There is a lot of idle chit-chat at the moment about McLaren and how things are not going well but I tend to follow Stefano Domenicali’s line on this matter. The Ferrari F1 boss has been around the block in F1 for the last 25 years and he is smart enough to know that: “Don’t be surprised if you see McLaren recovering the situation very soon. They are a great team, so they will do it very soon”. Wise words indeed. Obviously it would help if the team did not have to be the comeback kings as often as they do, but McLaren is never far away from success. The results bear this out. People rabbit on about McLaren not having won a title for a long time (which is true), but the company’s record is impressively consistent.

Based on points scored, the team was champion in 1998, 1991, 1990, 1989, 1988, 1985 and 1984 and runner up in (take a deep breath) 2011, 2010, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1993, 1992, 1987 and 1986. Just to hammer home the point McLaren also finished third in 2012, 2009, 2005, 2003 and 2002. So it has been in the top three in 24 of the last 29 F1 seasons.

At the same time the company has moved into various other fields with great success, not just in racing but also in various other businesses, notably road cars. The McLaren F1 was first introduced in 1992 and was described by Autocar at the time as “the finest driving machine yet built for the public road”. The magazine added that “the F1 will be remembered as one of the great events in the history of the car”. This was followed in 2004 by the Mercedes-Benz McLaren SLR and in 2011 by the MP4-12C. This year the firm produced the P1 and there are now plans for a new car, codenamed P13, which is designed to go ahead-to-head with the Porsche 911 Turbo. This is expected to go on sale in 2015 with a volume of 2,500 cars a year.