McLaren MP4/4
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The McLaren MP4/4 was one of the most dominant race cars in the history of Formula One, thought by many to be the most dominant. It was designed by Gordon Murray, who based the design on his lowline Brabham BT55 car of 1986, and American engineer Steve Nichols [citation needed].
After a relatively disappointing 1987, where McLaren-TAG Porsche lost out to the dominant Honda-powered Williams and — in some cases — Lotus, McLaren secured the 1500cc V6 Honda turbo engines, the most powerful in F1 at the time for 1988. With the engines coming at the expense of Williams it seemed a strong 1988 was possible. 1988 was due to be the last year for the turbo engines before they were banned, so most teams were making a concerted effort to establish themselves with naturally-aspirated cars. Murray went ahead with the design of the car on a purely turbo engined basis, which put the team at a distinct advantage over their rivals. The situation improved immensely when Ayrton Senna signed to partner Alain Prost (at Prost's suggestion) on a 3 year contract. The McLaren chassis, the Senna and Prost pairing, and finally the new powerplants, looked like a formidable combination. However, there were concerns after the FIA introduced a fuel regulation for the turbo powered cars of 150 litres for a race distance. Honda's engine management team worked feverishly on the fuel consumption of the engine, trying to increase it so avoiding embarrassing late race retirements. The team also experimented with active suspension in early testing but this was abandoned, and the car appeared 'as-is' through the season. The car appeared at the first race with very little testing, but that didn't stop Senna putting the car on pole position by a long way.
The 1988 season was an almost embarrassing walkover for McLaren, who took 15 victories from 16 races, including 10 1-2 finishes. The dominant run was only interrupted once, at Monza, when Senna had an accident while lapping Jean-Louis Schlesser making a one-off appearance for Williams. With Prost already out after a rare engine failure, Gerhard Berger of Ferrari took an unexpected victory. Perhaps the most telling example of the MP4/4's emphatic domination was seen at Monaco that year. Senna qualified an astonishing 1.5 seconds faster than Prost using the same car, while Prost was again a second ahead of the rest of the field.
At the end of the season, McLaren had taken both the Constructors' and Drivers' titles (Senna edging out Prost by 3 points) but the relationship between their two top class drivers had soured, and they would not reconcile until the rostrum of their last race together.
The MP4/4 took 15 wins from 16 races, 15 pole positions, and 199 points, all in a single season.
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 /  McLaren Formula One cars |
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1960s: M2B (1966) | M4B (1967) | M5A (1967-68) | M7A (1967-69) | M7C (1969-71) | M9A (1969) 1970s: M14A (1970-71) | M7D (1970) | M14D (1970) | M19A (1971-73) | M19C (1972-73) | M23 (1974-78) | M26 (1977-79) | M28 (1979) | M29 (1979-81) 1980s: M30 (1980) | M29F (1981) | MP4 (MP4/1) (1981) | MP4/1B (1982) | MP4/1C (E, 1983) | MP4/2 (1984) | MP4/2B (1985) | MP4/2C (1986) | MP4/3 (1987) | MP4/4 (1988) | MP4/5 (1989) 1990s: MP4/5B (1990) | MP4/6 (1991) | MP4/6B (1992) | MP4/7A (1992) | MP4/8 (1993) | MP4/9 (1994) | MP4/10 (B, C, 1995) | MP4/11 (B, 1996) | MP4-12 (1997) | MP4-13 (1998) | MP4-14 (1999) | 2000s: MP4-15 (2000) | MP4-16 (2001) | MP4-17 (2002) | MP4-17D (2003) | MP4-18 (2003) | MP4-19 (B, 2004) | MP4-20 (2005) | MP4-21 (2006) |
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