McLaren celebrate landmark anniversary as F1 title glory within reach

October 6th is a landmark day in the history of McLaren - with 2024 being the 50th anniversary of its first F1 championships. 

McLaren has won eight F1 constructors' crowns and 12 drivers' titles in its history, but the first of those came on October 6th, 1974 when Emerson Fittipaldi delivered the crowns. 

For the first time in F1 history, two drivers went into the final race of the year level on points, and unlike Abu Dhabi 2021, the 1974 finale did not cause shockwaves in the sporting world. 

Fittipaldi and Clay Regazzoni of Ferrari were tied on 52 and heading to the United States GP at Watkins Glen, it was all to play for, qualifying eighth and ninth, respectively. 

The title battle however turned out to be a damp squib as Regazzoni and Ferrari showed no pace and finished four laps down in 11th - meaning Fittipaldi cruised to a fourth-place finish to earn three points and his second title after his 1972 success.

He became McLaren's first world champion - with his P4 also securing the constructors' title for the team. 

McLaren would not win the constructors' again until 1984 when it embarked on a run of six crowns in seven years in the Alain Prost-Niki Lauda-Ayrton Senna heyday. 

But its last F1 constructors' title came in 1998 when Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard delivered the prize to Woking. 

It should have won the 2007 title by nine points from Ferrari, but those results were expunged from the record books as part of the punishment for Spy-gate, but 17 years on, it is challenging once again. 

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have used the MCL38 prodigious pace to open up a 41-point lead over Red Bull in the standings, with just six races left. Should they deliver, McLaren will equal Williams for equal second all-time with nine constructors' crowns, with only Ferrari ahead on 16.