New McLaren W1: Following in the Footsteps of Giants

McLaren recently announced their most powerful and impressive road-going supercar yet, the W1.

If you opted to enjoy your Sunday away from YouTube where it was premiered, don’t worry, we’ve summarised the important bits for you below.

For context, the W1 is the successor to the P1 and heir to one of the most famous cars of all time, the McLaren F1: a car that won the 24 hours Le Mans in 1995 and then set the record as the world’s fastest production car in 1998, by reaching a top speed of 240.1mph (386.4 km/h)).

McLaren P1

McLaren F1

Quite a history to follow then. Let’s see if the W1 can follow suit.

A wonderful result of the technological development since the mid-90’s, the W1 doesn’t disappoint. In fact, it has the JLVM office and clients talking.

It's clear that this has been designed with help from the boffins in the Formula 1 racing team. The numbers would agree: 1,275 PS, 1,399kg, and 1,000kg of aerodynamic downforce.

In real world terms, that's hard to comprehend, let alone describe.

For example, my own 2024’ MINI John Cooper Works is quick. However, that only produces < 1/5th of the power of the W1 and weighs over 400kg more. It certainly doesn’t produce the equivalent of a Mazda MX-5 or Lotus Elise in downforce either.

From personal perspective then, the W1 should be sensationally quick.

The looks follow suit too. Why don’t we let the pictures speak for themselves:

The aerodynamic package is what excites me the most, but perhaps that's due to the many hours I spent designing wings and diffusers for Formula Student back at University. Over 350 hours of wind tunnel sessions, monitoring 5,000 points with 3,000 CFD simulations, were spent in designing this car.

Inspired by the Formula 1 car, it possesses active elements at both the front and rear. For example, when put in race mode, the Active Long Tail (seen below) will move 300mm, to produce that ridiculous 1,000kg of downforce, all in the pursuit of putting the power down onto the asphalt.

Speaking of, the W1 features a brand-new, high-performance hybrid 4.0L V8 engine. Donned, “MHP-8”, it produces over 1,300 Nm of Torque, achieving a 0-60mph time in 2.7 seconds and a 0 – 124mph in just 5.8 seconds.

By their own acclaim, this is McLaren’s most powerful and highest-revving road car powertrain ever. If you play, this is sure to be a Top Trumps winner. 

Stitching this all together is the carbon fibre monocoque, which the seats are directly fitted to. The pedals and steering then move towards you, cocooning you in swathes of orange or black.

So how do we view this car? Worthy of transcending the great McLaren F1? Only time will tell.

However, a car built using F1 philosophy, F1 experience and F1 tooling... Where do you think this will be brilliant?

If you’d like one, I’m afraid it's already too late: there are 399 allocations in total; all of which are taken.  

Keep your eyes peeled for this on the road in early 2026. We look forward to managing one soon.

Thanks for reading.