Everything There is to Know About the McLaren Mercedes Partnership

Earlier today, McLaren announced that they would be reuniting with the Mercedes engine for the 2021 season. This is actually the second time the the two Formula One giants will be teaming up. After the successful McLaren Honda era of Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna, McLaren tied up with Ford, Lamborghini and Peugeot. Sadly, they fell way short of the mark and could not replicate their Honda success.

Then in 1995, Mercedes stepped in to partner the Woking outfit. Like most brand new partnerships, the McLaren-Mercedes partnership was sluggish to get off the line. In 1997, with the arrival of technical genius, Adrian Newey, their fortunes changed for the better. However, there were still a lot of niggling problems with reliability. In 1998 and 1999, the breakthrough came when Mika Hakkinen took back-to-back titles.

Since then, McLaren-Mercedes emerged as serious title contenders for Ferrari. While the Michael Schumacher-Ferrari duo seized championships from 2000 till 2004, McLaren were right there with them.

Unfortunately, during the 2006 season, McLaren were once again haunted by reliability woes. In 2007, they were back where they belonged, fighting at the sharp end, before Lewis Hamilton took the 2008 title. The McLaren-Mercedes marriage went on until the 2014 season, which marked the start of the team’s decline, with their only highlight being a double podium in the season opener in Australia.

The McLaren-Mercedes partnership brought home 78 wins during their 19-year campaign. In addition to that, they also bagged 152 podiums and one constructor’s title.

For 2015, McLaren ended their engine deal with Mercedes which included buying back the 40% stake that Mercedes held in the team.