On the most recent episode of the Track Limits podcast, McLaren CEO, Zak Brown was asked what his most prized possession he keeps in his office. The American sponsorship magnate immediately revealed it was a scale model of Ayrton Senna‘s 1991 championship-winning McLaren MP 4/6.
Brown revealed, “I’ve got [Ayrton] Senna’s ’91 McLaren MP 4/6, which is a scale model. Senna was my favorite racing driver, so, that happens to be one of my favorites in the room.” The car does hold a lot of significance in terms of the sport’s history, too, being the last F1 car to win the championship with a manual gearbox and the only F1 car powered by a V12 engine to do so.
The MP 4/6 was an exquisite piece of engineering. The car won 8 out of 16 Grands Prix runs that year. What’s more, it was the car that gave Ayrton Senna his 3rd and final world championship triumph.
As the iconic British team moved on from the 4/6 to the MP 4/7A for the 1992 season, it marked the end of an era in terms of the team’s dominance, too. It would be six long years after 1991 that McLaren would have to wait to taste championship success again.
The fall of McLaren and the rise of Michael Schumacher
1992 was dominated by Nigel Mansell. The Brit won his solitary world championship as Ayrton Senna finally tasted defeat after two consecutive championship-winning seasons. From 1993 onwards, it was the era of Williams, Benetton and a certain German going by the name of Michael Schumacher.
As the championship drought continued, Senna left McLaren for Williams in 1994. However, just in his 3rd race of the ’94 season, Senna tragically lost his life at the San Marino GP when he crashed out of the Tamburello corner at Imola.
After Senna’s death, the scene was stolen by Schumacher. The German went on to win the 1994 and 1995 world championships. At the end of 1995, Schumacher made his iconic move to Ferrari. Despite winning with the Scuderia for the first time at the 1996 Spanish GP, the Red Baron would have to wait till 2000 to pick the first of his 5 consecutive titles with the Scuderia.
In the meanwhile, a period of dominance for Williams emerged. Damon Hill won in 1996 and Canadian, Jacques Villeneuve did what his father, Gilles had dreamt of by winning the title in 1997. However, as the turn of the century approached, McLaren got back to winning ways as Mika Hakkinen wrapped up the 1998 and 1999 titles for the Woking-based team.
