Dear racing nerds, this is the best video you'll watch all year.
For racing nerds, this video feels like unearthing a fifty-pound gold brick. By virtue of its focus and simplicity, but also its depth, this has to be one of the best things I’ve watched in all of 2022.
The formula is simple here: park F1’s greatest car — the 1988 McLaren MP4/4 — on a slab of concrete and bring together three of the minds who spearheaded and executed its design. Let those personalities explain the history and development of the car as its disassembled layer by layer. Steve Nichols, the MP4/4’s chief designer, joins monocoque and front suspension lead Matthew Jeffreys, and Neil Trundle, the car’s chief mechanic, to pore over every nook of this legendary slab of carbon and steel. There’s very little moderation from the video’s host, just a stream of insider knowledge from that legendary F1 season. It’s glorious.
Among the chassis produced by McLaren for the 1988 season, this is the exact one raced by Ayrton Senna at the Brazilian Grand Prix. The race wasn’t exactly a success for Senna; the car’s gear selector stuck on the starting grid, and F1 management disqualified Senna when swapped into a second car after the first lap of the race. Still, the MP4/4 dominated the ’88 season, winning 15 out of 16 races with ten first/second-place finishes, granting Senna his first F1 title (and besting his racing nemesis, Alain Prost, by just 3 F1 Championship points, due to a points technicality).
It’s not worth explaining much more about the MP4/4. If you understand how important this car is, you’ll know to find an easy chair, pour yourself a glass of something brown and mellow, and let this experience wash over you. If you don’t know why you should bow at the altar of McLaren MP4/4, well, three of the men who conceived and built this championship winner can explain it far better than I.
Kyle Kinard The only member of staff to flip a grain truck on its roof, Kyle Kinard is R&T’s senior editor and resident malcontent.
Keyword: Watch Three McLaren Engineers Disassemble Senna's F1 Car