The launch of the new McLaren yesterday featured a short tribute to Bruce McLaren, the man who established the team. I think most serious F1 fans will appreciate it.
February 1, 2013 by Joe Saward
The launch of the new McLaren yesterday featured a short tribute to Bruce McLaren, the man who established the team. I think most serious F1 fans will appreciate it.
I thought this was the best part of the McLaren launch yesterday. Very nice tribute.
Very nice and well done.
enjoyed it tremendously. Very nicely shot and well written
Moving.
I remover Bruce & Denny & Chris Amon. The “Bruce an Denny show” in CanAm was a great thing. Watching them run at Road America was a privaledge.
I think it would be very apt of Mclaren to give some support to the young up and coming NZ driver Mitch Evans if they aren’t already. Whilst the link to NZ has lapsed a bit it would show that they do still care about that link. He is pretty good as well.
Mark Webber has been supporting Mitch Evans and ran him in his MW Arden team last year. Did very well too! Lovely film and takes me back to that dreadful day when I heard about the accident at Goodwood. Does anybody know exactly where the memorial to Bruce is at the circuit?
It in the infield near to the aeroclub
He is currently a charge of Webber and to a lesser degree Horner, but is not on the RB programme.
Mitch is currently racing in NZ and won the race today and is on pole tomorrow.
Back in Europe he will be doing a full season of GP2 with MW Arden with backing from Mark Webber. And as “The Helmut” is unlikely to take Mitch into the Redbull program it would be a nice PR stunt for Macca to adopt a Kiwi into their driver program, especially one as talented as Mitch.
warmest regards,
Just “Arden” his season – Mark isn’t involved in the GP2 team.
Thanks for posting that, Joe. Very sensitively written and executed – fine job.
Very nice.
Hard to believe it’s 50 years. Even though I’m a pretty young fan I’ll never forget the day we lost Denny at Bathurst in 1992 (and the comments from Jim Richards afterwards!).
NZ should be proud of the McLaren legacy and it’s fantastic that they still recognize the importance of Bruce’s passion and attention to detail.
Very very moving tribute to Bruce, hats off to McLaren.
On the topic of Denny I was a brit working in OZ in 1992 and just had to witness Bathurst. Walking behind the pits Denny brushed past me to get into the M3 for his next, and final, stint.
Fast forward to 2005 and I owned a road spec M3 which I was using on a track day at Croft. A covered trailer was being unloaded and all the hairs on my arms and neck stood on end as Denny’s M3 was rolled out looking exactly as it had at the race start all those years before.
Wow… Whilst having read this blog consistently for several years this is the first time I’ve been moved to comment.
I’m can imagine Bruce Mclaren wouldn’t recognise what has become of his initial enterprise. As such imI glad to see such recognition of him. Particularly as Mclaren are currently known as being so intensively ‘corprate’!
Besides the superb production, a lovely piece of rememberance.
I agree he wouldn’t recognise the current McLaren enterprise, but he also wouldn’t recognise the “sport” as it is now, either.
Thank you for posting that Joe..A wonderful tribute..
I guess Project Four waiting a few decades to honor Bruce McLaren isn’t so bad…
Poignant.
That was thoughtful of you Joe. Thank you for showing.
The bit of the script where he tells the fuel filler cap story seems to have been directly lifted, almost word for word, from Bruce McLaren’s Wikipedia page, which would be a curious thing to do.
Maybe Wikipedia lifted it from Bruce McLaren!
Long time reader, infrequent commenter. Wow, thank you for posting, Joe. Goosebumps.
Absolutely beautiful.
Worth every moment of the thought that went into it.
Quite chilling
Why does he sound Australian?
Because New Zealanders often do!
Blasphemy!
Can’t be helped. You know how it is, perhaps — too many Kiwi’s spending years in Australia end up with hybrid accents, and too many folks around the world never spent time around a proper Kiwi to tell the difference. :S
yeah the narrator is definitely aussie. That’s ok though, we’ll claim Bruce if you want
RIP Bruce McLaren!
Outstanding, how about McLaren running a retro orange livery at a race this year.
That’s something that I would love to see! Always thought that the orange livery would look better than that which they run now, even though I understand the commercial issues.
Thanks Joe, and thanks to Mclaren for showing some soul and unforgettable heritage
Brilliant. Thabk you Joe for posting this.
Thanks for posting this, Joe, and well done McLaren. Very poignant, and as a 60+ bloke, I’m not ashamed to say that I’m typing this with tears rolling down my face. I also remember turning up at Goodwood for an Easter Monday meeting when Bruce introduced the Zerex special, basically a Cooper sports car with a big american lump in it. One of the first to go down that route, and it lead to Can Am………….
I don’t have a recollection of Bruce’s voice, do you think he actually sounded like the narrator?
It certainly was an interesting angle to take for a tribute.
Have a look at this video, in which he describes driving at Mosport (which also happens to be the only track where I saw him race!):
Thank you Joe ! most moving
Nice piece. McLaren always have a nice touch.
The narrator sounds not unlike Sam Michael to me.
I think it was a professional.
A beautiful and sensitive tribute. Many thanks or posting this Joe. I’d read about the accident that claimed his life before and the fact that he was killed at Goodwood while testing a Can-Am car however, I hadn’t fully appreciated the fact that he’d died so young. So much more to give; what a loss. I also remember hearing the famous quotation towards the end of the film before; inspirational stuff – nobody could ever accuse Bruce McLaren of ‘corporate-speak’!
Beautiful. Mesmerising. Sublime.
I have to agree Joe, this short clip made the hairs on my neck stand up. What an inspirational guy
Where was it filmed? Looks a little like donnington.