McLaren is being mischievous. The Mugello Circuit is about a 90-minute drive from Ferrari’s headquarters in Maranello, and the Italian marque actually owns the racetrack. Opera booms out of the circuit-wide sound system at 9 a.m., adding further gravitas to the drama about to unfold. You don’t get that at Silverstone. But it’s here in Tuscany that the British automaker has chosen to launch its long-awaited new hypercar. The W1 arrives as McLaren Automotive’s entire approach is being reframed by its new CEO, Nick Collins. He’s the man who led the development of the current Range Rover, which isn’t a bad thing to have on the résumé. The W1 couldn’t be more different. This is a car heavily influenced by Formula 1, and engineered by a team with multiple F1 World Championship titles. The W1 follows the 1990s-era McLaren F1—now a $20 million-plus collectors’ unicorn—and 2013’s P1 as genre-defining automotive unobtanium. The stakes are high. Beauty has to give way..
