8 Facts About McLaren Racing

1. In 2015 McLaren Racing were without a title sponsor, and set to lose a further £20m in sponsorship in 2016.

2. In 2007, McLaren Racing signed a seven-year contract with telecommunications company Vodafone, and became known as "Vodafone McLaren Mercedes".

3. In 1997, Philip Morris parted ways with McLaren Racing, moving to Ferrari, instead.

4. In 2007, McLaren Racing were involved in an espionage controversy after their chief designer Mike Coughlan obtained confidential technical information from Ferrari.

5. On 10 November 2018, McLaren Racing announced that they would participate in the 2019 Indianapolis 500 with Fernando Alonso again at the wheel, using Chevrolet engines.

6. The next points for McLaren Racing came at the 2016 Russian Grand Prix with Alonso and Button finishing sixth and 10th respectively.

7. That year, McLaren Racing experimented with four-wheel drive in the M9A, but the car had only a single outing driven by Derek Bell at the British Grand Prix; Bruce described driving it as like "trying to write your signature with somebody jogging your elbow".

8. In 1981, McLaren Racing merged with Ron Dennis' Project Four Racing; Dennis took over as team principal and shortly after organised a buyout of the original McLaren shareholders to take full control of the team.