The lucky few owners of the extreme McLaren P1 GTR have just enjoyed their first track day driving experience with the cars as part of an official driver development program hosted by McLaren. The program, which includes ex-Formula One driver Bruno Senna as one of its instructors, got underway recently at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya, home of the Formula One Spanish Grand Prix, and saw seven P1 GTR owners take part.
It incorporates specialist driver training, access to the McLaren racing simulator, and maintenance and transport for the cars. It also includes nine track day events like the one at Barcelona. The others will also be held at F1-spec tracks including the likes of Malaysia’s Sepang International Circuit, the legendary Silverstone Circuit in the United Kingdom and even a stop at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
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According to McLaren chief tester Chris Goodwin, this first round of the program was to give the drivers a taste of what the P1 GTR can really do when fully unleashed. And already the training received by drivers is proving quite effective: two of them were said to have posted competitive lap times after Senna set a benchmark lap time to work towards.
In case you’ve forgotten, the P1 GTR is a track-only version of the P1 supercar. It has a peak output of 986 horsepower, up 83 hp on the road car, and it also benefits from lighter weight, a wider track and more downforce. Build slots, of which there are thought to be no more than 40, were offered exclusively to existing P1 owners and all are sold out.
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