2019 McLaren Senna first driving review: refined brutality

The rigmarole of putting on several layers of fireproof clothing, followed by a slightly uncomfortable helmet and carbon fiber piece that is a HANS device, puts you in a certain state of mind. A state of mind focused, but slightly nervous. Walking in a pit lane for a car that looks as serious and aggressively useful (some might say ugly, but I'll go with brutal) that the McLaren Senna is not doing anything to change this state of affairs. ;mind. Knowing that it's a car that produces 1,764 pounds of aerodynamic props at 155 miles per hour, and that these rear wheels have to deal with 789 horsepower, does nothing to dispel those slamming nerves.

By clicking on the six-point harness, pulling the straps as tight as possible to try to melt into the car, I'm waiting for a car racing experience. I am waiting to be assaulted by sensory means. I am waiting to find the next quarter of an intimidating hour.

So when I get into the pits 15 minutes later after my first laps around the Autodromo do Estoril in the Senna, I'm a little confused. I am not terrified and I do not feel like I have tried to teach a bear to dance. All the experience has been remarkably … refined. Do not get me wrong, the car was definitely fast racing car (and I know there's still more speed coming), but it was not surprisingly noisy or recalcitrant or vivid or clumsy like the racing cars can often be.

I restart the tricks in my head, trying to treat everything. Shooting away from a stop is easy. No need to clutch to handle, just press the throttle and let the familiar seven-speed dual-clutch transmission ease you off. It's good to crawl along the pit lane, too. Following low speed cars can often feel like a teenager forced to attend a 50th birthday party, all uncomfortable and irrelevant. But the Senna is happy for you to do a short-shift and potter. No hint of 590 lb-ft of torque on the leash.

The visibility is wonderful, so the car feels instantly easy to place and the cockpit is much smaller than the previous one Ultimate Series McLaren, the P1, where you rub your shoulders with your passenger. Exit the pit lane exit, beware of cold tires and in the first corner. The steering is sensitive but still smooth, and it is surprisingly lightly weighted. It does not seem that you need to become a member of the club to drive this car. Until you hit the brakes.

After doing a few rounds of observation in a 720S before entering the Senna, it's the first big gap in control weights. Apply the same pressure on the Senna's left pedal as on the 720S and nothing really happens. This, ultimately, is something you expect in a race car. It is a very fleshy and solid brake pedal. Once at high temperature, you can press the brakes as hard as you want with your right (or left) foot.

In fact it's the braking of the Senna that really stands out in the memory and the thing I really work on when I'm leaving for my second round of laps. The aero is so well managed that it makes the car wonderfully stable at high speed. The bend of turn 5 on the right back is easy to flat (unlike the 720S) and the car feels totally untamed. The acceleration is huge (0-186 mph in 18.8 seconds) but strangely, because the Senna is so well attached from a suspension point of view and because you are held so tightly by your harness , he feels less noticeable than in the 720S, who squats and rolls and feels more distant.

But braking is something else. It can brake 95 feet later in Turn 1 at Estoril than a 720s, and with a tailwind on the pit, the Senna will reach over 180 mph before pressing the left pedal. The deceleration started right after the sign "200 meters", which I can tell you that he was falling behind, because it's a downhill braking zone and that my mind could not calculate that distance without seeing an accident as a final result. . I have never known braking like in a road car. And the most impressive part is that there remains a real feel through the pedal when you break it with all your might, generating up to 2G of strength in the process. The active aero helps you a lot, so that there is no delicate compensation modulation, because the speed decreases and the car remains stable.

You have to brake late and deep into the corners to make the most of the car, too, weigh the front tires (custom Pirelli Trofeo Rs) and drive them into the tarmac. To do this, you can feel that the car starts to turn around the front, opening the corner, allowing you to return to power earlier. Personally, I would like a wider front tire, just as I wanted a wider front tire on the P1. A 245-section front is rather skinny and that means that in a bend where you can not brake or through a turn like the Turn 11 Parabolica in Estoril, you end up with a car that really only wants to push understeer. I understand why McLaren gave him that balance because it makes the car more accessible and friendly to the limit, but just as frustrating in some situations.

Not that the Senna does not happen if you want it. The car was (at the insistence of McLaren) in its ESP race mode during the laps, but it was not at all frustrating. It is supremely well judged to allow you a lot of drag while giving the trust of an electronic safety net (albeit one with bigger holes). You might be able to follow the curve a bit more at the exit of some turns with ESP disabled, but from turns 3 and 9, I had deliciously progressive slides that I could maintain and even change gears at halfway through. No sweaty palms, no heartbeats popped. Even the slightly larger, faster and less intentional slippage that I had on the out-turn exit of Turn 6 was easily captured.

The speed that Senna generates is phenomenal. McLaren says it's six seconds faster lap on the relatively short circuit of Estoril than a 720S. Six seconds! And, as we all know, a 720S is almost as damn fast as a P1. Still, I would bet it would be less scary to reach a second of the Senna's ultimate lap time than a second of the time at the ultimate 720S turn. This brutal-looking 789-horse monster makes the race car's performance accessible and almost friendly.

Curiously, after I left, a part of me was almost disappointed, because apart from the performance, there was not as much drama as I expected. It was easy to enter the roof cut and there is no FIA safety cage to climb. The sound of the turbocharged V8, though smothered by a helmet, was not something to light your eardrums, and on the straight lines, I found myself staring at the shift lights rather than relying on a whining crescendo. There was also no racing car that vibrates through the carbon chassis up to the seat of my Nomex back. It was really very serene. Almost not exciting. Almost.

And it was then that I realized that I had approached the Senna all wrong. All the conversations and the accumulation had made me think of this as a slightly civilized race car. But as soon as you remember that it's a road car – a real road car, not just a fast car like a Radical or Ariel Atom – It changes everything. When you consider the speed you have just traveled around the circuit and then you remember that without any adjustment (other than the pressure of a button on the roof to release it from its scraper mode), you can to get out in a rush hour of the city, that's when you enjoy the realization of the Senna.

And no, I did not have the right to drive on the road, so part of it is conjectural, but thanks to the whims of the shoot, I spent some time in the car rummaging and driving slowly and make turns to three I'm pretty confident of this presumption. I also hope to be able to confirm my suspicions by driving someone on the road at some point because I think it would be a spectacular sight.

Of course, if this allows you to get the number of your local McLaren dealer, ready to separate you from $ 1 million, then I'm afraid you're too late. The 500 Sennas are already sold. I just hope that they were bought by people who will drive them and drive them hard. This body is made to cut in the air, not to be looked at in a static collection.

Editor's note: Roadshow accepts multi-day vehicle loans from manufacturers to provide editorial reviews. All marked vehicle examinations are completed on our territory and according to our conditions. However, for this feature, the manufacturer has covered travel expenses. This is common in the automotive industry because it is much cheaper to send reporters to cars than to send cars to reporters.

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