McLaren's rich racing history begins in 1963 when New Zealander Bruce McLaren decides to form his eponymous racing team

The team enter Formula One in 1966 and 24 races later Bruce McLaren takes the team's first win at the 1968 Belgian Grand Prix in the M7A (driven here by team-mate Denny Hulme)

Tragedy strikes in 1970 when, aged just 32, founder Bruce McLaren is killed at Goodwood when his Can-Am car crashes during testing. In 1972 the team ends its successful Can-Am venture to focus on F1

Brazil's 1972 world champion Emerson Fittipaldi arrives at McLaren in 1974 and, driving the M23, wins a tight contest with Ferrari to capture the team's first drivers' and constructors' crowns

The charismatic James Hunt chases down Ferrari's Niki Lauda - who is badly burned at the German GP - to clinch the 1976 title for McLaren by a single point at the rain-hit season-ending Japanese Grand Prix

Another golden era dawns for McLaren in 1984, as Alain Prost (l) and Lauda (r) team up under the leadership of Ron Dennis (centre)

The McLarens, powered by Porsche turbo engines, dominate and Lauda pips team-mate Prost to the world title by half a point

Prost finally gets his hands on the world drivers' trophy in 1985 and the great Frenchman makes it two in 1986 as he nicks the championship from underneath the noses of the Williams' drivers

McLaren win a record 15 out of 16 Grands Prix in 1988 but new recruit Ayrton Senna takes eight of them to beat Prost to the title

Now bitter rivals, Prost and Senna clash at the penultimate round in Japan in 1989. It is enough to hand the championship to the Frenchman - but not enough to stop him quitting McLaren for Ferrari

The McLaren-Senna partnership notches up consecutive drivers' crowns for the Brazilian in 1990 and 1991 and a fourth straight constructors' trophy for the Woking-based team

Senna's victory in the wet at the 1993 European GP at Donington goes down in history but by the end of the year he quits McLaren, who lag behind Williams, to make his ill-fated move to Williams

Senna is replaced by Martin Brundle for 1994 before Nigel Mansell joins the team for 1995, but it is an ill-fated liaison. Mansell does not fit in the car initially and he quits after two uncompetitive races

After some lean years, Finn Mika Hakkinen, Mercedes' engine and Adrian Newey's design nous lift McLaren back to the top as they deny Ferrari and Michael Schumacher to take both titles in 1998

Hakkinen adds another drivers' crown in 1999 but he and team-mate David Coulthard cannot stop Ferrari in the constructors' race

It's one Finn in, one Finn out in 2002 as Hakkinen takes a sabbatical - eventually retiring - and Kimi Raikkonen arrives from Sauber

The following season Raikkonen wins his first GP in Malaysia and emerges as a title contender, challenging Schumacher right down to the very last race at Suzuka, only to lose out by two points

McLaren had the pace but reliability dogged Raikkonen and new team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya's titles chances in 2005 - though Raikkonen scored enough points to finish as runner-up

It is all change at McLaren in 2007 as the team sign double world champion Fernando Alonso (right) from Renault but spring a surprise by promoting GP2 champion Lewis Hamilton to be his team-mate

By Hungary, a race Hamilton wins, a rift between the pair widens and, with McLaren embroiled in the Ferrari "spy row", Alonso's relationship with the team turns sour

McLaren boss Ron Dennis takes the rap as the sport's governing body finds the team guilty of illegally possessing Ferrari technical data, strips it of its constructor points and fines it $100m (�49.2m)

Hamilton's amazing rookie season sees him take a four-point lead over Alonso into the final race in Brazil - but both end up losing the championship to Ferrari's Raikkonen by a single point

With Alonso back at Renault and Heikki Kovalainen as his new team-mate, Hamilton reignites McLaren's title challenge in 2008, taking five victories - including a memorable wet-weather triumph at Silverstone

Hamilton and Ferrari rival Felipe Massa take the title to the wire in the final race in Brazil. A thrilling climax sees Hamilton move into the points place he needs on the last corner to clinch the 2008 crown

Hamilton is the seventh McLaren driver to get his hands on the world championship trophy and, at 23 years and 300 days, the Englishman also becomes the youngest champion in the sport's history