The house that McLaren built

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In a strange way, McLaren was never about selling cars. While other founders built themselves sports cars that the market didn’t have and then drove them, only shortly before he tragically lost his life in 1970, founder Bruce McLaren discussed building a road car, the McLaren Group’s production car arm Offspring in the super sports car world. In less than 10 years in the consumer market, they’ve managed to capture more than 50 percent of the market share of their competitors who have been in business for nearly a century. Why? Because in a culture shaped by innovation, they behave more like a technology company than an old brand.

With Formula 1 booming in popularity and the industry jumping into the EV revolution at full speed, we visited the McLaren Technology Center, the company’s headquarters in Woking, England, to speak with their leadership about the future of the automotive industry.

Mike Flewitt, CEO

“The challenge at EV for us is, when are we going to do the first EV that is a better supercar? Or will it just be a greener supercar? If it’s just a greener supercar, that’s a really sad thing. I certainly think we will have a period of time where we will have to build hybrid cars and electric cars because we will see the markets move at a different pace. But if you’re in a country where legislation is pushing you, chances are you’ll still want a supercar. I think we’ll have a phase later in the decade where we’ll likely have both. “

Ian Morgan, Motorsport Director

“We cannot stop and ignore what is happening in the future and we see where it is going and we have to respond. And we take great care that our racing products mirror our street car products. At the moment there is no hybrid option for GT racing, so we cannot go this route, so we are advancing our knowledge and the current regulations, but something will inevitably change. ”

Robert Melville, design director

“Our designs are a fascinating challenge because it’s about character and the fundamentals of what you’ve built your brand on. You have a mission statement, and with the design pillars, the pillars shouldn’t just be things that are trending. The pillars should be things that say, ‘Okay, if we take this and put it on a sofa, on cutlery, on a car, on a boat, on an airplane, on a pair of sunglasses, you get a McLaren item. ‘“

Jamie Corstorphine, director of product strategy

“I think the best thing is to build the best possible authentic products that appeal to all drivers. We have numerous female owners around the world who love and enjoy our cars and use them in different conditions, on the track, on the road, etc. So I think it’s more about doing the best job possible on the product when we are actively targeting a specific customer profile. “

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