SEEING FORMULA 1 CARS ON TRACK, PARTICULARLY IN AN unusual environment, is always special. And the chance to join McLaren Heritage while it runs three of its grand prix winners at remote Welsh track Pembrey was too good an opportunity to miss as Autosport geared up to celebrate 60 years of the famous British squad.
The day brought together Mika Hakkinen’s 1999 title-winning MP4-14, one of the MP4-23s used by Lewis Hamilton on his way to the 2008 crown, and a victorious MP4-25 driven by Hamilton and Jenson Button in 2010. That means we have McLaren’s two most-recent championship winners, as well as a runner-up.
On hand to drive the cars is ex-sportscar racer Rob Garofall, who has been McLaren’s trusted driver for its impressive array of historic machinery for seven years. He’s driven nearly 80 McLarens so is well-placed to comment on the line-up. “I’ve driven more McLaren racing cars than anyone in the world, all the eras, from DFV to TAG, Honda V6, V10, V12, Mercedes V10s and V8s,” says the 51-year-old. “Even now I have to pinch myself.”
He’s also surrounded by many of the personnel who worked on the cars in period, which is a boost both from a nostalgia point of view and a pragmatic one. “It’s not just the cars, it’s people like Indy Lall who ran them in the day and you get the stories of what happened,” adds Garofall. Problem-solving is part of
