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Like many fans, Lena began watching Formula 1 with her family during the COVID-19 pandemic and quickly became addicted, immersing herself in Drive to Survive, our Unboxed YouTube series and our driver challenge videos, wondering “Where has this been all my life?”

Since then, she’s developed into one of our most passionate and loyal supporters, becoming well-known among members of the Papaya Army on social media through her beautifully crafted free-to-read magazines, which she creates in her spare time.

Lena is just one member of the dedicated Papaya Army, who do whatever it takes and go above and beyond in their support of our team.

For some, their fandom stretches back many decades, for others, they may have only been watching F1 for a season or two. It isn’t about whether our fans have supported us for five days, five years, or fifty years, it’s about what McLaren means to them, and what they mean to us.

Ahead of the 2024 season, we spoke to three of our biggest fans, Lena Klapper, Leigh Screen and Gerold Smits via video calls on Webex to discuss the unique and exceptional ways in which they follow McLaren. Here are their Formula 1 stories…

Gerold Smits, The Netherlands, 61-years-old

Gerold was taking part in a training session for the Dutch Army when a phone rang: it was for him. Personal phone calls were strictly forbidden during these classes, but he took the call and let out an almighty cheer. “Niki Lauda has signed for McLaren,” he exclaims.

Excitement reverberates among those in the room before they start to question how he knows. The news hasn’t been made public yet, but Gerold has friends at McLaren and they’ve broken protocol to tell him.

Gerold began supporting McLaren in 1975 - watching us on TV and attending races with his brother-in-law - and has since watched many of the greatest moments in our history, even starting his very own Dutch Fan Club for McLaren in 1978. This particular fan club ran from 1978 to 1986, and at one stage, Gerold was receiving around 40 letters a day.

“I was a young boy and I had this idea to start a fan club,” Gerold says. “We didn’t have any internet, so I had to do everything by hand, getting the information from the team over the phone and posting letters to everyone. We advertised for members in a Dutch magazine.

“It became more than a fan club – it was a place where people could get information on the team. I became something of a contact between McLaren Racing and the Dutch press. At one point, McLaren offered me a job, but it would have meant moving to the UK, so I said no.”

Through creating the fan club and speaking to the team for information, he became close friends with people at McLaren, even enjoying weekly phone calls with Team Principal Teddy Mayer every Friday, often finding out about breaking news before anyone outside of the team.

“There are so many memories, it's more than I can tell in a few minutes,” he says. “This was before I had joined the army - I was working at a garage at the time and on Friday afternoons, instead of paying me, they said I could use the phone to call the UK. Me and Teddy Mayer wouldn’t only talk about Formula 1, we would talk about everything. Later on, Ron Dennis, the drivers, the engineers, mechanics, they would smuggle me into the pit lane and the garage when I went to races.”

During these moments, Gerold would always carry a camera. Over the years, he’s taken so many photos that he’s been able to publish a book. He produced 50 copies of his book in 2017 after he worked through thousands of photographs, spending days cleaning and digitalising them for publication.

“McLaren is a big part of me,” he says. “I visited the MTC in 2019 and my wife was standing beside me, and she could see it on my face. She asked if something was wrong and I said “No, it feels like we are back. This is my family. People from the team came up and hugged me and asked how I am – you are seeing friends. A lot of people ask me ‘You are Dutch, don’t you support Max?’ I say no, I am a McLaren fan in my heart.”

Leigh Screen, United Kingdom, 35-years-old

Leigh began watching Formula 1 in the late ‘90s after being introduced to the sport by her F1-loving parents - one a McLaren supporter and one a Ferrari fan - who would take her to British-based motor races.

Leigh sided with her mother’s love of McLaren, in part due to her fondness for our silver and black livery at the time, but later due to the team’s family-orientated atmosphere and the sense of community – a reason that resonates with all three of our interviewees.

“For me, it's all about the community,” Leigh says. “I know there's a very strong family vibe within the team and across the fanbase where everybody matters. I’ve made friends for life through our shared love of McLaren and motorsport. They’re a great bunch, who come from all over the world, and they’re all supportive and encouraging. It is McLaren that brought us all together.”

Leigh works as a nail technician in the West Midlands and she put it to a friend that she could start designing McLaren-related display tips for each race weekend. At first, Leigh laughed the idea off, but her friend loved it, and from there, it grew legs and became a reality.

She mapped out a race schedule, where she first plotted in the dates of when she would paint the nails to fit around her work schedule. After that, she began working on the ideas for each race, making sure to mark special occasions, such as our 60th birthday and Lando’s 100th race.

