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About W1 and Senna

Every so often McLaren builds a car that exists mainly to answer a question nobody else dared to ask. The Senna and the W1 are two such answers. The Senna, revealed at the end of 2017 and named for Ayrton Senna, who won all three of his Formula 1 world titles driving for McLaren, was a road-legal track weapon built in a run of 500. The W1, unveiled in 2024, took over the role of halo hypercar from the P1, continuing a lineage that began with the 1990s F1.

The Senna was gloriously unsubtle. Its 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 made close to 800 horsepower, but the real story was aerodynamics: a towering active rear wing and bodywork shaped to press the car into the pavement, at the expense of any conventional idea of beauty. Optional glass panels in the doors let occupants watch the road rush by beneath them. A track-only Senna GTR followed in tiny numbers, and both now change hands for well above their original prices, often wearing bespoke racing liveries.

The W1 takes a more sophisticated route. It pairs a new 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 with an electric motor for more than 1,200 combined horsepower, uses ground-effect aerodynamics inspired by Formula 1 thinking and was limited to 399 cars, spoken for before the first one reached a customer. Like the P1 it replaces, it is a hybrid aimed at lap times rather than electric range, and it lines up against the Ferrari F80 and the Aston Martin Valkyrie and Valhalla in the newest generation of hybrid hypercars.

Coverage of these cars ranges from first drives and deliveries to auction results, track records and the occasional crash that makes headlines around the world. It also follows what comes next for McLaren's top tier, including the manual-gearbox McL 6GT and whatever succeeds the W1, knowing that every new flagship from Woking will be measured against the Senna's ferocity and the F1's purity. For a company of McLaren's size, these halo cars are also a financial lifeline, and their reception says a great deal about the brand's health.