The M7A was the first McLaren to use the Ford Cosworth DFV, an engine that would dominate Grand Prix racing for many years.

The car proved a winner on its first two outings. Bruce McLaren won the 1968 Race of Champions at Brands Hatch and Denny won the Daily Express International Trophy race.

The chassis was of the so-called bathtub type and was skinned mainly in 22-guage L72 aluminium. The suspension derived from the M6A’s, via outboard coil spring/dampers units both ends and single lateral links.

The 1968 Belgian Grand Prix gave Bruce McLaren his maiden Grand Prix win as a driver/constructor. Denny Hulme won two Grand Prix races in 1968 (Italy and Canada) and finished third in the World Drivers’ Championship, ahead of Bruce. 

That year saw the creation of the Texaco-Marlboro McLaren superteam, as Emerson Fittipaldi joined Denny Hulme in the new red and white M23s.

Compared to the previous season the M23 was improved by fitting a new bellhousing spacer between the engine and gearbox. The rear wing was also brought forward by 10 inches to comply with the new regulations.

In a year characterised by the battle with an emergent Ferrari team, Niki Lauda and Clay Regazzoni, Emerson won in Brazil, Belgium and Canada to head into the final race neck-and-neck with Regazzoni.

Emerson finished fourth to clinch his second world title, and the first-ever World Championship for McLaren. That day was also historic for another reason: Denny’s final Grand Prix appearance.    

By 1976 the M23 was in its fourth season in Formula 1 and had already won 10 Grands Prix.

The M23 now featured a new dayglo shade of Malboro red and McLaren’s own six-speed development of the Hewland FGA transmission. With lighter body panels and new low-line airboxes, Mass and Hunt raced cars that were also 30lb lighter.

Most famously the 1976 World Championship came to its showdown at a wet Japanese GP. It was run in appalling conditions that saw Lauda retire. Hunt led for 61 of the 73 laps before making a dramatic pit stop to have a deflating wet weather tyre replaced. He managed to regain third place to beat the Austrian by a point.

More than any other car, even the M7A, it was the machine that truly put McLaren on the Formula 1 map.

Despite making a brief debut at the Dutch GP in 1976, the M26 was still under development at the start of 1977 and teething problems meant reigning World Champion James Hunt continued to rely on the older M23 for the first four rounds.

James initially found it unbalanced and unpredictable. However, the breakthrough came at Silverstone where James won from pole. He also proved dominant at the Japanese GP at Mount Fuji. This would be Hunt's final Grand Prix victory.

It left him fifth in the World Championship with 40 points, a long way adrift of Lauda on 72, and 15 ahead of sixth-placed Mass. The success would also be McLaren's last for three and a half years.  

Arguably the most significant car in McLaren’s long history. It bore the distinction of being the first carbon composite Formula 1 design.

Its designer John Barnard had come to appreciate not just its lightness but also its tremendous strength. It laid the groundwork for material innovation that has become such a hallmark of the McLaren Group’s activities.

John Watson’s famous victory in it at the British Grand Prix was McLaren’s first victory since Fuji, four years earlier. The McLaren MP4/1 not only improved McLaren’s chances but made the largest single contribution to driver safety of any innovation in the sport’s history. For this the McLaren MP4/1 deserves all the credit it can get.

It quickly became apparent that in the MP4/2 Prost and Lauda had the tool to dominate the 1984 season from start to finish. Over the course of the season Prost was to win seven races to Lauda’s five.

If the car had any weaknesses it was in the areas of braking and the gearbox. Many also felt that the decision to switch to flat-bottomed cars effectively robbed the team of engine potential.

Even compromised in this way, the MP4/2 was to give McLaren those 12 wins from 16 races, lead Lauda to his third Drivers’ World Championship and massacre the opposition in winning the Constructors’ Cup by an incredible 86 points. It provided us with a near-perfect season, and everyone else a warning not to be ingnored.

The MP4/2B went from strength to strength, somewhat to the surprise of the opposition who had dared to think that their own developments rendered the defending team slightly less competitive.

