McLaren's newest wordmark comes from an old garage sign: the one above the service station Bruce McLaren's parents ran in Remuera, Auckland, where he built the car for his first racing win.
- Country
-
United Kingdom - Active
- Since 1963
- Founded by
- Bruce McLaren
- Website
- Official website ↗
A Kiwi in a hurry
Before there was a Speedmark, there was a petrol station. Bruce McLaren grew up in Auckland, New Zealand, and the family service station his parents, Les and Ruth McLaren, ran in Remuera was where he built the car that took him to his first racing victory.
He arrived in the UK in 1958 to race. In 1963 he founded his own team, Bruce McLaren Motor Racing Ltd, and in 1966 he took it into Formula 1. The first McLaren Grand Prix car used a Ford V8, which Bruce soon swapped for a lighter Italian Serenissima engine because the Ford was down on power.
Success came quickly. At Spa on 9 June 1968, Bruce won the Belgian Grand Prix, the first win for the McLaren marque and one he didn’t even realise he’d taken at first. His orange Can-Am cars then won that North American series for five seasons in a row, from 1967 to 1971. Bruce never saw the end of that run. He died on 2 June 1970 while testing a new Can-Am car at Goodwood. His team carried on in his name.
A kiwi being run over by a Cooper
The first McLaren badge went on Coopers, not McLarens. For a season of racing in New Zealand and Australia, Bruce ran a pair of specially built Coopers, painted British racing green with silver stripes. The racing artist Michael Turner designed a team badge for them: a kiwi as the central feature on a chequered flag background, with a racing car silhouette across the top of the shield.
Not everyone took it seriously. Phillip Turner, sports editor of The Motor, described it as “a kiwi being run over by a Cooper!” The quote made it into Bruce’s own autobiography, From The Cockpit.
The bird never really left. McLaren also has a symbol called the Speedy Kiwi, which the company says has a longstanding place in its history and honours Bruce’s New Zealand roots.
The Speedmark: one swoosh, many cars
Today’s McLaren emblem is the Speedmark, a short curved swoosh that sits beside the McLaren name on road cars, race cars and team kit alike. McLaren calls it one of its most recognisable symbols. It is shared by McLaren Automotive and McLaren Racing, so the same mark appears on the road cars and on the Formula 1 car.
What does it stand for? McLaren’s own material doesn’t spell out a meaning. A popular theory says the curve is drawn from the swirling air vortices that come off a racing car’s wing, but that explanation doesn’t appear in McLaren’s official descriptions of the mark.
Back to the sign in Remuera
On 22 September 2026, McLaren revealed an evolved identity for both its road car and racing businesses. The teams dug through their shared archives first. What they came back with was a new McLaren wordmark inspired by the sign above that family service station in Remuera.
The Speedmark stayed. McLaren said its continued presence reflects the value of continuity and what it means to fans around the world. The Speedy Kiwi stayed too. So the logo you see now joins three generations of the story: a family business in Auckland, a kiwi from the 1960s and the swoosh of the modern era.
Why papaya?
McLaren’s orange, which the team calls papaya, goes back to Bruce himself. His loud, orange Can-Am cars made the colour famous, and McLaren describes papaya as the colours Bruce first envisaged for his team.
It wasn’t there from day one, though. New Zealand’s racing colours were green, black and silver, but the first McLaren F1 car raced in white with a green stripe. Bruce had agreed to double for the lead character in John Frankenheimer’s film Grand Prix, so the car wore the colours of the film’s fictional Yamura team. In the 2026 identity, papaya remains a defining element, now joined by a wider palette inspired by pivotal moments in McLaren’s history.
From Monaco to Le Mans
Bruce wanted road cars as well as racing cars. His M6GT, a road car intended to compete at Le Mans under Group 4 rules, ended at just two cars after his death. McLaren dates its road car innovation from the McLaren F1, and that car went on to do what the M6GT never got the chance to.
Landmark McLarens, decade by decade
- 1966: M2B. The first McLaren Formula 1 car. It debuted at Monaco on 22 May 1966 and scored the team’s first World Championship point at Brands Hatch.
- 1974: M23. Emerson Fittipaldi drove it to McLaren’s first Constructors’ Championship, clinched at Watkins Glen.
- 1988: MP4/4. Designed by Gordon Murray and Steve Nichols with a Honda engine, it carried Ayrton Senna to his first World Championship.
- 1995: McLaren F1. A road car made race ready, it won the 24 Hours of Le Mans on its first attempt.
- 2026: MCL-HY. McLaren’s Hypercar for its return to Le Mans, testing in a livery that pays tribute to Bruce’s M6A.
McLaren calls its long fight with Ferrari F1’s ultimate rivalry. For more on how marks like the Speedmark are put together, see how car logos are designed.
Frequently asked questions
What is the McLaren logo called?
The swoosh is called the Speedmark. McLaren describes it as one of its most recognisable symbols, and it was kept at the heart of the brand in the 2026 identity update.
Why was there a kiwi on McLaren’s first badge?
Bruce McLaren was a New Zealander. Michael Turner’s early team badge put a kiwi at its centre on a chequered flag background, and McLaren still uses a Speedy Kiwi symbol to honour those roots.
Did McLaren change its logo in 2026?
It evolved it. In September 2026 McLaren introduced a new wordmark inspired by the sign above the McLaren family service station in Remuera, Auckland. The Speedmark, the Speedy Kiwi and papaya all stayed.
Why is McLaren orange?
McLaren calls papaya the colour Bruce McLaren first envisaged for his team. His orange Can-Am cars won that series five seasons in a row, from 1967 to 1971.
The Speedy Kiwi file
- Founded
- 1963
- Founder
- Bruce McLaren
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Headquarters
- Woking, United Kingdom
- Parent company
- McLaren Group Holdings (CYVN Holdings)
- Current emblem
- The Speedmark swoosh beside the McLaren wordmark, with a new wordmark introduced in September 2026
- Known for
- Formula 1 titles, the McLaren F1 and papaya orange
- Website
- Official website ↗
