McLAREN
Out of the new – Mclaren’s first step.
It was not just a football match that hit the sporting news in 1966. Formula 1 made a power grab, after 4 years of 1.5-litre engines, when in 1966 the FIA doubled engine capacity to 3 litres. While current championship teams fight to get a grip with 2026’s radical technical changes, 1966 shows that technical upheavals have never been easy. Few were prepared for the 3-litre formula, made more difficult as major engine supplier Climax had withdrawn its products; if changes work, then a new halcyon era can be on the cards. While Mercedes had withdrawn from racing in 1955 after the Le Mans tragedy, some teams from 60 years ago are at this year’s sharp-end including Ferrari and McLaren, who are defending world championship status. The former was ready to go and win in 1966 with an adaptation of the 3-litre V12 used in the sports car programme while Team McLaren took its first steps as a manufacturer. Having previously made his mark as a racer with Brabham and Cooper, Bruce McLaren entered the Monaco G.P in May that year with his first F1 car, the M2B. Employing a capacity-reduced version of Ford’s 406 V8 Indy 500 motor, the car looked promising; however, it only managed 9 laps, falling foul to an oil leak, the result of a hasty installation. The familiar team colours had not yet arrived due to limited budgets, the M2B was resplendent in white with a green strip, a livery borrowed from the “Yamura” team in John Frankenhiemer’s fictional F1 movie Grand Prix. Jack Brabham was already established with a team in his own name and had the reliable and powerful Brabham Repco 3-litre V8, McLaren and Dan Gurney joined the owner/driver scene, the latter initially with an older Climax 2-litre before the Westlake V8 3-litre came on stream. McLaren may have had a shaky start in Monaco, but having dropped the Ford engine, they got to 6th place and the first points for the team at the British G.P using a Serenissima V8. A return to the Ford for Watkins Glen was rewarded with 5th place. The F1 season closed in Mexico City and saw another fail from the Ford engine. McLaren’s first F1 effort yielded two championship points that placed them 9th overall.
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2-UP GP
While there are examples of 2-seater G.P and Formula 5000 cars aimed at delivering an insight into being in a single seater, it would be pre-1925 that you would have seen 2 people in a racing Grand Prix car; drivers in G.P races had to carry a riding mechanic in case of mechanical troubles, especially on some of the city to city races in the early 20th century on long-lap circuits, such as Monthlery. A fatal crash involving Sunbeam racers Kenelm Lee Guiness and riding mechanic Tom Barrett at the 1925 San Sebastian G.P where the latter was killed, heralded the end of riding mechanics.
There are iconic moments of Formula 1 camaraderie when drivers who were stranded at distance from the pits hitched a lift home with another competitor after the race had finished. Perhaps the most well-known example of 2-up is from the 1991 British Grand Prix when Williams-Renault driver Nigel Mansell collected Ayrton Senna on the slowing-down lap after the Brazilian’s McLaren-Honda had expired due to lack of fuel on the final lap. The rare colour photograph shown here is from the Steve Welsh Collection. It captures a moment at the end of the 1965 British Grand Prix at Silverstone where Brabham-Climax driver Jo Bonnier sits astride the BRM 261 Sir Jackie Stewart for a lift to the pit.
Print and publishing enquiries are welcome for images from both Steve Welsh Photos and Steve Welsh Collection.
