PAPAYA HQ

As reigning constructors' champion McLaren gears up for the 2025 Formula One season kicking off this month, we take an exclusive look inside their Norman Foster-designed headquarters in Woking, England.

On December 8, 2024, McLaren won the Formula One Championship for the first time in 26 years. For any diehard McLaren supporter, a visit to the McLaren Technology Centre (MTC) in Woking, England, is not unlike a personal hajj.

Having walked these hallowed halls just months before, we could already feel the tide turning. There's a certain kind of energy you can sense when a person, team, or company is entering its winning era, and I distinctly recall that feeling being palpable in MTC that summer.

"90% NASA, 10% DISNEY"

This Norman Foster-designed building is where the magic happens for the McLaren F1 racing team and McLaren Automotive, which manufactures the company's high-performance cars for road use. Stepping into the facility is both surreal and serene. The intensity of the race cars clad in bright papaya orange offers a striking juxtaposition against the glass and steel structure punctuating the English countryside.

The carp-filled lake fronting the building provides the yin to the yang of the hive of activity of engineers, designers, and technical crew concealed from sight — a suspicion confirmed by aerial images of the main building and lake forming a perfect circle that replicates the harmonising symbol of dual forces ubiquitous in ancient Chinese philosophy from above.