Through Designer Eyes: McLaren P1 Exterior and Interior

During a McLaren P1 media event called “The Workshop” — appropriately and efficiently named so because it was conducted in a workshop inside the grand McLaren Technical Center in Woking, Surrey, England — we asked two P1 designers to walk us through their plug-in hybrid hypercar’s function-over-form design.

Based on popular opinion around the MT office, the P1 exterior doesn’t appear to register as being “beautiful” in a classical sense. It is eye-catching, however. Perhaps even more importantly, the P1 carries a dramatic presence that invokes personal opinions and leaves a lasting impression.

But what do its designers have to say?

McLaren P1 Exterior

“With the exterior of P1, we really wanted to have this feeling of agility and ‘lightweight.’ We’re also showing exactly what the aerodynamics are doing. You can see down the side of the car, you have this exposed carbon area, which is literally an offset of the door duct showing exactly where the airflow is going. Using this material — the carbon fiber — also takes a lot of visual weight out of the side of the car. It really pronounces the cab-forward stance.
Every single intake on the car is positioned in exactly the right position for the airflow. At the front of the car, you have the low-temperature radiators. That air is going in, and then coming out as slow, warm air. That’s not good for the engine intake which is on the roof and the radiator cooling which is on the side. Those front exits on the bonnet are specifically positioned to allow the slow air to go around the side and not into intake or into the [side] radiators.
“The key theme of the McLaren P1 interior was to communicate the visual ‘lightweight-ness’ of the vehicle, and also to show the shrink-wrapped surfaces over the technical components. So the only soft-trim areas on the car are literally over the airbags. The only other soft-trim part which ties into the DNA of the F1 is through the top of the dashboard, which gives a horseshoe feature. That ties in the ducting and gives a driver-focused zone. Ergonomically, all the features are laid out close at hand like an aircraft cockpit, like a Formula 1 car, or even like your desk. The items you need to get too most often and quickly, they’re nearest. Second and tertiary details are further away.
Another key part of the interior was the glass roof. It would have been very tight and a quite dark interior [otherwise]. We needed to get more light in there. We used aircraft-grade glass — the lightest on the market, super slim and saves weight obviously which on this vehicle is key — but we felt that was a tradeoff we were prepared to accept just to make you feel more at one with the exterior environment. Also, the high header on the interior, we pulled the header as far back as possible. The idea of this was to give the impression, the sensation of driving almost like in an open-top car.”

Moving around to the rear end, this is one of my favorite parts of the car. We knew we had to eject a lot of hot air out of the engine bay. But then with this organic fluidity, with our form language, it allowed us to get — with the low rear deck — this really evocative rear end graphic. And then illuminating the area with LED taillamps creates this really powerful graphic, which I think really is a stunning part of the car.

On the roof, you have a carbon-fiber structure which is also the engine-intake system. Again, we’re using the actual real material. That is actually the carbon structure, there’s no cladding. Everything is truth to materials.

Down here [over the rear hatch], you can see the titanium deck louvers, which our organic form language allows air flowing over the roof, over the exhaust, and extracted out the back.

Overall, we wanted a breathtaking design that really moved the hypercar game on. As massive petrolheads, we sort of swoon over the previous cars. We really wanted to move the game on, make it properly breathtaking.  And innovative, which is one of the big McLaren brand values.”

–Paul Howse, McLaren Automotive designer

Parting factoid: The number 22 MP4-23, better known as the race car Lewis Hamilton drove to the 2008 Formula 1 World Drivers Championship, served as the design team’s muse.

McLaren P1 Interior

Materials- and mood-wise, we wanted to create a very serious, driver-focused environment. We have satin finish on the carbon fiber to minimize reflection and save weight. Also, it keeps the materials very honest. It is literally: the material is there, structurally for the ducting. It’s not frivolous. Everything is there, true to the materials, true to the concept.

With the steering wheel, the idea there was to get the sculptural form in. It’s not only a lovely thing to hold — great grip for driving — but also to get to the IPAS functions and DRS. You can literally just take your thumbs without letting go of the steering wheel and press those with no hassle. I think the main thing, form-wise, was the squared bottom edge that helps with the legroom.

–Rob Melville, McLaren Automotive senior designer

Parting factoid: Over the course of the P1’s development, test drivers recommended the shift paddles be made longer so they could pull them more easily while simultaneously pushing the steering wheel buttons.