Mclaren does not build many cars like the McLaren MCL38 with V6, made in small numbers. Its designer of record is Peter Prodromou.
The story
The McLaren MCL38 is a Formula One car designed and constructed by McLaren under the direction of Rob Marshall to compete in the 2024 Formula One World Championship, in which it won the World Constructors' Championship. The car was driven by Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, in their sixth and second seasons with the team respectively. Both Norris and Piastri achieved their first Grand Prix wins with the MCL38. The MCL38 made its competitive début at the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix; throughout the season, it proved itself to be a competitive car and a significant improvement over its already-accomplished predecessor, the MCL60. An early upgrade package improved its performance in slow-speed corners, addressing a long-standing weakness of McLaren cars.
The car achieved six race victories, fifteen other podiums, eight poles, three sprint poles, two sprint wins, five other sprint podiums, and seven fastest laps (two being track records), all en route to McLaren's first Constructors' Championship since 1998. The MCL38 was the first McLaren car to win a Grand Prix since the MCL35M in 2021 and the first since the MP4-27 in 2012 to win multiple Grands Prix in a single season. It was also the first McLaren car since the MP4-29 in 2014 to lead the Constructors' Championship and the first since the MP4/13 in 1998 to win it, doing so at the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Commentators generally agreed that the MCL38 did not achieve its optimum results, particularly in regards to Norris's curtailed challenge for the World Drivers' Championship following driver and team error. Regardless, the MCL3
What is underneath
Under the skin sits V6. Kerb weight is 798 kg. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Its place in the line
Where it sits in Mclaren's history is not in doubt: the McLaren MCL60 came before it; the McLaren MCL39 followed it. Nearby in the Mclaren catalogue sit the McLaren M15 and the McLaren M16.