Neil Alberico – Red Bull what? Christian Horner who?

Corby, England (November 2, 2011) — It’s been a long day of driving, emails and sightseeing. A long day, but a fun day! Today, what did we do today? Oh yeah, Trent and I went to the McLaren Technology Centre. No big deal. It’s probably just one of the most amazing Formula One establishments out there. This past couple weeks I’ve just been adding to the list of experiences I will never forget for the rest of my life. I mean, we were at McLaren today — the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula One Team. Big thanks to Neil Trundle for giving us the behind the scenes grand tour of what exactly goes on at McLaren. Neil now looks after their “heritage collection” of cars, which means he is in charge of making sure all the older McLarens are maintained in full running order. He also oversees their exhibition appearances all over the world. I was totally blown away by the entire experience!

There’s just no possible way to describe their facility in writing. McLaren just seems so far advanced, it’s hard to believe it was built nearly 10 years ago. Neil was telling us that Ron Dennis was directly involved with the entire architectural design of the premises. As you drive to the McLaren roundabout – yes, McLaren has its own roundabout – you’re hit with a futuristic vibe! Everything from the glass McLaren entrance sign, to the guard gate securing the motorsport division, it all gives off a very star trek-like atmosphere.

As we approached the guard gate upon arrival, someone straight out of Men-in-Black greeted us with “system access” key cards to get us into the motorsport reception area. From there we drove through to the McLaren car park, which was packed! I guess that’s easy to understand considering they have around 1,500 employees working there daily. Now, I’m trying to think of the best way to describe the facility to you. Okay, say the car park is completely separated from the McLaren factory. On one side of the building there is a beautiful man-made lake, which pushes right up against the glass walls of the factory. On the other side of the main building, in-between the car park, there are these cylindrical pods protruding from the ground, which are the only way to access the main building. There was about five or six of these pods that take you to separate locations within the factory. With the swipe of a card, this pod opens and it leads to an underground spiral staircase. Keep in mind everything is built of mostly glass, immaculate white tile and contemporary stainless steel. Anyway, as we got to the bottom of this staircase we came to a long corridor that was white from top to bottom! Super futuristic looking. At the end of this long hallway there was another glass cylindrical elevator. Security access card required, of course. At this time Trent and I were just looking at each other absolutely blown away by how unreal this facility was. And we haven’t even started the tour yet!

The first floor is where all the working bays, simulators, machines, wind tunnels, trophy displays, etc., are located. Basically all the hands-on stuff goes on there. That’s also the floor where McLaren kept their most successful cars for display as their workplace/ museum. The second floor of the factory houses all the offices. The entire factory was built on an open plan, where everything is separated by glass. Even from the second floor you could see down and overlook all the cars, as all the second floor walkways were suspension bridges. So as we took this elevator up from the underground hallway, Trent and I could see all the F1 cars being worked on as went past the first floor to get to the second level where we met Neil to start our tour. We were not allowed to take very many pictures, as most of their development is kept secret but we were allowed to take one in front of Lewis Hamilton’s 2008 World Championship winning car.

Once we met up with Neil he gave us a 2 -½ hour tour of the entire McLaren Technology Center. We saw everything from the wind tunnel to Jenson Button’s 2011 MP4-26, which was actually being prepped for Abu Dhabi, as it will be Jenson’s Grand Prix car for next weekend. How crazy it that?! We actually got to touch Jenson Button’s Grand Prix car for Abu Dhabi. What else? We got to hold and change gears on the 2008 McLaren MP4-23 Formula One car. At that moment we were holding £20,000 worth of equipment. Just the steering wheel, £20,000! Believe it. Neil explained to us that it takes 50 hours to wire an F1 steering wheel with all the correct electronics. Every detail finished to military spec. Unreal. We also got the rundown of how all CNC machines work and how they make all the billet aluminum parts for the F1 cars. I could sit here and write a book about that day, but I think you get that idea of what we saw at McLaren. I was probably in shock for those 2 -½ hours of my life. I just couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that I was standing over some of the most famous cars in Formula One history. Senna’s cars, Prost’s cars, Hakkinen’s cars, Raikkonen’s cars, Hamilton’s past cars, Button’s current car. What an amazing experience! Definitely a day to remember.

Hasta la vista