Hamilton, Button & Senna’s McLaren (video)

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McLaren have put out a video showing Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button poking around their store of old Formula 1 cars and pulling back the covers on a 1988 MP4-4.

Both take turns sitting in the car which was driven by Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, winning 15 of the 16 races they started. It feels a bit scripted in parts but on the whole it’s an interesting watch.

Hamilton was supposed to drive the car at the Goodwood Festival of Speed last year. But on the day before his run it broke down while being driven by Bruno Senna.

This year the Hamilton and Button will take turns driving the 1986 MP4-2C that Prost drove to the world championship, as well as the MP4-23 Hamilton won his title in two years ago.

Read more: Complete guide to the F1 cars and stars at the 2010 Goodwood Festival of Speed

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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48 comments on “Hamilton, Button & Senna’s McLaren (video)”

  1. Christian Biddon
    30th June 2010, 10:58

    If nothing else it is interesting to see the Mclaren car store. Amazing!!

    1. Exactly, that place is absolutley incredible, I’d give quite a lot to go an spend some time in there, the shear number of cars, an just the number of winners in one place. Absolutley sensational, no two ways about it.

      Shame the video itself felt a bit scripted but thats the way things are.

    2. That has got to be the most epic storeroom for race cars… in the world…

      They even have Kimi’s MP4-20s up on those shelves…

    3. That was an AWESOME video.. I wonder how well they’re maintained. The dust sheets didn’t look particularly dusty. Mind, it’s is McLaren. I’m not sure they do dust there..

      1. How would you like to be the fella that’s in charge of protecting and taking care of all those treasures for McLaren?!

  2. Gees, really inspires you to do something with your life doesn’t it?

  3. makes me depressed that i have done nothing with my life

    1. Lolz Toro, …. erm, do you need a noose? I can send you one to end your miserable life …… j/k ;-)

  4. Wow what a place!!! I’d give anything for a look around there.
    When I see old cars like that and see them running at goodwood – it make me wonder if in 20 years they’ll be able to run today’s cars. I mean today they are so reliant on computers and the software to get them going will they be able to even start them?

    1. Trust me they will Matt and if people can still use a cassette tape after these years, why not an F1 car.

      1. because cassettes are analogue ;)

      2. At Industrial Light & Magic, when they retire a computer setup, they carefully package the entire system (including monitor, keyboard, mouse and any other peripherals) carefully, paletize it, and shrink wrap it. That way if they ever have to go back and open an older format file that’s not readable by their current systems they can just go get the old setup out of storage and boot it up…

        Wonder if they’ll do something similar for F1 ECUs. If anyone does it seems McLaren and Ferrari likely would.

        1. That’s cool to know about ILM.

          I copied a bunch of my old work from 12 years ago to my current computer from CD and noticed that the most of the files had been corrupted. A friend told me to open them up on an older Mac with a CD mechanism from that era and it would work.

  5. ” around their store of F1 cars”
    Are you joking Keith!? That has to be the understatement of the year! There are so many cars they have to store them on racks. And what we see in this snippet is only the modern cars. Where are the cars from the 60’s and 70’s not to mention the sports cars. This is an almost Schlumpf like collection.
    Did you notice JB looking around,licking his lips,as if to say “now which one will I ask Ronzo for if I win this years championship…..

  6. They really should open up a museum…I’d pay money to visit it…

    1. The donington park grand prix exhibition has around 130 grand prix and formula one cars from the 1950’s right up to Lewis Hamilton’s 2007 Mclaren, including the worlds largest museum collection of Mclarens, including the M23, MP4/2, MP4/4.. senna’s winning car at donington in 1993… lots of other examples too, like the lancia-ferrari D50 with side mounted fuel tanks!

  7. Prisoner Monkeys
    30th June 2010, 12:36

    I like these videos – this and the one where they build a 2008 car – because it really shows the relationship between the drivers. They’re totally relaxed around one another, especially after some difficult seasons for both of them (Button in the 2007 and 2008 Honda and then the stress of starting up with Brawn; Hamilton the rivalry with Alonso in 2007 and the Spygate saga and the rough start to 2009). I certainly don’t think they’re acting for the camera, but this video really shows what it’s like to be a part of McLaren: I think they’re accepting that they’re a part of a greater whole – check out Hamilton’s expression when he’s in the cockpit (around 2:14) to see what I mean.