Instead, Barnard's new turbocharger arrangement helped to keep the McLaren TAG firmly in play. Subtle aerodynamic detailing and new suspension incorporated pushrods together with upper wishbones.

Ferrari, Williams and Lotus usually qualified in front of the MP2/2Bs due to their more powerful engines, whereas the TAG-powered cars relied on race packages. Lauda winded up a disappointing 10th overall after a season of bitter ill-fortune. Prost thought took the World Championship easily, and McLaren took another Constructors' trophy. 

Wearing the reigning Champion's number 1 on the nose of his car, Alain Prost won four Grand Prix races and finished on the podium on five other occasions in 1986. It was this consistency rather than outright race victories that won him the title for the second year in succession. 

 The car's overall dimensions remained unchanged, but maximum power was up to something approaching 800bhp at 12,000rpm. 

Prost clinched another Drivers' World Championship in emphatic style with a win at Adelaide. McLaren finished second to Williams in the Constructors' title. At the end of the season John Barnard decided to sell his shareholding in the team, and to head for pastures new. 

1989 meant all change for McLaren as the 3.5-litre normally aspirated Formula 1 came into force. Few would have predicted that the first season of the non-turbo era would match the incredible results of the previous year, with McLaren walking away with further Drivers' and Constructors' Championships.

McLaren soon began to dominate the season, albeit not quite to the degree it had the previous year as the MP4/5 was not deviod of problems. 

With Senna's car carrying the World Champion number 1, Alain Prost in number 2 only won four races to Senna's six, but took his third Drivers' title by a 16-point margin. McLaren also clinched the Constructors' World Championship for the second year in a row. 

The car, whilst looking similar to the MP4/5B, was quite similar in terms of its aerodynamic profile as designer Neil Oatley received valuable input from Henri Durand.

The MP4/6 also featured major changes to the suspension set-up, with push-rod activated coil-spring dampers now mounted on top of the chassis rather than vertically in the footwell.

The duo of Ayrton Senna and Gerhard Berger achieved eight wins between them including a memorable win for Ayrton Senna around the streets of Monaco . 

He returned to Brazil with a resounding third title, while Berger finished fourth with 43 points, having been handed victory by Senna in Suzuka. McLaren again took the Constructors' World Championship.

The MP4/7 featured McLaren’s own hydraulically operated gearbox. It also featured fly-by-wire throttle control.

It spent extra hours in the wind tunnel and finally made its debut at the third race in Brazil. Attention to aerodynamic detail was evident in its multi-component rear wing.

Once racing got underway, however, it was clear that there was still work to do. Senna complained of unpredictable handling. Fortunately his was fully committed and won in Monaco, Hungary and Italy. Berger took wins in Canada and Australia. McLaren finished runner-up in the Constructors’.

Senna finished fourth overall in the Drivers’ on 50 ahead of Berger. For McLaren, however, after such a historic run of spectacular victories, it was bitter disappointment. 

Despite design work on the MP4/8 starting without a clear idea of which engine would be used because of Honda leaving F1, the season still yielded five wins at a time when Williams Renault was the dominant force in the sport.

McLaren's tally in 1993 was all the more remarkable because, while Senna returned after a winter break relaxing at home in Brazil, rule changes meant Michael Andretti was denied the chance to familiarise himself with the circuits.

The car will forever be remembered for Senna's stunning opening lap at Donington Park in the wet. He also won at Interlagos, Monaco, Suzuka and Adelaide. The Australian success, it transpired, would be his last and at the time enabled McLaren to declare itself the most successful Grand Prix team of all time.    

A new era began for McLaren-Mercedes with the arrival of West as title partner and Adrian Newey from Williams.

Together with a Mercedes-Benz FO 110E engine featuring an all-new sand-cast aluminium alloy block , the MP4-12 also had a lower centre of gravity than its predecessor.

The results of these improvements were not overwhelming, but what mattered was that McLaren was once again establishing itself as a GP winner.

