Depending on when you first fell in love with Formula 1, your idea of the ‘classic McLaren’ will vary. It might be our red and white cars duelling in Japan, the twinkle of chrome cutting through the rain in Brazil, or our current papaya-clad challengers writing new history under the lights in Abu Dhabi. Whichever car it is you’re picturing, it wouldn’t have existed without the M7A.

The M7A is one of the most culturally significant cars in McLaren’s history. It wasn’t our first car, but it was our first Formula 1 winner and the first to don a papaya livery, laying the groundwork for the success that has followed, both on and off track.

To help explain why we are celebrating the M7A with a one-off OKX livery enhancement in Monaco and Spain, we’re telling the story behind the car that helped shape who we are and explaining how it has inspired this weekend’s design.

What is the significance of the M7A in McLaren history?

McLaren’s first two Formula 1 seasons had been a steep learning curve, with our team of young and inexperienced, but passionate and talented Kiwis developing on the job.

The M7A represented a step forward from its predecessors, featuring significant improvements in handling, cooling, and aerodynamics. But the most transformative change was the adoption of the now-iconic Ford Cosworth DFV engine.

During his first season as an F1 Constructor, Bruce McLaren had noted the importance of having a strong engine package, and the new Cosworth DFV was a revelation, improving the car’s handling, horsepower, and reliability.

1968 marked our first full Formula 1 campaign, following two years of sporadic Grand Prix appearances with earlier models in the 1966 and ’67 seasons, and the team were excited by the potential of our Cosworth DFV-powered challenger.

Introduced for the second round of the 1968 season, the M7A had already hit the ground running with two non-championship race victories, and subsequently went on to prove its potential on the biggest stage in the World Championship. Denny Hulme scored a P5 and a P2 in Rounds 2 and 3, respectively, while Bruce, despite retiring from both races, took valuable learnings.

The road to McLaren’s maiden Formula 1 victory

Bruce and his team took a major step forward in Round 4 at Spa-Francorchamps, where he won in Formula 1 for the very first time, becoming only the third driver in F1 history to see victory in a car bearing his name - a feat nobody else has matched since.

Far from a comfortable lights-to-flag affair, it was a race of attrition in mixed conditions. Our team’s previous cars had struggled with reliability, but the M7A’s improvement in this area proved key, as Bruce capitalised on retirements ahead of him to advance through the field to second - or so he thought.

“Our crew seemed really pleased too, and they had been jumping up and down as I crossed the line,” Bruce said. “There were so many people milling about at the back of the pits that I had to stop the car and climb out.”

It was only then that Bruce learned from a passing mechanic that leader Jackie Stewart had made a pit stop, handing his McLaren victory. “He said: ‘You’ve won, didn’t you know?’ It was about the nicest thing I’d ever been told.” 

The M7A went on to win a further two races in 1968, but more importantly, it attested to Bruce’s team of plucky young Kiwis that they were on the right track. The M7A became the foundation on which McLaren was built. It established our design philosophy, set our working practices, and laid the groundwork for everything that followed. 

“The culture of McLaren at that time was a small group of highly motivated people who were doing their utmost to improve the car, race by race,” says Piers Thynne, McLaren’s Chief Operating Officer. “The culture today is largely unchanged. Although the group has grown significantly bigger, the principles still run through our DNA every single day.” 

Returning to our papaya roots  

The M7A was the first McLaren Formula 1 car to carry a papaya livery. In the same way we didn’t build a race-winning car overnight, Bruce and his team didn’t immediately strike gold with our livery design, it took time and experimentation to land on a style that felt uniquely McLaren. 

We had experimented with various different looks, including green with a touch of silver to reflect Bruce’s New Zealand heritage, white with a green stripe as part of a deal with film director John Frankenheimer to feature in the movie ‘Grand Prix’, and even red. But Bruce wanted something that stood out and felt distinctive to McLaren.

Papaya was initially trialled on our cars in the Can-Am racing Championship, inspired by Bruce’s business partner, Teddy Mayer, who had spotted a similarly coloured car at a British race meet he’d attended. Bruce and Teddy believed the vivid hue would stand out on the black-and-white television screens of the era, while looming large in the mirrors of rivals.  

And thus, the identity we’ve become synonymous with was born. Papaya was adopted by our Formula 1 cars for the first time in 1968, making its debut on the M7A. After four years in papaya, we changed direction in 1972, running a variety of liveries over the following decades, from red and white to silver and black, often influenced by our title sponsors at the time…  

However, papaya has always felt like the traditional ‘McLaren colour’, and in 2018, Zak Brown decided that we needed to return to our roots, making the much-celebrated design to bring back our original colourway.   

How has the M7A inspired this weekend’s limited-edition livery? 

We’ve reimagined the livery to closely reflect the design we ran in 1968, right down to the finer details that defined the original.  

One standout feature of the livery design itself is the black engine cover, intended to resemble the design of the M7A and give it a low, ground-hugging appearance, similar to the M7A.  

Other nods to the M7A include the numbering style and the driver tags. The driver names use the same font as on the original car, while the race numbers take inspiration from the car’s white dot, applied at the same distinctive 45-degree tilt.  

We’ve even brought back the Bruce McLaren Motor Racing Team logo from that era, now placed on the halo in tribute - an updated position from its original home on the M7A’s steering wheel.  

Lando and Oscar’s race suits are also a homage to that iconic era. Designed to emulate the suit Bruce McLaren wore in 1968, they feature the same distinctive stripe down the side, as well as the same numbering style and driver tags as the car. 

You can see the M7A-inspired MCL39 in this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix, which begins with Free Practice 1 at 12:30 (BST) on Friday, 23 May.