2012 Mclaren Mp4-12c Coupe on 2040-cars

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7 things you need to know about the McLaren Senna

McLaren doesn't care if you think it's ugly. Why would it? Even at $958,966, it didn't struggle to sell all 5 00 Senna supercars sight unseen, nearly a third of those heading to U.S. owners. "It's not meant to be pretty," McLaren boss Mike Flewitt tells us. "Ultimate Series cars are about focus in one area. In the Senna, it's aero and track performance first." Still think it's too ugly? Save your breath. It goes harder than the McLaren P1 What would the McLaren P1 have been like without the electric motor, battery pack and associated heft? The Senna is your answer. Sure, 789 horsepower from an evolution of the 4.0-liter V8 in the 720S plays the P1's hybrid-assisted 903 bhp. But the Senna's lightest possible dry weight of 2,641 pounds is more than 400 pounds less than the P1, twin-scroll turbos compensating for the lack of torque-filling electric boost. On paper it pushes the P1 hard, 0 to 60 mph coming up in just 2.7 seconds and 0 to 124 mph in 6.8 seconds – the latter a whole second faster than the 720S. The P1's takes half a second out of the Senna's 0 to 186 mph, and it's faster overall at 217 mph against 211 mph. But next-gen aero and chassis control systems mean a P1 is unlikely to see which way the Senna went in the corners. The looks make sense when you see it With its goofy front overhang, undernourished wheel arches, gaping intakes and towering rear wing, the Senna isn't conventionally beautiful. McLaren's social media manager admits as much, sighing, "It's not an easy car to photograph." In comparison with the shrink-wrapped sensuality of the P1, the Senna has shades of some of the fussier, aero-heavy F1 cars such as Lewis Hamilton's 2008 championship-winning MP4-23. But in the flesh, it's more successful, the front view startling in its aggression, your eye instinctively tracking the flow of air over and through the car and making visual sense of how the aero works. It's got too much downforce If the P1 was a transformer switching between suave hypercar and track monster, the Senna is permanently the latter, which is good news if you needed to drive your P1 everywhere in Race mode to prove your manhood. With a 25-degree range of movement, the wing contributes to a total of 1,763.7 pounds of downforce at 155 mph, the P1 generating 1,323 pounds at the same speed. Meanwhile, active, contrast-colored aero blades within the front fenders adjust airflow over their fixed downstream equivalents to maintain correct aero balance.

McLaren P1 prototype still sliding hard after 40,000 miles

Even if you're the manufacturer responsible for producing them, you don't just hand the keys over to a seven-figure supercar to just anyone. You hand-pick just the right man for the job. But even then, you still don't want to give him a brand-new car. Which could be why when McLaren invited Chris Harris and his crew from Drive down to Abu Dhabi to capture the new P1, they put him in XP7 – a pre-production prototype that's undergone 40,000 hard miles of testing in extreme climates around the world. Not that its well-worn nature would keep Monkey from enjoying himself, and from that shining through on film. So after a brief chat with chief test driver Chris Goodwin and a cruise around town to measure its manners, it was straight onto the Yas Marina circuit to wring its neck. So what did Harris think of the McLaren P1? "I haven't driven a car like this before. I really haven't. Because there isn't another car like this. It's a different league even to a [Porsche] 918." Then he turns the traction control off. See what happens next in the video below. It's nearly a half hour long, but it's worth every second. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Related Gallery McLaren P1 Hot Weather Testing View 10 Photos News Source: Drive via YouTube McLaren Coupe Hybrid Performance Videos chris harris mclaren p1 drive abu dhabi

McLaren and Red Bull refused to accept elimination qualifying compromise

Formula 1's failure to change its under-fire elimination qualifying format was sealed when McLaren and Red Bull refused to accept anything other than ditching the shoot-out idea completely, Motorsport.com has learned. In another dramatic twist to the saga surrounding F1's qualifying system, sources have confirmed that the two outfits were unwilling to play ball with an alternative solution that had been put on the table by the FIA this week. And without their support - and the need for unanimous backing for any change to go through - the idea to tweak elimination qualifying was left dead in the water, with no time left to do anything other than keep the system that proved so unpopular in Australia. FIA plan After the shambolic end to Q3 in Australia, teams had unanimously agreed in Melbourne to ditch elimination qualifying and go back to last year's system for the next race in Bahrain. However, a decision was made by the FIA to not go that far and abandon the positive aspects of the change. Instead it wanted to give the shoot-out system another try, albeit in an improved format. This week therefore, teams on the Strategy Group and F1 Commission found themselves only able to vote on a revised format to elimination qualifying proposed by the FIA, where the new-style Q1 and Q2 would be extended, and Q3 would revert to how it was last year. One theory as to why teams were only given this option to vote on was that it would effectively force their hands to accept it, as they would be highly unlikely to reject it and keep the Australian system that was so universally criticised. However, if that was a motivation for not giving teams the option of going back to last year's system, then it failed entirely because McLaren and Red Bull refused to support it and did not vote in favour. Without their support, the vote did not go through, meaning that F1 is heading to Bahrain with the same under-fire elimination qualifying format that was run in Australia – and little prospect of it delivering a better show in Q3 this time. F1 criticism In a week when the GPDA spoke out about F1's 'obsolete' rules structure, and the sport making a bold move away from free-to-air TV in Britain, the inability of F1 to get rid of a hated qualifying format has left it facing further criticism.