McLaren dropped a new logo this week and the car internet has not calmed down since. The fast, forward-leaning "McLaren" script with the Speedmark swooping off the end, the one you know from the F1 cars, the team kit and every McLaren showroom sign, is out. In its place: wide, flat, all-caps letters with a tiny lowercase "c" parked on a line. Half the comments say it looks like a luxury fashion label. The other half say it looks like an old gas station sign. The second half is right, and that's actually the point.
What actually changed
- New wordmark. A wide sans-serif in all capitals, except the lowercase "c" that sits on a short horizontal bar to line up with the capitals around it.
- The Speedmark stays. The orange swoosh McLaren has used since 1997, shaped after the vortices coming off a rear wing, is still part of the brand. It just isn't welded to the end of the name anymore.
- Papaya and the Speedy Kiwi stay. The orange and the kiwi that nods to Bruce McLaren's New Zealand roots are both kept, alongside a new McLaren Sans typeface and a wider color palette pulled from the archives.
- One logo for everything. McLaren Racing and McLaren Automotive share it, so you'll see it on the F1 and IndyCar teams and on the road cars. The first car to wear it is the McL 6GT, which comes with a manual gearbox.
It really is from a gas station
The McLaren family service station in Remuera, Auckland. Photo: McLaren.
Before McLaren was a supercar maker or an F1 team, it was a family name painted above a service station in Remuera, a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand. Bruce McLaren's parents, Les and Ruth, owned it, and it's where a teenage Bruce built the car that started his racing career. Look at the sign over the pumps and you'll see the new logo: same wide letters, same little raised "c". McLaren didn't invent a new identity. It went back to the first place the name ever went up on a wall.
The internet is split
- CarBuzz said it prefers the old one, calling the new letters blocky and less dynamic, and missing the movement the slanted M and the Speedmark gave the old word.
- Creative Bloq said it looks like a luxury fashion brand.
- Over on r/formula1, one self-described graphic designer said they liked the retro font at first, then "recoiled in horror" at the letter spacing and kerning.
- The Autopian went with the headline "McLaren Changes Its Logo In Effort To Make Anyone Care About Its Road Cars."
The main complaint is simple: the old logo looked fast standing still, and the new one doesn't. On the other side, the heritage crowd loves that McLaren picked something with a real story behind it instead of doing another flat, soulless minimalist refresh like half the industry.
Why now
McLaren is the latest in a long line. BMW, Volkswagen, Honda, Jaguar and Lamborghini have all flattened or simplified their badges in the last few years. McLaren also has a bigger reason: the SUV is officially happening, with a launch expected before the end of the decade, and a second front-engine model with rear seats is on the table. A thin italic script built for mid-engine supercars doesn't stretch as easily across an SUV, a dealership wall, a phone app and an F1 car. A plain, wide wordmark does.
Our take
The story is great. Going back to the family service station is about as authentic as a rebrand gets, and McLaren kept the Speedmark and the papaya, which are the parts that actually matter. The execution is another story. On its own, the new word looks less like a 200 mph car company and more like a candle shop, and the old logo had speed built into every letter. Our guess is it grows on people the way these always do, once it's on a car instead of on a slide.
The good news for owners: the badge on the nose of your 720S or Artura is the Speedmark, and that isn't going anywhere. Nobody's car got uglier overnight.
Heritage masterpiece or font-menu default?
We want to hear it. Tell us what you think on Instagram at @velocityfactor, and tag the McLaren owner in your group chat who's about to get very defensive.
McLaren can redraw its logo as many times as it likes. Making the car faster is our job. We carry McLaren parts including BMC air filters, CSF charge-air coolers, GiroDisc rotors and EBC and Hawk brake pads, and if you want the calipers to match the new papaya, read our caliper refinishing guide. Or stop by the shop at 12294 Wiles Road in Coral Springs and talk to us in person.
Sources: McLaren, Motor1, Car and Driver, CarBuzz, Creative Bloq, Speedcafe, The Autopian, Grande Prêmio. Logo and service station images courtesy of McLaren.