    1. I would love to think that. I get the feel as well that they are truly comfortable with each other, but these videos can be deceiving.

      I remember a very clever one in 2007 with ALO & HAM, competing to do everything fast… it seemed, in the “Making of” version, that they were really having a good time… and we all know how that ended

    2. Yeah PM, I agree with you. It doesnt feel very scripted to me because they are so casual about it (and they certainly arent actors). The other thing I really like is that these videos seem to portray a culture of reverence and unity at McLaren. Considering how close Button and Hamilton have been this year on points, its amazing that they can get along so well, even if it is for a promotional video.

    3. I think i read somewhere (might have been Joe Saward or James Allen), that this was really unscripted, they just planted cameras all over the place and let those guys go into the garage!

      That would be really amazing. I liked the quip at lewis for drifting and it was great to see Lewis an awe at sitting in the actual car Senna drove!

  8. it’s good we get to see more of the awkward banter than the car…

    1. Prisoner Monkeys
      30th June 2010, 23:58

      You certainly missed the point then. It’s not about the car – it’s about Button and Hamilton and how they fit into the McLaren legacy. As they point out, Woking ran Senna and Prost and Mansell and Hakkinen; the greats. Button and Hamilton are a part of that legacy, and the video is about their realising that they are a part of a greater whole. After all, they are in the storage room. McLaren publicly display one of every car they have ever made in a museum that is a part of their headquarters. If they wanted to make a video about the car, they’d have made it there. There’s a reason why the video was done in the storage room.

      1. Think you’re right on the money there PM.

        What this little video says to both drivers is….’think about where you are. Think about what you say. Think about what you do. One day, the cars you drove will be under dust sheets in this place. What would you want the young drivers of 20 years from now to be saying and thinking about you. About what you did … in victory and defeat.’

        Pretty bloody impressive place ain’t it ?

  9. HounslowBusGarage
    30th June 2010, 12:57

    “In this lap.” “No.”
    I like that! But what a place, how many cars are there? I stopped the video and I think there were seven on the top ‘shelf’ and two shelves beneath that, plus, there’s the ones in the open area where LH and JB were walking around, and I think there’s another area right at the back up on high.
    Sixty cars? Seventy, eighty?

  10. The line to Hamilton about he still manages to get some drifting, was that just a referance to his driving style, or a very subtle prod about his ‘loss of traction’ in front of the police? Or am I looking too much into it lol

    1. I thought it was a joke about that.

      1. me too.. Lewis let it go though :)

      2. I thought it might be but I was surprised that McLaren would try and make light of it considering how angry everybody seemed to be about it. Still, I’m glad they have a sense of humour about it.

        1. Eh, where are you if you can’t at least laugh a little about life’s troubles? It’s good to see them stay human and humble.

  11. Nice video. They should have sat in Mansell’s though, they could both have probably fit in at the same time…

    1. lol. They’d have to draw moustaches on their faces for that to be allowable… ;)

  12. I would expect more dust in that garage but ho-ha!! This is managed by Ron.

    Another good idea from the PR department at McLaren.

    1. If you look carefully you can see a fan coil heating / air-conditioning unit at ceiling level. Also the building is fitted with an automatic fire sprinkler system. Ronzo looks after his toys!

  13. It is wonderful they conserve all those beautiful cars there. But it does make you a bit sad that for most of the time they just stand there instead of going round some great racetrack :(.

  14. Great viral, keep these going McLaren and your telecom sponsor!

    I liked the humour of those guys building a car. It showed them quite naturally at it in between the bad acting.

    This one is great for the awe of seeing all those cars together, i think Jenson and Lewis show their real fealings at work here. What any fan would give to be able to see and walk between those cars!
    Never thought any team would have something like this, i just thought they would have the parts stacked somewhere or maybe one of each type, maybe it is also a little pun at the cost of Mercedes struggling to give Jenson a chassis of the BGP001 car.

