McLaren has motorsport running through its veins, and that’s not just because the company has a rich Formula One heritage.

As of October 6, the 50th anniversary of its first F1 Constructor’s Championship win with driver Emerson Fittipaldi, McLaren has another reason to celebrate: the unveiling of its newest supercar, the W1.

For those who are well-versed in McLaren’s lineage, the W1 is the spiritual successor to the McLaren F1 of the '90s and the P1 of the 2010s. The price tag? A cool US$2.1 million.

But McLaren is justifying that pricetag with what they describe as “the ultimate expression of a McLaren supercar.” Rear-wheel drive, eight-speed hybrid, and an experience that takes you right to the edge of automotive engineering.

What makes the W1 stand out is its hybrid powertrain. With 1,258bhp and a jaw-dropping 1339Nm of torque, the W1 is McLaren’s most powerful machine to date, thanks to its 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 engine combined with an electric motor.

For McLaren, the appeal of hybrids goes beyond just sheer power. It’s about delivering what Jamie Corstorphine, McLaren’s Director of Product Planning, describes as “the first principles of a real supercar”; a visceral, seat-of-your-pants connection between driver and machine.

Pure electric vehicles may offer speed, but for McLaren, they lack the soul that makes driving feel alive.

Not that hybrid tech is anything new for McLaren. They’ve been honing this craft for over a decade, starting with the legendary 903hp P1, launched in 2013. That same year, Porsche’s 918 Spyder and Ferrari’s LaFerrari hit the roads, forming a trinity of electrified hypercars that rewrote the rulebook for performance.

Since then, McLaren has continued to evolve its hybrid tech. The US$2.3 million Speedtail debuted in 2018, followed by the more "affordable" hybrid, the US$233,000 Artura, in 2021. There’s even a hybrid SUV in the works.

But the W1 takes things to a different level. Unlike the Artura, which offers 31km of electric-only driving, the W1 isn’t too fussed about efficiency. On electric power alone, it’ll cover just under 3km.

So, if you’re looking for a green city car, this might not be your ideal match.

But if you want the fastest road-legal McLaren ever made, this is it. The W1 can sprint from 0 to 200 km/h in a blistering 5.8 seconds and hit 299 km/h in just 12.7 seconds; faster than McLaren’s own Speedtail.

And in a nod to the exclusivity McLaren fans crave, only 399 of these W1s will be made. All have already been spoken for, with deliveries scheduled for 2026. If you didn’t snag one, you’re out of luck.

So, what about McLaren’s all-electric ambitions? Despite rumblings from the company’s higher-ups in recent years, a fully electric McLaren supercar is still a distant dream. “We do not think the technology will be sufficiently mature until the end of the decade,” a spokesperson shared, with the biggest hurdle being the weight of current battery technology.

For those lucky 399 who’ll get to drive one, the wait until 2026 will surely be worth it.