18 June 2026 13:30 (UTC)
The Papaya Family deserve a place to call home: here’s how we built them a world-class digital hub, with a little help from our friends
The McLaren Racing Club was created with one major goal in mind. To give every member of the Papaya Family a way to come together and feel genuinely connected to the entire team - no matter where they are in the world.
While McLaren may have come from humble beginnings, its band of enthusiastic young Kiwi engineers starting the team in the small English town of Feltham, our incredible supporters can now be found in every corner of the globe. In Japan, where fans don full replica racing suits to watch from the stands. In Italy, where one bride was late to her wedding because she was watching Qualifying. In America, where a newborn baby girl was named Senna in honour of her father’s favourite driver. Without a doubt, we have some of the most dedicated fans in Formula 1, and we wanted to provide a home that matched that energy. We also wanted to do more for the millions of supporters who might not be able to watch a race in person: the supporters who tune in from their sofa at 02:00am, who gather the whole family to watch from the pub on a Sunday afternoon, or who sneak furtive glances at their phone while they’re supposed to be working.
“Only a small percentage of McLaren racing fans will ever get the chance to attend a race, so it’s really important to us that they can experience McLaren Racing digitally,” says Leesa Haydock, Director of Digital Marketing & Products at McLaren Racing. “We knew we could do so much more.”
From here, the idea of the McLaren Racing Club was born. A digital hub, evolved and enhanced from the prior McLaren Plus offering, that would bring fans closer to the action, offer exclusive rewards, and give supporters a place where they could naturally come together. ‘With fan expectations changing, it’s more important than ever that we embrace digital transformation so that we can better connect and communicate with our fans,” said Leesa.
With a clear vision in mind, the work began - but it wasn’t going to be easy.
Here, we’ll dive into how we created McLaren Racing Club and the crucial role Okta played in the process.
Creating a platform for millions of passionate fans around the world is no small undertaking. Race weekends send digital traffic surging, and when something extraordinary happens - a hair-raising crash, a shock retirement, a Championship decided in the final corner - the whole world stops to watch, fans and non-fans alike.
The technical infrastructure behind the McLaren Racing Club had to be ready to handle massive digital surges such as these while still delivering a smooth experience for fans everywhere. Even more importantly, it had to keep fans safe.
“It’s important to maintain the trust of our fans, so for us that’s about peace of mind that their log-ins are secure,” says Dan Keyworth, Executive Director of Performance & Technology Systems at McLaren Racing. “What we really needed was industry-leading security features, progressive profiling, and the ability to cater to a surge of fans over a race weekend.”
We looked to Okta as a trusted security partner. Crucially, the trust was already there. “We had already used Okta’s Auth0 platform for the B2B side of our business, so we had confidence in its potential,” explains Dan. Okta has been an Official Partner of the McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team since 2025. During this multi-year partnership, the world-leading security platform is collaborating with McLaren to streamline digital infrastructure and provide secure, seamless access for partners, fans and employees.
By entrusting Okta with the technical expertise required for the McLaren Racing Club, our team was freed up to focus on quality and content.
“The [McLaren] team is world-class, but we wanted to give their developers a robust, secure toolkit so that they could stop worrying about credentials and start focusing on features,” says Gareth Davies, Chief Product Officer of Okta’s Auth0. While the McLaren team tracks down behind-the-scenes content, locks in exclusive competitions, and secures impressive fan discounts from partners, the Auth0 platform is dedicated to delivering a safe and seamless experience to fans. It’s a strong partnership that is setting the platform up for long-term success. “With the Okta Auth0 platform, McLaren can handle millions of simultaneous authentications without any friction,” said Gareth. “As McLaren explores new frontiers, whether that’s managing AI agents, deeper personalisation or new digital ecosystems, Okta provides the secure identity layer that makes those connections possible.”
The McLaren Racing Club is now live and free to join, for everybody. Fans can look forward to exclusive competitions, in-person events, race weekend coverage, early access to limited-edition merchandise, and discounts from our partners. Even more features are due to be added soon.
Crucially, Okta’s Auth0 platform is ready to scale alongside us. So, as the Papaya Family grows, there will always be room for fans new and old.
McLaren Racing Club is free to join. Existing McLaren Plus members can upgrade for free, while new fans can sign up here and download the app from Google Play and the App Store.
