The MCL38 Celebration Edition Artura and 750S were built by McLaren to commemorate the 2024 Constructors championship. If you think that's a little excessive, perhaps you don't know the full story.
The year was 1998, practically no one in the United States cared about Formula One (most probably didn't even know it existed), and the team dynamics of the sport and technical specifications were very different from what we have today.
Ron Dennis was the team principal, Zak Brown was a GT2 racing driver, and Lewis Hamilton was still racing in the Junior International Class A as a member of the McLaren Young Drivers Program. The Adrian Newey-designed MP4-13 driven by Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard, had a dominating year with a total of 16 wins and 156 points. McLaren was at the top of the F1 world, and no one on the team at the time would have anticipated a championship drought lasting until 2024.
With all that elapsed time, it's easy to forget that the team previously had eight world championships. A lot happened to throw the proverbial wrench in the works at McLaren. There was the notorious Spygate, with its crippling penalties; Ron Dennis was unceremoniously ousted from the company, and what will end up being a 26-year drought was underway.
More recently, you had the return of Fernando Alonso with contentious relationships within the team, the failed partnership with Honda, and Eric B. Boullier's infamous boasts about the company's chassis that led to his exit from the company.
It seems you can write a soap opera about the McLaren saga that would last for years and keep audiences captivated with every single episode. So it should come as no surprise that the company celebrated the win in a way that may come across as excessive to some.
After a couple of years, with one season starting with depressing results and rumors of a defection by Nando Norris, McLaren finally got its groove back in 2024. So much so that it appeared they were not only going to take the constructors championship but the driver's championship as well.
However, Norris made some monumental on-track errors, and Max Verstappen's epic São Paulo drive in the rain cemented the Red Bull driver's 4th championship. There was still a mathematical chance of Nando winning, but realistically, it was over at that point.
All of that drama surely merits a celebration of the constructors championship that had to be decided at the last race of the season. As an exotic car manufacturer, what better way to celebrate the victory than with a commemorative car (maybe even two)?
The MCL38 Celebration Edition Artura and 750S feature Papaya Orange and anthracite livery reminiscent of the colors of the winning F1 car to leave no one in doubt of the affiliation.
The cars feature bespoke details, including carbon fiber from the title-winning MCL38, signatures from Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and branding which includes the champions' laurel on the headrest and a track record plaque listing the pole positions, race wins, and fastest laps won in the now famous Formula One car. Each car is available in coupe and spider editions.
According to McLaren, both cars (special edition or not) are built around race-bred carbon fiber monocoque, top-end aerodynamics, and high-performing engines: the Artura's 3.0L hybrid V6 and the 750S's 4-liter twin-turbo V8. No core enhancements were made to either car, but that doesn't matter.
It wasn't that long ago that Zak Brown seemed to be under the gun, as some scenes from Drive to Survive reveal. Whether or not those scenes showing pressure from investors and sponsors were dramatized for the cameras, it couldn't have been far from reality given the cost of the sport and the sorry state the team was in.
18 examples (nine of each model) of the MCL38 Celebration Edition cars (probably all spoken for by now) will go to some die-hard fans of the company waiting for values to go sky-high for what could be record-setting future appreciation.
As the new season starts with testing in Bahrain in a 2025 season that promises to be F1's most competitive in recent years, one can only wonder if the papaya team can defend the title and perhaps add a driver's championship too.
With young, hungry drivers like Piastri and Norris, it's not hard to imagine the likelihood of that outcome. Regardless, cheers to McLaren for getting back to the top. McLaren fans can keep popping the bottles of Dom Perignon. They will remain champions until another team takes it away.
