Regardless of championship defeat, Woking’s final Honda-powered winner represents an intriguing tale of firsts as well as lasts
WORDS DAMIEN SMITH PICTURES JAMES MANN
NOW THAT WAS A CAR
Time can often soften our perspective, even in the brutally stark win-or-bust world of Formula 1. Take this car. Back at the end of 1992, few within McLaren would have looked on it with a great deal of affection – not least Ayrton Senna.
MP4/7 represented an alarming fall from grace. It represented failure. The team that had scooped six of the previous eight Formula 1 constructors’ crowns, the past four consecutively, was now firmly on the back foot as a rejuvenated Williams, powered by an increasingly potent Renault V10, soared into an unchartered, high-tech firmament. Nobody had a hope of living with Nigel Mansell and his Williams FW14B in 1992, not even the mighty Senna and his latest Dayglo-and-white missile from Woking.
But 32 years on, MP4/7’s defeat sits less uncomfortably in the context of what else it represents, particularly in terms of important firsts and lasts: it’s the last race-winning McLaren powered by a Honda engine (those from the recent, unhappy era were so far off the team would probably prefer to forget them – something that won’t change in time); the first to feature tech now taken for granted in F1 – semi-automatic gearbox, aerospace-inspired fly-by-wire throttle, electro-hydraulically operated suspension; and, of course, given how much he still resonates through our F1 world, this car will always be one of his. The deity Senna sat here, calmly fending off a frantic Mansell to equal Graham Hill’s then-record as a five-time winner around Monaco. Oh yes, this is a significant F1 car – just not in the manner we’d become used to from McLaren.
But talk about mixed messages. It has been said Honda warned Ron Dennis of its intention to withdraw from F1 long before it dropped the bombshell publicly at Monza in September 1992, but for most within the team it came as a shock. “It was September before we were aware of it,” confirms Neil Oatley, MP4/7’s chief designer and still today a full-time consultant at McLaren. “Certainly Martin Whitmarsh” – longtime lieutenant to McLaren’s chief – “wasn’t aware until then. I think, although he may deny it, Ron actually knew quite a bit earlier but was convinced he could encourage Honda to carry on. Obviously that didn’t come to pass and it did create a bit of panic that autumn for the following year.”
Yet despite its impending
