblog reader Nicholas Haggard also sent in a couple of photos of the prototype at Los Angeles International Airport. That prototype, which was heavily camouflaged wore a different set of rims that matched the ones found on the 650S. The sleek front end and profile of the prototype has us believing that it's identical to the one that was testing in Spain. While the P14's design is supposed to be a large deviation from McLaren's lineup, it looks like a lovechild of the 570S, 650S, and P1, which isn't a bad thing. The supercar is expected to utilize the same carbon monocoque architecture and the 3.8-liter twin-turbo V8 that's found throughout McLaren's lineup.