Founded by Bruce McLaren in 1963, the team won its first Grand Prix at the 1968 Belgian Grand Prix, and took its first Formula One championships in 1974. Emerson Fittipaldi, James Hunt, Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, Mika Häkkinen, Lewis Hamilton, and Lando Norris have won Drivers' Championships with McLaren. The team’s most recent titles were secured in 2025, winning both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships.
Bruce McLaren Motor Racing was founded in 1963 by New Zealander Bruce McLaren. Bruce approached his employers to compete in the Tasman Series, but when team owner Charles Cooper insisted on using 1.5-litre Formula One-specification engines instead of the 2.5-litre motors permitted by the Tasman rules, Bruce decided to set up his own team. The team was based in Feltham, England from 1963 to 1964, and in Colnbrook, England from 1965 until 1981, before moving to its current base in Woking in 1981.
The team began as a Formula One constructor in 1966 at the Monaco Grand Prix. The 1968 season saw a major upturn in form with the M7A car powered by Cosworth's DFV engine, resulting in Bruce McLaren’s first Grand Prix win at the Belgian Grand Prix. After Bruce McLaren’s death in a testing accident in 1970, Teddy Mayer took over and led the team to their first Formula One Constructors' Championship in 1974, with Emerson Fittipaldi winning the Drivers’ Championship.
In 1981, McLaren merged with Ron Dennis' Project Four Racing; Dennis took over as team principal, and shortly afterwards organised a buyout of the original McLaren shareholders to take full control of the team. This began the team's most successful era; with Porsche and Honda engines, Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, and Ayrton Senna won seven Drivers' Championships between them and the team took six Constructors' Championships. The combination of Prost and Senna was particularly dominant – together they won all but one race in 1988. By the mid-1990s, Honda had withdrawn from Formula One, Senna had moved to Williams, and the team went three seasons without a win. With Mercedes-Benz engines, West sponsorship, and former Williams designer Adrian Newey, further championships came in 1998 and 1999 with driver Mika Häkkinen, and during the 2000s the team were consistent front-runners, with Lewis Hamilton winning the 2008 Drivers' title.
The 2010s saw a period of fluctuating performance. In 2013, after the team's worst season since 2004, Martin Whitmarsh was ousted. McLaren announced in 2013 that they would be using Honda engines from 2015 onwards, replacing Mercedes-Benz. The second Honda partnership did not yield good results, and in September 2017, McLaren announced they had agreed on an engine supply with Renault from 2018 to 2020. McLaren returned to using Mercedes-Benz engines from the 2021 season. After a period of time in the midfield, McLaren surged to fourth in the Constructors' Championship in 2023. They would go on to win their ninth Constructors' Championship, and first since 1998, in 2024. The following year, Lando Norris took the team's most recent drivers' title, and first since 2008, and secured their tenth Constructors' Championship title and their second consecutive title; the first time this had happened since 1991.
Outside of Formula One, McLaren's greatest initial success was in Can-Am, which they dominated from 1967 to 1971. Further American triumph followed, with Indianapolis 500 wins in McLaren cars for Mark Donohue in 1972 and Johnny Rutherford in 1974 and 1976. A modified McLaren F1 road car won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1995. The team is set to re-enter the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2027 with a hypercar entry. McLaren also has experience in American open wheel racing, with Arrow McLaren winning 12 races since its establishment in 2020. They have also competed in Formula E and Extreme E, though they achieved less success there than their other ventures and ended up pulling out of both. McLaren also participates in Formula One esports, in which they won the 2022 championship.