Here are 10 of the best ever McLaren F1 drivers

Couldn’t really start this list without the man who started it all, could we? Bruce McLaren began his F1 career with Cooper in 1958, and in eight years with the team amassed several podiums and three grand prix victories.

But he left to establish a team in his own name (together with fellow New Zealander Chris Amon) in 1966, eventually scoring the outfit’s first ever F1 win in Belgium in 1968. Tragically he was killed at Goodwood two years later at the age of just 32.

The Brazilian’s time with McLaren was relatively short, but in two seasons he achieved a great deal. Already a world champion when he arrived from Lotus for the start of the 1974 season, Fittipaldi earned his first victory with the British team in just his second start.

Consistent results (and two more wins) saw him crowned world champion by a margin of just three points from Ferrari’s Clay Regazzoni, making him McLaren’s first drivers’ title winner as the team also won its maiden constructors’ crown.

Photograph: LAT

Fittipaldi’s sudden departure from McLaren ahead of the 1976 season left the team floundering for a driver, and they eventually turned to James Hunt. The flamboyant (an understatement, but we’re going with it) Brit was without a drive following the collapse of his Hesketh team, so the opportunity at McLaren could hardly have come at a better time.

The season that followed is the stuff of legend: it started badly with four retirements in the opening six races, with a sole victory in Spain chalked off when the car was found to be fractionally too wide. The win was reinstated on appeal however, and Hunt fought back in the second half of the campaign as title rival Niki Lauda suffered life-changing injuries in a crash at the Nurburgring.

Remarkably he returned to the track having missed only two grands prix, and it set up a dramatic finale in which Lauda withdrew in the final race in Japan believing the conditions were too dangerous. Hunt seized his chance and scored the points he needed to become world champion.

Lauda regained his drivers’ title from Hunt in 1977, but two years with Brabham thereafter led to his retirement from F1. Or so it was thought. After missing two seasons, the Austrian returned to the sport in 1982 with the team he’d fought so hard against, initially paired with John Watson before the Briton made way for Alain Prost in 1984.

The McLaren was the class of the grid that year and the Frenchman established himself as the quicker driver in qualifying, but Lauda used all of his experience to maximise his speed in races. Lauda won five grands prix to Prost’s seven, but still prevailed in the standings by half a point; the smallest margin in F1 history.

1984 was the second season in a row that Prost had lost the title by an agonisingly small margin (Nelson Piquet pipped him by just two points in ‘83), but he wasn’t going to be denied a third time come 1985. Five victories and six further podiums were enough to secure his maiden world championship, a crown he defended the following year.

Prost and McLaren was the Hamilton and Mercedes pairing of its era, or it was until McLaren signed Ayrton Senna in 1988. Their relationship was fierce - perhaps the fiercest we’ve ever seen - and it lasted just two seasons before Prost decided he’d had enough and departed for Ferrari.

He left having won three world titles and 30 grands prix with McLaren, making him the team’s most successful driver at the time.

You can guess who took that mantle away, can’t you? Yep, like Prost, Senna enjoyed six full seasons with McLaren, but in that time he managed to surpass the Frenchman’s benchmark with 35 victories for the team. This also included three world titles: the first in 1988, the second in 1990 and the third in 1991.

Only in the last of those did Senna not have to face off with Prost for the title (Nigel Mansell was runner-up in ‘91 as Prost finished fifth in the standings), although the rivals finished first and second for a fourth time in 1993 as the Frenchman collected his fourth drivers’ championship.

Senna’s reign with McLaren is now regarded as the team’s golden era, having not established itself as the dominant force in F1 (at least not for very long) since the Brazilian legend was at the helm.

That isn’t to say that McLaren hasn’t had its moments since then. Its most successful driver of the post-Senna era is Finland’s Mika Hakkinen, who joined the team for the final three races of the 1993 season; the Brazilian’s last before his fateful move to Williams.

Hakkinen proved himself as one of the top drivers in the sport over the following years, although didn’t quite have the machinery for a world title tilt until 1998. Finally in a competitive car, he was thrown into an engrossing battle with Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher in which he eventually prevailed by 14 points.

1999 looked set to deliver Hakkinen vs Schumacher 2.0, but the German driver broke his leg in a crash at Silverstone mid-way through the season, ending his chances. That left Hakkinen to face off against Ferrari’s Eddie Irvine, and although the Irishman led the standings heading into the final race of the season, it was the Finn who successfully defended his crown.

All 20 of Hakkinen’s F1 wins came at McLaren, and after finishing second in the championship to Schumacher in 2000, Mika hung up his helmet the following year.

He might not have hit the same heights as others on this list, but on his day David Coulthard was a force to be reckoned with. He was teammates with Hakkinen for a total of six seasons, and the Scotsman actually outscored the Finn in 1997 and 2001.

Despite coming close (ish) to a drivers’ title on a number of occasions (he finished second in 2001, and ended up third four times before then) he never quite made that final leap. Still, he was a consistent presence on the F1 podium for the best part of a decade, and 12 of his 13 career victories came with McLaren. Along with Hakkinen, he’s the last McLaren driver to have contributed to a constructors’ title too, doing so in ‘98.

Kimi Raikkonen’s F1 career was so long (349 race starts before his retirement in 2021 is a record), it’s easy to forget just how rapid he was as a youngster. He impressed enough in his rookie season with Sauber to earn a drive with McLaren in 2002, taking his first podium in his first outing with the team in Australia.

A maiden victory followed early in 2003, and although no one could hold a candle to Michael Schumacher that year it was Kimi who got closest. The Finn was runner up again in 2005, and although his seven victories that season were a match for Fernando Alonso, the Renault driver’s greater consistency saw him come out on top.

Raikkonen’s highlights ranged from a stunning win from the back of the grid (including a sensational last-lap pass) to win the Japanese Grand Prix in 2005, all the way to retiring from the Monaco GP in 2006 and heading straight to an awaiting yacht. The Finn left McLaren after five seasons and nine wins with the team, a move that won him his only world championship with Ferrari in 2007.

Ah, 2007. The making of the last (or should that be most recent?) bona fide McLaren legend. With Raikkonen off to Ferrari and Pedro de la Rosa not being retained, McLaren filled their line-up with double world champ Fernando Alonso and a rookie by the name of Lewis Hamilton. Wonder what happened to him?

We jest of course. Hamilton took to F1 like a quacking bird to H2O, finishing on the podium in his first nine races and winning in only his sixth attempt. His incredible pace stunned the vastly more experienced Alonso, and their relationship quickly soured as both drivers refused to yield to the other on track.

Ironically, knocking seven bells out of each other ultimately ensured they both missed out on the title, finishing on 109 points apiece as Kimi Raikkonen mounted a late charge to steal the championship by a single point. There wasn’t even the constructors’ championship as a consolation, as Alonso - furious with his team for not favouring him over Hamilton - revealed cheating to the FIA which saw McLaren booted out of that year’s championship and fined $100 million. Ouch.

Hamilton of course rebounded the following year and clinched that maiden title on the penultimate corner of the final race in Brazil, making him McLaren’s last world champion. He stayed with the team until the end of 2012, having won 21 grands prix prior to departing for Mercedes.

Will Lando Norris earn a place on this list now that he’s signed a bumper four-year deal with McLaren? Predictions below please. Oh, and feel free to argue why Jenson Button, Juan Pablo Montoya and Gerhard Berger deserve to be here too.