McLaren movie 2017 1024x
Geoffrey Harris23 Jun 2017
NEWS

MOTORSPORT: McLaren's a winner – on screen

Its recent history is miserable, but McLaren's glory flowed from its humble Kiwi founder, whose story is now the subject of a magnificent feature film

Amid the horror story that is McLaren in Formula 1 now, there's currently a great celebration of that famous motor racing name.

It's on big screens in many Australian cinemas right now – a film called simply McLaren.

It won't be a long season in the theatres. It's not going to be a box-office hit, but for those who miss it – or want to have it for themselves – hopefully it will be on DVD or available for download soon.

It is a magnificent film – a documentary more than a movie – about the man who started the team that has had more success than any other except Ferrari.

Unlike Rush, the movie about the James Hunt-Niki Lauda rivalry, it's absolutely factually correct and is told without the dramatisation of that other tale, yet lacks nothing for that. Quite the contrary.

McLaren, the film, brings a tear to the eye of those, some now quite elderly, who remember seeing the New Zealander competing. Bruce McLaren, the man, took on the world in motor racing and conquered, taking much the same path as Australia's Jack Brabaham.

McLaren was the youngest Grand Prix winner, on the day that Brabham clinched the first of his three world titles, in 1959. They were teammates in the old British squad Cooper.

Only this century have Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen won at a younger age - the latter at just 18. McLaren was 22 years and 104 days.

Barely a decade earlier he had spent more than a year on his back in hospital, with weights attached to his legs to overcome Perthes disease, a rare ailment affecting children's hips. He was left with one leg noticeably shorter than the other, yet he had so many other things in abundance.

Within 10 years of his breakthrough GP win, at Sebring in the US, he had given Ford its first victory at Le Mans with the GT40, established his own team which won in F1 and dominated the CanAm sports car series in North America.

He had begun the Indianapolis 500 project that became so successful after his death at the age of 32, while testing his latest CanAm machine at Goodwood in England, in June 1970.

After the death of his young American teammate Timmy Mayer at Tasmania's Longford circuit for the final round of the Tasman Series in 1964, McLaren said that life should not be measured in years alone but in achievements.

By that measure, Bruce McLaren remains a towering giant in motorsport – a man who did it all, in the era before computers, mobile phones and other electronic devices – and inspired unrivalled devotion in those who worked for him.

They all turned up at the McLaren factory the day after his death, even though they had been told to take the day off. As Howden Ganley, a Kiwi mechanic who also became an F1 driver (and later racing car constructor), said, if Bruce McLaren had asked them to walk with him across the Sahara Desert they would have, without question.

McLaren the film is the work of Roger Donaldson, who directed and produced The World's Fastest Indian. It has been a project of passion brilliantly executed by Australian-born Kiwi Donaldson.

While it has come to fruition a long time after Bruce McLaren's passing, it fortunately began in time to capture interviews with his widow, Patty, close friend and early team manager Phil Kerr, journalist and sidekick Eoin Young and fellow driver Chris Amon, who shared the victorious GT40 at Le Mans with him. All four have subsequently died.

McLaren's successes as a driver did not match those of Brabham, but as a constructor he built what became a much mightier business, headed after his death firstly by Teddy Mayer (brother of Timmy) and then for so long by Ron Dennis.

Donaldson has done the world, especially the world of motorsport, a huge favour by documenting it in film for posterity.

What a pity that the two McLarens will be hanging off the back of the grid at the Azerbaijan GP in Baku on Sunday because of engine penalties and still unlikely to open the team's account on this year's world championship points table.

It is 10th of 10 teams in the sport now. Its chassis seems all right, but it's almost too embarrassing – for everyone – to mention again the make of hybrid power plant holding it back.

The memory of Bruce McLaren deserves so much more. May the wheel turn. And quickly.

First woman team boss goes in fall-out
The first woman team principal in F1 has been ousted.

Indian-born Austrian Monisha Kaltenborn ascended from being a lawyer at Swiss team Sauber in 2000 to its chief executive in 2010 and succeeded founder Peter Sauber as team principal in 2012.

Sauber was taken over last year by Longbow Finance SA, a Swiss investment outfit representing massively wealthy Scandinavian investors. Kaltenborn was kept on, but the "diverging views" between her and Longbow, mentioned in the announcement of her departure, seem to have centred on whether or not the team's two drivers, Swede Marcus Ericsson and German Pascal Wehrlein, should be treated equally or one favoured over the other.

Longbow's investors appear to support Ericsson, while Wehrlein has been placed at Sauber by Mercedes, even though the team is using Ferrari engines and next year will switch to Honda, perhaps exclusively if McLaren severs ties with the Japanese company.

Sauber will be without a team principal in Baku this weekend, but among those tipped to replace Kaltenborn are Dave Ryan, a New Zealander who was at McLaren in its heyday but got into strife over fibs Lewis Hamilton told stewards at an Australian GP, and mysterious Romanian dentist Colin Kolles.

Williams is now the only team with a woman in charge, although not officially. Claire Williams is deputy principal to father and founder Sir Frank but she effectively runs the team day-to-day.

Bernie to loom large over Goodwood
Bernie Ecclestone is gone from daily business in F1 – new owner Liberty Media retains him as chairman emeritus yet keeps criticising his management style – but he is to be the 'central feature' at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in Britain on June 29-July 2.

A giant sculpture in front of Goodwood House traditionally has honoured a car marque each year, but this time it will focus on an individual – the diminutive man, now 86, who was such a huge part of F1 for decades.

Ecclestone will attend the festival along with a host of world champions, team owners, engineers, designers and mechanics from his life in the sport.

"This is not so much a tribute, but rather a Goodwood celebration of a racer who has had such a huge influence on the sport we all love," said Lord March, the festival's founder and owner of the Goodwood estate.

"It's wonderful that Bernie has agreed to spend the weekend at the festival with many of the great names with whom he has worked during a life dedicated to racing.

"I'm also delighted that he will bring with him some great historic Grand Prix cars from his incredible collection."

Lord March said the sculpture would display cars from the five chapters of Ecclestone's life – as a (not very successful) driver, manager, team owner (of the team founded by Jack Brabham), impresario and ultimately (and however controversially) a legend.

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Written byGeoffrey Harris
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