Warren Briggs driving his Red and White, 1980, McLaren M29, during the Masters Racing Legends Formula One Race ('66-'85).
The McLaren M29 is a Formula One racing car built and run by McLaren during the 1979 Formula One World Championship and the 1980 Formula One World Championship. The F version of the McLaren M29 was built in 1979, but only ran during five races of the 1981 Formula One World Championship. The M29F was the last of the M-numbered cars to be raced, as later in the season, the McLaren MP4/1 was readied for use in the championship. Designer Gordon Coppuck abandoned the troublesome Nomex monocoque and instead constructed the new M29's chassis from more conventional sheet aluminium. Its design was clearly inspired by the Williams FW07 and Ligier JS11 that had shown great speed early in 1979 season. To allow for undisturbed air-flow underneath the car, the M29 was fitted with in-board springs and dampers all around, which were actuated by rockers. Each of the M29's massive side-pods housed large under-body wings, which generated much of the car's downforce. As was the norm in the ground effect era, the front and rear wing served mainly to tweak the car's balance rather than produce any significant downforce. At some tracks, the car was actually run without a front wing altogether. Compared to the M28, the new M29 was quite a bit smaller, considerably lighter and significantly quicker. John Watson debuted the M29 with a promising fourth place at the British Grand Prix. Although clearly an improvement compared to its immediate predecessor, the latest McLaren was still not capable of challenging for victories. Watson did manage to finish in the points on three more occasions in the last six races of the season. With team-mate Patrick Tambay failing to score any points, his haul of 15 points placed McLaren a disappointing 7th in the standings.
Size: 4950px × 2866px
Location: Silverstone Circuit, Towcester, Northamptonshire, NN12 8TN
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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