McLaren W1 Supercar Confirmed To Follow Iconic F1: Here's Why We're Excited

McLaren is reviving a legend, and it seems the brand's next flagship in an iconic series is going to be worth the wait. The British automotive label has announced that on October 6, the company will reveal its next "1" series ride. Following in the footsteps of the celebrated F1 and its P1 forerunners, the upcoming hypercar from McLaren will bear the W1 brand.

"W1 pushes the boundaries of performance and is worthy of the '1' name. Like its predecessors, the F1 and McLaren P1, W1 defines the rulebook of a real supercar." McLaren CEO, Michael Leiters, said about the upcoming car. Given the era of the hybrid supercar approach championed by the P1, we are expecting an engineering wizardry of similar caliber for the W1, as well.

So far, the development of the car has been guarded behind a veil of secrecy, but it seems McLaren has prepared an overhaul that's a generation-over-generation successor inside and outside. In a short teaser video, the company claims its next 1 car will be "The next icon, the next benchmark. The best looking, sounding, performing" vehicle.

Will the upcoming pave the road ahead for fully-electric hypercars? Well, it might take some time, though the brand has started working on an electric powertrain and sounds fairly confident about it. "I am convinced that the first EV supercar will be a McLaren. We understand what it means to make supercars, if we are not able to do that then nobody else will be able to," Leiters said in an interview earlier this year.

The launch of the W1 is eagerly anticipated for obvious reasons, but it also marks a few crucial milestones for the brand. The W1 reveal date also coincides with the 50th anniversary of McLaren's first Formula 1 Constructors' World Championship and Emerson Fittipaldi's 1974 World Drivers' Championship victory. In just over a week, we'll know whether the W1 will live up to the legacy.

The McLaren W1 has a lot riding on its shoulders, and it's not just the weight of a legacy, but also innovations and records set by the P1 and F1 in their respective era. The McLaren F1, which launched in 1992, was the sole street-legal car capable of surpassing 200 miles per hour at the time. McLaren only made 106 units of the F1, and it's no surprise that it was one of the most highly coveted sports cars of the time. "It remains the fastest naturally aspirated road car ever built," claims the McLaren website.

After a long hiatus came the McLaren P1, a massive design overhaul built atop a carbon fiber full-body structure that quickly became a signature for the brand's subsequent cars. Upon launch, its aerodynamic design generated more downforce than any other production car on the road. Powered by a 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8 petrol engine, the P1 offered an "electronically limited" top speed of 217 miles per hour. McLaren only ever produced 375 units of this one, all of which quickly found buyers.