McLaren’s New Logo Comes From Its Founder’s Family Garage
McLaren unveiled a new identity on 22 September 2026, shared for the first time by McLaren Automotive and the McLaren Formula 1 team. It had appeared quietly a month earlier on the McL 6GT concept at Monterey Car Week.
Where the wordmark comes from
The new wordmark is based on the sign over the McLaren family’s service station on Remuera Road in Auckland, New Zealand, where a teenage Bruce McLaren rebuilt an Austin 7 before his first race win. It is set in a custom typeface, McLaren Sans, with a small underline beneath the lowercase “c”, copied from the sign. The letters are lighter than before, closer to a luxury label than a racing decal.
“Finally, an acknowledgement of our founder,” chief creative officer David Woodhouse told reporters, according to paultan.org. He rejected the word “retro”, saying the wordmark “definitely takes dominance”.
What stays
The Speedmark swoosh, used on road cars since 1997, moves to a secondary role as “a little identifier”, and the 1970s “Speedy Kiwi” remains for small details such as fuel caps.
Why it matters
Some Formula 1 fans criticised the change, as fans usually do. But tying a brand to a real place and a real person gives it a story no competitor can copy, which is the same reason founders’ marks like Ferrari’s horse have lasted. The test will be whether a thin wordmark reads as well at 300 km/h on a car as it does on a showroom wall.
