How McLaren gathered past and future stars in Monaco for ‘awesome’ 1000th race celebration

Monaco is a huge weekend for McLaren as the team celebrate their 1000th Formula 1 World Championship race, a milestone previously reached only by Ferrari.

By happy coincidence this is also the 60th anniversary of the team’s debut, founder Bruce McLaren having raced his M2B for the first time in the 1966 event.

The team celebrated in Monte Carlo on Thursday with a unique gathering of current and past former drivers, including most of the living McLaren race winners.

Current stars Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were joined by past World Champions Emerson Fittipaldi, Mika Hakkinen and Lewis Hamilton, while also present were John Watson, Gerhard Berger, David Coulthard, Juan Pablo Montoya, Fernando Alonso and Heikki Kovalainen.

The drivers were accompanied by team bosses Zak Brown and Andrea Stella and Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali for a truly unique photo opportunity that saw the M2B posing alongside this year’s MCL40, which carries a special 1000th race livery this weekend.

Hakkinen also had the honour of giving the M2B a demonstration lap, its raucous V8 engine getting the attention of the entire pit lane and leaving onlookers with smiles on their faces.

It was a truly impressive gathering, and the fact that Alonso and Hamilton took time out of their own busy media day schedules to join the celebrations says a lot about the respect in which McLaren are held up and down the pit lane.

It was a particularly special event for Brown, whose passion for F1 history is well known.

“It was awesome,” he said. “The history here is only second to Ferrari, as far as the history in the sport goes. I think we've got such a rich heritage, and iconic drivers.

“I think it was awesome to see all of them there, but to see Lewis and Fernando show up to show their support of McLaren is awesome.

“They're busy guys, and wearing other team shirts, so certainly it was nothing that they had to do – it was something they wanted to do.

“I'm very appreciative of everyone that was there, but Lewis and Fernando, I appreciate their teams allowing them to come and support a McLaren event.”

Indeed, there were times in the past when the prospect of Ferrari co-operating with McLaren was unlikely to say the least, such was the level of rivalry between the teams and their respective managements.

Brown sees the presence of Hamilton and Alonso as a sign of a new spirit of co-operation – teams can fight hard on track and yet still work together for the greater good.

“I think that's what we need to do more of in the sport, is be at times maybe a little bit more sporting, and recognise the history,” he said. “So that was really cool. I appreciate all the coverage it got.”

Meanwhile, McLaren still have their eyes firmly fixed on both the present and the future, also using the 1000th race weekend to showcase their brand-new hospitality base.

Getting the impressive facility set up for the first time in the tight confines of the Monaco paddock was no easy task.

“Our new team hub,” said Brown. “Congratulations to our team for putting this together, making it a better working environment for everyone. I’m just very happy with where the sport has been, and where it's going – and it’s a privilege to be part of it.”