“My friends even helped me to create a hashtag on social, #McNailArtChallenge,” Leigh says. “The ideas come from the depths of my crazy brain. For example, the Spanish Grand Prix where I painted the team sat around a table eating tapas, or Hungary, where I painted a Rubix Cube after discovering that it is the home of the Rubix Cube. Then there was Las Vegas, which was fun to create due to the sheer amount of glitter I used.”

The nails have gone viral on social media, with fans eagerly anticipating the reveal of Leigh’s latest design before every race – some of whom have since become her customers. One fan even made the four-and-half-hour round trip from Liverpool to have her nails painted by Leigh ahead of attending the Japanese Grand Prix.

“It was quite overwhelming, I'm not going to lie,” she continues. “Never in a million years did I think anyone would be interested in me or my crazy ideas, but here we are. It went down a storm and it has been so nice to see the growth of this and the support from fans.

“As someone who struggles with their mental health a lot, I often use my artwork as a way of zoning out from my thoughts, and so the comments and support were the biggest mood boost for me. It’s another reason why I’ve aligned with McLaren as a team – they’ve got a really positive approach towards mental health, and they make you feel understood and part of something bigger.”

Lena Klapper, Belgium, 23-years-old

McLaren became Lena’s team through the “joy” we brought to her during a time when the world was feeling isolated due to lockdown. “Feeling like you're included in something much bigger than yourself is an extremely rare feeling,” she explains.

Lena’s love for the sport grew, and when she first experienced F1’s summer break she was shocked by just how much she missed the racing.

“I went back and watched all of the old races that I had missed,” she says. “McLaren has such a special meaning to me. I am a fan of other sports teams as well, but I’ve never seen a team that includes the fans at the heart of everything they do as much as McLaren.”

It was that sense of belonging that led to the creation of her digital magazines – of which a few physical copies do now exist. Lena and a friend connected on Instagram and bonded over their love of McLaren. Between them, they wanted to do something creative to show their support.

“We started it together, and she drafted the first few rough pages, but then handed it over to me because she had her regular day job and I had the free time,” Lena continues. “We didn’t only want to write about the races, but also to show all of the work that goes into the launches and pre-season testing – everything.

“I wanted the magazines to look professional, so I studied other motorsport magazines to make sure the layout looked how I wanted it to in terms of the design, but also page numbers, the table of contents, adverts, and all those little details. I wanted it to look online how it would if it was in your hands.”

Lena’s magazine has been wonderfully received by her fellow McLaren fans. It is unique in that it offers a fans-eye-view of the season for supporters, which is different to what a team or media outlet could offer. It showcases the highs and lows of supporting McLaren, and the emotions Lena and many other fans experience during a race weekend.

“To me, that is the most unbelievable part,” Lena says on the magazines popularity. “I still can’t comprehend that behind those numbers there are real-life people. I get so into the writing that I forget that people will actually read it, but it means so much to me and everyone who reads it is really, really nice. They are welcoming and joyful.

“Every single season has these really special memories, which maybe aren’t peak highlights such as a podium, so this is a way to fossilize those moments so that fans can look back on them from the perspective of how they experienced it. The recaps you can read online or watch on YouTube don’t show the whole story of how exciting it was.”

Through creating her magazine, Lena has connected with many Formula 1-inspired artists and wanted to help showcase their work. Lena - who lives in Belgium, but was born in the US to German parents, and grew up in Canada - was fortunate enough to attend the 2022 Austrian Grand Prix, where she was able to take pieces of art from these creators with her to display at the circuit.

“I wanted a piece of that artist's work to be physically at the track and part of Formula 1, even though they couldn't be at the race,” she says. “It takes, sometimes, 20 hours to create these pieces of art and they deserve to be seen.”

Watching the races

All three will be watching from their homes this weekend, glued to the television during every session of the Australian Grand Prix. So, how will they feel when the lights go out?

“Anything from pure nerves to sheer excitement, there are so many highs and the lows, but we ride the wave,” Leigh says. “Lap 1, when the lights go out, I’ll be glued to the TV, fingers crossed, just hoping we can make it through unscathed, and then we go from there. I'm the kind of person that no matter the outcome of the race, I'll try and find the positives and be supportive of the team. Thankfully, there have been quite a lot more highs in the last few months.”

Lena adds: “I get very nervous at the start of the races and during Qualifying. A lot of anticipation and excitement, but just pure enjoyment during the sessions. I love that there are so many of us fixated on the races during that moment, supporting McLaren. I love watching the gaps between the cars and anticipating when we are getting closer and when can make moves. So much excitement, anticipation, and happiness.”

Gerold says: “It gets loud [in my house] when there is success. At the start of last year, it was hard when we had our problems, but you stand behind your team. I had a bottle of champagne waiting in our living room for our first podium last year and I opened it together with my daughter. It’s a joy when you see success.”