David Coulthard won two races; at the opening round in Melbourne and the Italian GP in September. Moreover in the final race of the 1997 Formula 1 season, Mika Hakkinen took his maiden Grand Prix win.

With resources already being poured into the following year’s effort, McLaren was back on track to become the pacesetter. 

The development of the Mercedes-Benz FO 110G V10 engine together with a switch to Bridgestone tyres and a real rekindling of team spirit once Mika Hakkinen discovered for himself the joys of winning at the highest level, quickly put McLaren back into a dominant position on the grid.

The finished car was a neat and tidy package .Still in place was the previous season’s low-level nose design but the front suspension was quite different with inboard vertical dampers and torsion bars.

Driving superbly all year, Mika Hakkinen won eight races and clinched the Drivers’ World Championship with a flawless flag-to-flag victory in the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka. With Coulthard third in the standings, the team also took the Constructors’ title for the first time since 1991.      

One of the most ambitious designs ever. Along with a lighter, lower V10 from Mercedes-benz, it also showcased a host of new innovations brought in by Adrian Newey. He relocated the oil tank and hydraulic system and fitted a new, shorter gearbox.

The increased complexity and lower weight did not at first inspire complete confidence on the part of David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen. As a natural consequence of its more complex design, the MP4-14 took longer to get right.  

Seven wins out of 16 races was good, but not good enough. West McLaren-Mercedes was still the team to beat but while Mercedes-Benz had demonstrated outstanding levels of mechanical reliability, the car never quite measured up to it. 

Featuring an updated version of the Mercedes-Benz FO 110M and a revised transmission, internal chassis modifications, and aerodynamic improvements, the MP4-17D was a big success.

David Coulthard won the opening race in Australia and it wasn’t long before his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen scored his first Grand Prix triumph at Sepang to put himself at the head of the World Championship points table.

Kimi continued those impressive results, going into the final round nine points behind Michael Schumacher. Though the latter struggled to the eighth place he needed, second place for Raikkonen behind Schumacher’s team-mate Rubens Barrichello left him second overall, two points shy.

The MP4-17D may have been an interim car, but its tally of 142 points left it only two short of BMW-Williams and 16 off Ferrari’s final score. With slightly better fortune, it could have been an illustrious winner.

The MP4-20A looked quite different from its immediate predecessor thanks to a change in 2005 regulations.The front wing had to be raised 50mm and the maximum height of the diffuser was restricted.

The early races were tough. The big breakthrough came in Spain, where a dominant Raikkonen beat season pacesetter Alonso's Renault fair and square. An intense championship battle between Alonso and Raikkonen followed, with Alonso beating Raikkonen in China.

Thus a gripping season of redemption for McLaren ended with 10 victories, Raikkonen in second place in the Drivers' World Championship with 112 points to Alonso's 133 and Montoya fourth on 60, and McLaren-Mercedes second to Renault in the Constructors' with 182 points to 191.     

Detailed simulation and analysis work formed an integral part of the development process of the MP4-23. By the time it was ready for its launch some 14,000 engineering man-hours had been invested in its gestation.

The clearest evolution of the MP4-22 focused on the roll-bar assembly, which had been considerably tidied up to increase airflow to the top body.

Lewis Hamilton had a great start to the season with a great victory in Melbourne, Monte Carlo and consecutive race victories in Great Britain and Germany. He also took a commanding victory at the Chinese GP.

Hamilton was crowned 2008 FIA Formula 1 World Champion. At the age of just 23 years, 10 months and 26 days, Lewis Hamilton became the youngest champion in Formula 1 history. 

The MP4-27 featured a more tightly waisted rear bodywork, developed to improve flow to the rear of the car, and a revised cooling system.

Demonstrating early promise in testing the MP4-27 - Jenson Button went on to win the season opener in Australia with Lewis Hamilton finishing third. The car showed exceptional pace once again in Malaysia, leading the pack until wet weather conditions brought the race to halt.

Hamilton achieved McLaren’s 150^th pole position in the German Grand Prix, and by the end of the season, the car had amassed a seven victories.