Viewpoint: The W1 will be McLaren’s third ‘1’ Series model, promising to ‘define the rulebook of a real supercar.’

McLaren have announced their latest hypercar, and the third ever entry into the fabelled '1' Series, will be called W1. (Image credit - McLaren Press Room)

Over time, the McLaren Automotive model range has been built around three individual tiers. There’s the Sports Series, the Super Series, and the Ultimate Series; the latter being reserved for the fastest, most extreme, most expensive supercars that are ever allowed to emerge from the MTC in Woking. However, even amongst the McLaren royalty within the Ultimate Series, such as the Senna, Speedtail and Elva, there is an even more exclusive legacy of models that really represent the pinnacle of what McLaren are capable of – so exclusive, in fact, that in over 30 years, there have only ever been two of them. McLaren calls it the ‘1’ Series, which, up until now, has consisted of quite simply two of the most iconic performance cars of all time – the F1, and its successor, the P1. That is about to change though, as in just over a week, the ‘1’ series will be expanding.

McLaren announced today that the successor to the P1 and F1 is not only coming, but will be unveiled in just nine days on the 6th of October. Michael Leiters, Chief Executive Officer at McLaren Automotive, says that the latest entry into the ‘1’ Series, which will be called the W1, ‘is the ultimate expression of a McLaren supercar’  that ‘pushes the boundaries of performance’, and will ‘define the rulebook of a real supercar.’ Leiters also says that the W1 has been ‘born of our rich racing history and World Championship mindset’, which is just as well, as the W1’s launch on the 6th also lands on the 50th anniversary of McLaren’s first Formula 1 Constructor’s World Championship, won by Emerson Fittipaldi. Certainly, if McLaren’s recent progress in the sport is anything to go by, then I think its safe to say we can get very excited at what the W1 promises to bring.

The first McLaren in the '1' Series, the legendary F1. (Photo credit - McLaren Press Room)

Just what does the W1 need to bring though to be considered a success? Well, given the almighty set of shoes it’ll need to fill to justify its inclusion in the ‘1’ series, nothing short of perfection is what’s required. The W1 will have to provide a generational driving experience, that will inspire and contextualise the next decade of McLaren supercars, just as the P1 did in particular. It’ll have to be an immediate icon, just as the F1 and P1 were before it, as well as being  the forebearer of innovative new technologies that will sound to us in 2024 like they’ve been misplaced from the future, in order to trickle down into the rest of the lineup years down the line. The F1 did just that in 1991, being the first road car to be completely constructed out of carbon fibre, as well as still being the fastest naturally-aspirated car ever built even today, 32 years later. Then, the P1 came along in 2012 and completely ripped up the rule book again; redefining the hypercar genre altogether by using hybrid technology to amplify the impact of its combustion engine, a trend that is still going strong today. Elements of the P1’s timeless and revolutionary design, penned by Frank Stephenson, still live on in McLaren’s latest models, too - some 12 years after it was unveiled.

2012's P1 completely revolutionised the supercar concept, implementing hybrid technology and F1 know-how. (Photo Credit - McLaren Press Room)

These are the kind of legacies that the W1 will have to live up to in order to be successful. It will need to wow us with a new innovation or two that will set the trend for the supercar industry for years to come, which is a lot easier said than done, as well as being  able to offer a devastating jump in performance compared to what we’ve seen before, a timeless, future-proof design, and of course – incredibly exclusive. In other words, all of the hallmarks of something that deserves to be labelled as a ‘1’ series McLaren.

Absolutely no further details have surfaced about the W1 that hint towards a possible drivetrain, its design language or anything else. On purely speculative grounds, my guess would be that the W1 will be powered by an even more powerful version of the 4.0 Twin-Turbocharged V8 found in the 750S, probably with hybrid assistance. I have heard a few rumours about a potential central driving position too, like what was seen so famously within the F1, although there is nothing to suggest this will actually happen. I have a suspicion that McLaren think they’ve created something pretty special with the W1 though, as, despite how many amazing Ultimate Series models there have been since the P1, they have resisted labelling any of them as its ‘successor’ – until now. As such, this suggests that McLaren are absolutely confident that the W1 belongs in such esteemed, elite company, and will not jeopardize the legacy of the ‘1’ series – and because of that, I cannot wait to see it.

The P1 has now become a living legend, and a poster car for a generation. (Photo Credit - McLaren Press Room)

After the P1 and F1, the W1 will have some very big shoes to fill. (Photo Credit - McLaren Press Room)

Photo Credit: Official Media Site NEWSROOM (mclaren.press)