    1. Mclaren have cars all over units in Woking! Even stuffed all round the MTC and underneath.

      I loved the video and dint think it seemed at all scripted. Did anyone spot what looks like the plain white 1993 Lambo test car that senna drove at sSilverstone over JBs shoulder during it?!

  15. When you consider how many chassis a team like McLaren produce a season it isn’t really surprising that they have loads just kept in storage like that.

    I think I remember reading somewhere that McLaren make about seven or eight chassis each year, I am not sure if this was for when they could take spare cars to races, and big teams would often take a spare car for each driver to races such as Monaco or championship deciders, and when they would have a separate test team, or more recent times with no full spare cars at races and no testing.

    After they are finished racing with the car one chassis would go on display at McLaren HQ one at Mercedes HQ, drivers sometimes have one for their own collection, I think Coulthard did something like this, and then one or two may be used for various promotional duties.

    Some teams do sell off some of their old cars to private collections, but for a team that didn’t need the money you would have thought they would keep a few for themselves.

    From the video it looks like externally they have only taken off the nosecone which makes sense as it saves a bit of space and if the car still has its wheels it will be easier to move about.

    All those cars just in storage like that reminded of the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group, or as most know it the aircraft boneyard.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8530165.stm

    1. Pretty sure Coulthard only got given a display model for his museum. Mclaren definitely dont like drivers talking too much…like not getting the real trophies.

      1. The way I understood it, only giving the drivers copies of their trophies was standard practice. I remember reading a Q&A with Ross Brawn last year on the Brawn GP website, where he said that the team kept the original trophies and the drivers could get copies of the ones they wanted.

    2. Non-F1 related detour: Ahhh…. it does remind of the aircraft boneyard outside of Tucson, AZ… an interesting place if one ever has the opportunity to visit. I will never forget it.

      Interesting fact (to me at least).
      To comply with the SALT treaties the long range bombers are intentionally left in a state of dis-assembly, so that satellite spy photography can be used to verify the dismantling of that aspect of the arsenal… you’ll notice wings and tails left in almost perfect position, but disconnected.

      anyway… sorry for the detour.
      Back to F1!

  16. The Genuine Jim
    30th June 2010, 18:14

    This Vid makes me moist. Something that does disappoint me though is that they have replaced the cigarette branding with the words ‘Mclaren’. Why is there a need for this? The car is pre-ciggi ban and isn’t racing any more. Same as recently in the news when a photo of Churchill was doctored to remove his cigar; it’s changing the past and I don’t like. You can’t pretend things didn’t happen, even something as small as a cigarette sticker.

  17. Although McLaren is the ‘enemy’ for a Ferrari fan, I’d like to stroll around those legendary cars, especially Senna’s one. I’d also like to go to Goodwood Festival someday, if only it weren’t during my exams’ period… :(

  18. there is a place in New Zealand where you can visit some of Bruce McLerans first cars that he started with before ever going to England.

    here is a site with some of the info that is on display.

    http://www.bruce-mclaren.com/images/view2da0.html?b_start:int=0&-C=

  19. This to me has the genius of Ron Dennis all over it. He is really positioning McLaren as the super-car brand. All the history and achievement is being made plain.

    Very nice.

  20. With the astronomic wages these young talented drivers get paid and their sometimes prima donna attitudes, it’s nice to see them filled with genuine respect for these cars, the cars of their heroes.

  21. Haha I love the engine noises that Lewis makes when he gets in the cockpit. I’d be doing exactly the same, and leaning into the imaginary corners to boot!

  22. Praveen Titus
    3rd July 2010, 12:17

    Wonder whether Alonso’s 2007 McLaren is somewhere there!

  23. HAS Anybody HEARD Anything Regarding the SHOOTER’S Mother and father? I’D LIKE To get INFORMATIO­N ON HIS Residence Lifestyle AND WHY THEY Allowed HIS ODD Habits TO GO ON. Possibly I MISSED SOME Information, BUT I’VE BEEN Viewing MSNBC And also have NOT HEARD Anything ABOUT THEM.

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