Speed Week: 986bhp McLaren P1 GTR thrashed on track

The nerves set in about three days beforehand. Up until the phone call, I’d been telling myself the P1 GTR was just a car. A car with four wheels, an engine, two seats and a steering wheel. Practically a Mazda MX-5. What was there to be intimidated by? But then my memory bank would churn a bit, “You’ve driven a McLaren P1”, it would say, “was that just a car? Let me twang a few nerve endings to remind you what 900bhp felt like through the rear wheels on a damp road.” And I’d have to confess to myself that, no, the P1 had more in common with an especially volatile and creatively destructive piece of military hardware than a car.

And then McLaren phoned up. “We’re going to send someone down to show you the ropes, tell you what’s what, give it a bit of a demo run for you”. Someone, in other words, to hold my hand, someone to make sure I don’t sling £2 million worth of race-bred, track-ready hypercar into the wall at Turn 1 on the Red Bull Ring (far more likely to be Turn 3, actually – the downhill braking zone there is an utter nightmare). “Anyway,” the voice continued – and I could tell he was building up to something here, “Bruno Senna will be flying into…”

So we gathered as a stadium tour’s worth of cables, trundle cases and spares was offloaded and watched as the McLaren roadies (OK, pit crew) set up shop in garage 19. And while the rest of the team whistled at the Inconel exhausts, pointed at the wing, said “Wiiiiiiing!” and picked up one of the aluminium wheels clad in slick Pirelli rubber (“Sliiiiiiick!”), I retreated to the back of the garage to take stock and drink in the scene. Charlie Turner, who’s sensitive to these kind of things, came over, “Just be safe, mate,” he said, “no one’s expecting you to be as fast as Bruno. Enjoy it.” From across the garage, Tom Ford piped up, “He’s only saying that – you’d better be bloody fast!”

Fast. How much fast do you want? How fast can a road car, or even an extreme track car, actually be? How far can they be taken? There are no lines drawn, the only limits are those provided by physics. So we start with 1,000bhp, and to that we add racing slicks to help transfer that to the tarmac, and to make doubly sure it doesn’t come unstuck we plonk on 660kg of total downforce at 150mph. The GTR hits 150mph three times on each lap, a lap that takes under 93 seconds at an average of over 105mph. Nothing else here would get within 12 seconds of it.

The P1 GTR is being built on the production line at Woking alongside the ‘regular’ P1. It does a stint at MSO (McLaren Special Operations) a few miles away late on in the build process, but for the most part the underpinnings are common: carbon tub, front and rear aluminium subframes, a twin-turbo 3.8-litre V8 and an electric motor nestled under the left flank of the vee, drawing power from a battery pack behind the seats and adding its torque to the driveshaft before the gearbox.

There’s now 197bhp from the e-motor (up 21bhp) and a heftily unnecessary 789bhp from the fossil-fuel-fed one (plus 62bhp), yielding a pretty heady 1,000PS (986bhp). Oh, and weight has been stripped out almost everywhere – the fixed rear wing means there’s no need for heavy hydraulic struts, polycarbonate replaces glass all round, including the windscreen and there’s extra carbon. In total, about 150kg has been shaved out. Plus the suspension components and geometry have been heavily revised – although that’s all adjustable anyway.

Bruno muscles it into corners under brakes, sorting out oversteer and understeer with faster steering inputs than I’ve ever witnessed, lightning jabs at the wheel that leave me astonished and daunted in equal measure. He’s a driving mongoose. If the car needs inputs like that to stay on top of…

Eventually it’s over, and I’m allowed to flop out of the GTR. Bruno apologises for the extra-curricular excursions, blames it on the ABS and has a word with the engineers. I’m left to contemplate what I’m up against. I will say one thing for the GTR – it seems uncannily stable on the straights, and the traction out of corners is utterly astonishing. My neck hurts. Five laps of 2.4g side loadings is enough.

On my second lap, I think I’m getting fuel starvation through the downhill section. I’m not – it’s the traction control cutting in. How has McLaren managed to make a 986bhp car this approachable, this drivable? The set-up is astonishing. There’s so much feel through the chassis, the steering is so beautiful to use, you always know precisely where you are with it. You can take it to the limit – how ridiculous is that in a car with a Nomad’s worth of downforce working on it? The speeds are outrageous, just bananas, but the GTR is so talkative and engaging you can use everything it’s got, rely on the whiff of understeer to let you know the car is working hard.

I can only assume the e-motor is doing its stuff – there is too much noise, excitement, accessibility and power higher up the rev range for me to bother sampling the lower end. The only indication is that there’s no turbo lag. None. Just instant, perfectly metered response. The only thing I struggle to get my head around is the brakes. I just can’t bring myself to brake as late as Bruno, nor push the corner entry quite as hard.