Under the leadership of Neil Oatley, the design team built the MP4/5 as an all-new machine for the 1989 Formula One season, which saw the ban on turbocharged engines and the return of the 3.5-litre normally aspirated formula. The car featured a new monocoque, new double wishbone suspension with pullrods at the front and pushrods at the rear, and was powered by Honda's RA109E V10 engine — a 72-degree unit from which the team expected almost 700 bhp. The car was brought within the 505kg weight limit after aerodynamic revisions shaved further mass from the structure.
The gearbox was a key development story across the 1989 season. The car began the year using a longitudinal version of the three-shaft, six-speed David North and Pete Weismann gearbox — the same configuration carried over from its predecessor. A transverse variant of the same unit made its race debut at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone mid-season, though its introduction was accompanied by a succession of misfires and failures that race weekend. The brakes were initially McLaren-supplied units; Brembo brakes were fitted from the third round at Monaco.
McLaren dominated the 1989 season despite an increasingly hostile relationship between its two drivers. Prost broke Nelson Piquet's lap record at Imola in preparation for the San Marino Grand Prix, where Senna won at an average speed of 125.479 mph — more than three percent faster than the previous year's race. At Monaco, Senna won despite losing second gear. Midway through the season Prost publicly accused Senna of breaking a no-passing agreement at the San Marino race and the two subsequently communicated almost exclusively through team intermediaries Neil Oatley, Steve Nichols, and Jo Ramirez. Despite the personal breakdown, the pair won ten races between them. Prost took the Drivers' Championship; McLaren retained the Constructors' title.
By the time the car logged fifteen pole positions for the 1989 season — thirteen of them by Senna, equalling his record from the previous year — it had confirmed itself as the dominant machine of the era.
For 1990 McLaren updated the design as the MP4/5B, powered by the Honda RA100E V10. The car continued the transverse gearbox arrangement introduced mid-way through the 1989 campaign. The MP4/5B produced six further wins alongside the 1990 Constructors' Championship, and Senna secured the 1990 Drivers' title. Across both seasons, the MP4/5 family contributed two Drivers' Championships, two Constructors' Championships, sixteen wins, twenty-seven pole positions, twelve fastest laps, and thirty-six overall podium finishes from the thirty-two races run.
The MP4/5's immediate predecessor, the 1988 McLaren MP4/4, remains one of the most statistically dominant cars in Formula One history. Powered by Honda's RA168E 1.5-litre V6 turbocharged engine and driven by Prost and Senna, it won fifteen of sixteen races, claimed fifteen pole positions, and led 97.3 percent of all laps run during the season — the highest proportion in any Formula One campaign on record until that point. McLaren finished with more than three times as many points as runner-up Ferrari in the Constructors' standings. The MP4/4 was voted the greatest Formula One car of all time by a panel of Formula One engineers and designers, and the greatest race car of the 20th century by Autosport readers.
The McLaren MP4/5B has appeared as downloadable content in several sim-racing and racing game titles. It was included in the F1 2019 Legends Edition as paid downloadable content and made available for free in F1 2020. The car also features in Automobilista 2 as part of the Brazilian Racing Legends Pack Pt1 DLC, reflecting its association with Ayrton Senna.
The MP4/4 — predecessor to the MP4/5 — has a longer sim-racing history: it appeared in Gran Turismo 3 under the alias "F688/S" and "Polyphony002", later returned in Gran Turismo 7, was included as downloadable content in Forza Motorsport 6, and has been available across F1 2017, F1 2018, F1 2019, and F1 2020. It also appeared in the 1988 Accolade game Grand Prix Circuit and in the mobile title Real Racing 3.
Gallery · 3 related images
