The history of our evolving logo
Across 60 years of history, the McLaren crest has taken on many shapes and forms
There's very little in Formula 1 that remains the same – not least our famous logo.
In honour of our 60th anniversary, celebrated at the 2023 Italian Grand Prix, our original crest from 1963 returned to a McLaren Racing Formula 1 car, paying tribute to our rich racing heritage. Ahead of its return to our cars, we have explored how and why our logo has evolved throughout our history.
1963 – 1966
The first McLaren crest was designed in 1964 by Michael Turner – a famous motorsport artist and close friend of Bruce McLaren – for the fledgling Bruce McLaren Motor Racing Team. It centred on a Kiwi, the national symbol of Bruce’s homeland, New Zealand. In a more refined era, it's less of a corporate identity and more reflects a coat of arms for a group of gallant racing adventurers.
1967 – 1980
In addition to a change of font, the more dynamic ‘Speedy Kiwi’ was introduced in 1967, once again designed by Michael Turner to emphasise the higher speeds at which Bruce’s cars were racing. It also took on a striking papaya orange colour that familiarly became known as ‘McLaren Orange’. Why orange? Some say to honour a sponsor’s orange livery, while others claim that it was appropriated by the team as the national racing colours of New Zealand. Either way, it certainly made the car stand out!
1981 – 1990
Reflecting the sport’s international growth, the ‘Speedy Kiwi’ disappeared to be replaced by the McLaren International logo. It was designed by Raymond Loewy as a gift from one of the team's sponsors and evokes a chequered flag. Our main partner wanted the colour on the car to correlate with the colour of their brand but on television their normal shade seemed darker. So, after testing types of red, rocket red exploded onto the car and logo.
1991 – 1997
As our ambition on the track converged with our nascent road car division, the three chevrons merged into one, and the font became more modern and sophisticated. The logo may have changed but our cars remained as successful as ever.
1997 – 2006
The revamped logo that first appeared in 1997 featured a streamlined speedmark that bares similarities to the vortices created by our rear wing. It appeared on the top of our cars’ side-pods. They evoke the aggressive markings found on predatory animals and insects.
2007 – 2017
To tie in with our new futuristic looking Chrome livery, our marque was refined and updated with a more modern and stylish look. The speedmark with which people now associate McLaren, was retained.
2017 – 2021
Enter the mono black speedmark. Symbolising ‘one’ McLaren, the logo was reflected across McLaren’s three different businesses and united us as one Group. But that doesn’t mean we had forgotten our racing heritage, as we went full circle with a return to our iconic ‘McLaren Orange’ racing livery, better known as papaya.
2021 - Present
Our racing soul shines even brighter in the latest evolution: the speedmark has turned papaya to distinguish us as McLaren Racing and a slimmer, modernised font style expresses our agility and speed as racers. Continuity is maintained with the familiar McLaren logo, while the refreshed identity future-proofs our brand and optimises it for the digital environment.