We Need To Talk About That Rumoured Three-Seat McLaren F1 'Successor'

A few days ago, we were salivating over the prospect of the legendary McLaren F1 being “reborn” thanks to an extensive report in Autocar. The F1’s three-seater, driver-forward cabin is apparently to be recreated for a new, mid-engined car with over 700bhp and stunning looks, if the - admittedly speculative - accompanying renderings are anything to go by. This if of course, if you believe the report - but should you?

Comments from McLaren CEO Mike Flewitt at the company’s financial results meeting initially seem to cast doubt on the ‘new F1’ rumours. According to Car and Driver, Flewitt said “I’m really not going to comment on that article,” just after joking that Autocar’s renderers should replace the company’s designers. When pressed, he did finally say “I regularly get asked for three seats and a V12 and a manual gearbox. I just don’t think there’s a real business case to do one of those.” To put the final nail in the coffin, Flewitt stated: “We are a forward-looking company. We love the F1 like everyone else, but we’re not doing another F1,” reports Topgear.com.

So, case closed: it’s not happening, right? Well, not quite: Autocar’s report claims the F1 is going to be “reborn” as a “hyper-GT” with McLaren’s familiar 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8, and presumably with the usual seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission bolted on, not a V12 nutter with a manual ‘box. Flewitt isn’t quite denying the car detailed by the British publication.

What he does seem to suggest though, is that creating the tub required for the unusual seating layout is beyond the reach of McLaren Special Operations for reasons of budget: “We have to make a profit and it’s expensive for MSO to do a new chassis,” he said.

Amidst the doubt, Jim Holder - Autocar’s editorial director and the writer of the original story - is sticking to his guns. Speaking to Car Throttle, he said:

“I stand 100 per cent by the Autocar story. As days pass and I hear from dealers and customers I’m more confident than ever in the veracity of the facts and - in some cases - wishing I’d been a bit less speculative and a bit more confident around some of those facts and figures.

“I think people who see Mike Flewitt’s answers as a denial of Autocar’s story need to read his answers (and our story) again more carefully. He denies all sorts of things, but not the car described in our story - the hyper-GT being built in homage to the original F1. He’s clearly as adept at answering journalists’ questions as he is at running a successful supercar manufacturer.”

All that’s left for the rest of us to do is grab the popcorn and see how this pans out…