McLaren W1, Formula 1 goes to practical work

FFaced with very tough competition in Formula 1, McLaren is, like Ferrari and Aston Martin, obliged to a certain consistency. While Renault – which will squander its capital by abandoning its engine business – can perfectly well do without a series extension of its F1 cars, this is not the case for the English and Italians. They have been cultivating for ages the idea of ​​the supercar which completely escapes the diamond. It wasn’t always called that but the ingredients were there in these sportswomen who were already fighting in competition.

The W1, which the English brand has just revealed, could perfectly appear on the starting line of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Perhaps this is how it will end, because obviously this car is not for everyone. Currently circulating on the web are the misadventures of an American YouTuber, Jack Doherty, who foolishly lost control of his McLaren on the highway while making a live video for his fifteen million subscribers. You don’t joke with a supercar like you do with dad’s pickup or mom’s SUV. But here, McLaren is aiming really high with a car that even a gentleman driver will have a hard time understanding. See instead.

If the silhouette resembles many other models of the brand, in the details, the aerodynamicists have given it a shock treatment, directly from the F1 wind tunnel. The most spectacular is the inevitable rear wing, which extends up to 30 cm in an overhang thanks to a motorized support. There is thus, depending on the position of the wing, the road device and the circuit configuration.

1,275 hp…. to the rear wheels

This one is not satisfied with that with, in addition, the wings with active downforce which make the most of the ground clearance reduced by 37 mm at the front and 17 mm at the rear. By adopting this diving stance, the W1 generates up to a ton of downforce at high speeds. The hull is obviously made of carbon, the ultra-sophisticated triangulated suspensions and the braking entrusted to large diameter carbon ceramic discs, clamped by 6 forged pistons at the front and 4 at the rear.

Enough to stem the excesses of the 1,275 horsepower obtained from the addition of 928 horsepower at 9,200 rpm delivered by the all-new 4.0 liter twin-turbo V8 and 347 horsepower from the electric motors. They are powered by a 1,384 kWh battery integrated into the 8-speed gearbox, capable of ensuring 2 km of autonomy on electric power alone.

But it is the combined mode that counts the most, this tandem of energies sent to the rear wheels alone allowing meteoric accelerations, of the order of 2.7 seconds to go from 0 to 100 km/h, 5.8 seconds to reach 200 km/h and 12.7 seconds to cross the 300 km/h hour barrier. This is pulverized since it will be necessary to electronically limit the W1 so that it does not exceed 350 km/h.

Apart from Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, the in-house drivers, it is not clear who will be able to exploit all the resources of this exceptional machine with a power-to-weight ratio of an incredible 1.09 kg/hp. Enough to annoy Ferrari and Aston Martin in a battle for road supremacy which is largely an anecdote. Not enough to dampen the motivation of the 399 future owners who have already reserved all the copies to be produced at the stratospheric price of 1.9 million euros. The price of prestige and the weight of history, 50 years ago, McLaren won the first of sixteen titles won in Formula 1.