The McLaren Senna is a harbinger of things to come, at least as far as its name goes. Unlike previous McLarens, the Senna discarded with alphanumerics in favor of honoring F1 driver Aryton Senna.
Autocar reported Tuesday that McLaren CEO Mike Flewitt prefers actual names for the sports car firm's top cars. The strategy is already in motion with the Senna, which was known during its development as the P15. Previously, the McLaren P1 represented the British sports car builder's Ultimate Series, but we can expect to see a proper name grace the company's F1 successor, which has a working codename of BP23 currently.
The Senna will represent the top expression of track performance, while the BP23—or whatever it will be called— will remain more of a grand tourer within the Ultimate Series. Still, McLaren promises it will be the fastest McLaren ever. To achieve that goal, it will have to clock a 0-62 mph sprint faster than the P1's 2.8 seconds or beat the F1's 240 mph top speed.
Running down the McLaren series hierarchy, Sports and Super Series cars will not take up actual names but continue with a combination of letters and numbers. Flewitt didn't provide insight into the decision, however.