McLaren 'extra race' confusion explained ahead of 1,000th grand prix

McLaren's celebrations for its 1,000th F1 grand prix start are in full preparation mode ahead of the historic milestone at this weekend's Monaco GP. 

Just under six years after great rivals Ferrari chalked up four figures of starts at the 2020 Tuscan GP, Bruce McLaren's eponymous squad, and modern drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will suit up in Monte Carlo, where 60 years ago, Bruce himself drove in the very first. 

However, there is some apparent confusion. 

It appears that McLaren is 'only' on 998 grand prix starts from its 1,003 entries, meaning that the Monaco GP would be race #999, and the big #1000 would be next time out at the inaugural Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix. 

This missing 'extra race' that the team is counting is the controversial 2005 United States Grand Prix from Indianapolis. 

McLaren's drivers that day were Juan Pablo Montoya and Kimi Raikkonen, who, like the other six teams running Michelin tyres, peeled off at the end of the formation lap owing to major safety concerns over the rubber, leaving the three Bridgestone runners to take the start in the infamous 'six-car race.'

However, because Montoya and Raikkonen took the green light to signal the start of the formation lap, McLaren officially counts this as race #586 in its march to 1,000.

The key difference between Norris and Piastri both failing to start the 2026 Chinese GP, and this not being counted towards the tally, is that they both did not take the start of the formation lap - with Norris being stuck in the garage and Piastri being wheeled off the grid, both having suffered from power unit electrical gremlins. 

As an aside, this means McLaren has only ever failed to start four grands prix since it entered F1 at the 1966 Monaco GP. 

These are the 1966 Belgian and Dutch Grands Prix, as Bruce's car failed to take the start, the 1983 Monaco GP, where both Niki Lauda and John Watson failed to qualify - the only time that McLaren has suffered a double DNQ - and Norris and Piastri in China earlier this season.