HOLY TRINITY

THE McLAREN F1 LAID DOWN THE DNA THAT RUNS THROUGH THE EQUALLY MIGHTY P1 AND SENNA. WELCOME TO THE ULTIMATE MAC ATTACK

- ANDREW FRANKEL

THE SIGHT ALONE is enough to elicit involuntary laughter. F1, Pl, Senna. All on the same slice of tarmac, dihedral doors flipped up. They have been together before, most notably and recently at the Goodwood Members Meeting, but never for a purpose like this. We have them and this track for the day, including its near three-kilometre runway. They are ours.

Despite the Pl being worth around $10 million (it’s a prototype and the most filmed and famous P1 in existence) and the Fl valued at five times more than that, no-one is saying ‘don't go there, don’t do that’ with any of them. McLaren people are everywhere, appearing more than anything else pleased that we’ve been able to make this thing happen.

So, at the risk of repeating myself: Fl, Pl, Senna. Which would you take first? If I didn’t have a story to write afterwards, I'd have left the Fl until last. Of course you would. It’s a McLaren F1 for goodness sake, and the number of those in anything approaching regular use in the world can be counted on the fingers of one hand, probably without needing the thumb. But it’s the benchmark, the inspiration, the one without which the others might have existed but surely not as they are. It is the origin; it has to go first.

It seems hardly believable that the car is 25 years old, but the truth is that age manifests itself in primarily positive ways: the car’s compactness, its manual gearbox, analogue dials, normally aspirated engine and so on. For those of us who love the simple business of driving, the transition of such onetime staples from rule to exception is not something that is necessarily to be celebrated.