McLaren MP4/4

Lore & Background

In 1987, it had become increasingly difficult for McLaren to compete with major manufacturer-backed teams using, effectively, a privateer engine financed in-house by TAG and built by Porsche. For the following year, 1988, McLaren secured the use of the 1.5L V6 Honda turbo engines which since the middle of the season had been the best engine in Formula One. Team boss Ron Dennis had previously tried to secure Honda engines for his Formula 2 team, and, after four successful years with the TAG engines, welcomed the Japanese company. Most teams were making a concerted effort to establish themselves with naturally aspirated cars in 1988 because it was due to be the last year for the turbo engines before they were banned. It was a transition year prior to a naturally aspirated-only formula in 1989, and the regulations were framed to reward those teams that had already made the switch. The decision to continue with a turbo engine put the McLaren team at a potential disadvantage. Over a race distance, the MP4/4 would suffer a significant power deficit compared to its naturally aspirated rivals. It was possible to modulate the turbo boost, but with a fuel tank allowance of only 150 litres (naturally aspirated cars were unlimited) it meant that the team would have to go into extreme fuel conservation to get to the end of a race. Although there was speculation that Honda would introduce their V10 engine during 1988, Ron Dennis confirmed during qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza that racing the V10 was never part of the plan for 1988. By keeping the V6 engine, Honda and McLaren also gave themselves more development time on the 1989 car, which was to be an evolution of the MP4/4. The sleek-looking, all-new MP4/4 was produced and first appeared early in 1988. It was one of the few competing cars that year that was an all-new car; Ferrari, Lotus, Arrows, Tyrrell, and others were using updated or developed versions of their previous year's cars in order to build new cars for the 1989 season.

Reader's Guide

For 1988 Ayrton Senna was signed to partner Alain Prost (at Prost's suggestion) on a three-year contract. The McLaren chassis, the Senna and Prost pairing, and finally the new Honda RA168E engines with 685 bhp, looked like a formidable combination. However, there were concerns after the FIA introduced a fuel regulation for the turbo-powered cars of 150 litres for a race distance. Honda's engine management team worked feverishly on the fuel consumption of the RA168E which was specially built for the reduction in turbo boost from 4.0 bar to 2.5 bar rather than upgrading the 1987 spec engine, trying to improve it in order to avoid embarrassing late-race retirements. The car appeared 'as-is' through the season, save for a few aerodynamic revisions. The car arrived at the first race in Brazil with very little pre-season testing at Imola only a week before the race, but Senna was able to put the car on pole position by half a second from surprise second-place qualifier, Nigel Mansell driving the 600 bhp naturally aspirated Williams-Judd V8, with Prost qualifying third after not finding the balance of his car until the race morning warmup session. One feature of the MP4/4 was the driver's position. Due to the car's low-slung aerodynamics and the FIA safety rule which stated that the top of a driver's helmet had to be below an imaginary straight line drawn from the top of the roll bar to the top of the cowling, the drivers were required to be in a reclining position rather than in the conventional upright seating position of rival contemporary Grand Prix cars. As the MP4/4 was a new car, it had to conform to FISA's new-for-1988 safety regulations which stipulated that the driver's feet be behind the line of an imaginary front axle. Teams running cars from the previous season were able to continue to do so under the earlier regulations for which they had been designed.

Did You Know?

• The MP4/4 won all but one race and claimed all but one pole position in the 1988 season.
• The car holds the record for highest percentage of laps led in a season with 97.3% (1,003 out of 1,031).
• The MP4/4 was the last turbo-powered McLaren car to win the World Constructors' Championship title until the Mercedes-powered McLaren MCL38 won in the season.
• The car's dominant run was interrupted only at the Italian Grand Prix when Senna crashed out while lapping Jean-Louis Schlesser.