As we gear up for an exciting new season, we take a moment to look back at the ten most read stories from 2016. Here's your McLaren recap from the last twelve months. 

McLaren LIVE

McLaren pioneered the live data dashboard way back in 2010. And it’s been refined and improved over the years to now offer an unprecedented mix of insight, live data, behind-the-scenes commentary and transcribed radio chat. For 2017, it promises to be bigger, better and more exciting: if you’ve managed to miss it so far, click to experience just what hundreds of thousands of McLaren fans have been using to supplement their race-weekend fix of Formula 1.

 

Introducing the McLaren-Honda MP4-31

Like a Hollywood summer blockbuster, there’s nothing more guaranteed to put bums on seats (or, er, eyeballs on screens) than the launch of a new Formula 1 car. At McLaren, we’ve never shied away from a little showbiz glamour, and the MP4-31 made its catwalk debut against the backdrop of a brilliant campaign that chronicled Formula 1 in all its macro, slow-mo, majesty. 

 

We announce our innovative three-driver strategy for 2017

Perhaps this was so widely read because you wondered how we were going to squeeze three drivers into just two cars (we do have a two-seater F1 car though, remember?!); but it’s more likely that you just wanted to know what Jenson’s plans for the future, and who’d be getting that plum drive alongside Fernando Alonso.

 

Introducing MP4-X

It seems that you can’t get enough of our stealthy future-tech racer, MP4-X. Designed and conceived in concert with McLaren Applied Technologies, the MP4-X was a showcase for a number of new, developing and experimental technologies which will all find their way into automotive and racecar design at some point in the future.

 

TOONED special edition: #Hunt40

The perennially popular TOONED series was given a dust-off to celebrate the 40th anniversary of James Hunt’s epic world championship victory for McLaren. For the redux, we showcased the cartoon likeness of Fernando Alonso, and for the first – and possibly last – time, we got away with putting Jenson Button in a pair of super-tight Speedos. With a bow-tie on them. Why? Just because, with TOONED, we can…!

 

A tribute to Tyler Alexander

McLaren was not exempt from ‘the curse of 2016’, sadly losing three of its elder statesman during the course of the year. When Tyler Alexander passed away, the team had lost its last ‘founding father’; Tyler was one of the three men, alongside Bruce himself and Teddy Mayer, who fought and scrambled to bring McLaren to life. He was one of the sport’s Titans, and will be sadly missed by the motorsport world.

 

How to build a Formula 1 car

We kicked off the year with this in-depth look at the logistical difficulties involved in assembling the 16,000 different components that go into a modern Formula 1 car. McLaren operations director Simon Roberts was our guide, leaving us with the impression that, even when it was all going smoothly, project-managing the job was impossibly hard work…

 

Which F1 Driver Are You? quiz

We all love a quiz, and you lot are no exception, still keenly clicking on this near-vintage piece of content which was originally aired all the way back in 2014! Still, it’s none the worse for it, and offers up as much fun for wise old hands as it does for fearless first-timers.

 

Jenson Button: why I race

The first of our in-depth looks at just what motivates a top-flight Formula 1 driver to compete and succeed at the very highest levels. Jenson remains unusually candid for such an experienced F1 figure, and showed just what he derives from the toughest sport in the world. A fascinating read.

 

How ‘James Hunt’ are you? quiz

Yes, another quiz – and one which, given the subject’s broad tastes, comes with almost no wrong answers! Re-live the career highs and lows of ‘the most charismatic racing driver in the world’, as he travels the world in search of the best parties, most glamorous women and the cure to the M23’s curious mid-season handling imbalance…