We’ll Finally See The McLaren P1 Successor On 6 October

Yes, it really has been over a decade since the McLaren P1 was presented to an astounded crowd at the Geneva Motor Show. In the intervening years, we’ve had other McLaren hypercars – the hardcore Senna, the slippery Speedtail – nothing has come along to directly carry on that lineage that was started in the early ’90s by the F1.

That long wait is about to be over, though, as McLaren has confirmed that its next ‘1’ car is coming on 6 October. It’s no secret that this car’s in development, with dealers and select customers reportedly already having had the chance to see it.

Everything else, though, remains a mystery for now. We suspect that, like the P1, it’ll be a hybrid, with its beating heart likely to be McLaren’s current 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 – an evolution of the 3.8-litre that powered the P1 all those years ago. Being pitched as a direct successor to the F1 and P1, it’s likely to be designed with a broader use case than the track-focused Senna or high-velocity Speedtail, too.

As for its name, we can only assume it’s going to follow the formula of its predecessors, given that McLaren is calling it its next ‘1’ car. Obviously, F1 and P1 are already taken, and we suspect BMW’s lawyers might have a problem with M1 and Z1, and Audi’s with A1. That still leaves 21 possibilities, though, so place your bets now.

We were rather hoping that we’d be set up for another ‘holy trinity’ showdown, as we were 10 years ago when the P1, LaFerrari and Porsche 918 all pitched up within months of one another. Reportedly, though, that’s not going to happen. While we know Ferrari’s next halo hypercar is imminent, and should provide a handy rival to the new McLaren, Porsche’s 918 successor is likely still a while off, as the company grapples with what form its next hypercar should take.

Still, we’ll take a two-way hypercar showdown over nothing. If nothing else, Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc are all likely to be getting some pretty sweet new company cars soon.