McLaren on target for world crown

Press, 17 June 1988, Page 40

McLaren on target for world crown

MOTOR SPORT

George Tanner

This year’s world drivers’ championship is the swansong for turbo engines in Formula One racing, and the Wokingbased McLaren International team is doing its part to ensure it departs the scene in a blaze of glory.

The dominance shown by the team in the first quarter of this season has been so absolute that only a foolhardy person would bet against it winning a sixth championship title. Unde the watchful eye of the former Brabham designer, Gordon Murray, the McLaren team’s new architect, Steve Nichols, has created a chassis designated MP4/4. This, coupled with the fast and reliable Honda RAI6B-E power unit and the superb driving skills of the fomer double world champion, Alain Prost (France) and Ayrton Senna (Brazil), has left the opposition floundering in its wake. With five wins from as many starts, team managers up and down the pit lanes appear to be scratching their heads in a King Canute-like at-

tempts to stem McLaren’s winning tide. Prost started the ball rolling with an easy win in the season’s opening race in Brazil. Senna, disqualified on home soil for an illegal start, made amends of heading Prost home in the second round, the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola. Round three of the championship, at Monaco, was yet again a McLarenHonda benefit but Senna, easily the quickest man

on the tight and twisty street circuit, dented his pride as well as his car when he clouted an Armco barrier in the closing stages, handing victory on a plate to his arch-rival, Prost. The Frenchman’s win, his fourth at the tiny Mediterranean principality, puts him one behind the late Graham Hill (Britain), who won there a record five times between 1963 and 1969. Last month’s Mexican Grand Prix provided Prost with yet another scalp for his belt. He took his record to 31 wins from 125 starts. The Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal last week-end was yet another McLaren-Honda benefit. Senna, after claiming his fifth pole position from as many races, led Prost home for the team’s third 1-2 finish this season. After the Canadian race, I was asked how many races the McLaren team had won since its inception almost 22 years ago.

Some quick research shows it has won 59

grands prix from 303 starts, putting it third behind Ferrari, which has triumphed 93 times from 429 races, and Lotus, with 79 wins from 385-starts. Before the start of the 1984 world drivers’ championship, I was asked by some fellow motor-racing enthusiasts to predict the, outcome of that season’s series. After deliberation, I concluded that the Ferrari team would gloriously sweep all before it and that in spite of recent success, the McLaren team would simply not get a look in. In fact, Ferrari scored a solitary victory in Belgium and McLaren triumphed on 12 occasions, leaving me somewht embarrassed. Bearing in mind that Ferrari finished last season on a winning note, with consecutive victories in Japan and Australia, and was looking certain to be a big threat this year, I am rather relieved, looking at the result sheets thus far, at not having repeated the mistake of four years ago.