McLaren are celebrating their 1000th F1 Grand Prix in Monaco, except it's not

McLaren

McLaren are celebrating their 1000th F1 Grand Prix in Monaco, except it's not

Why the Monaco GP isn't technically McLaren's 1000th race

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Tuesday 2 June 2026 11:56 Updated: 13:39

It's a historic race for the McLaren F1 team at the Monaco Grand Prix this weekend, just don't look too far into it, ok.

You might have already seen, but McLaren are celebrating their 1000th race. They've even dropped a special livery in Monaco for the occasion.

Of course, it's in the traditional metallic papaya, but throughout the design there are nods to their history from their first race, victories, championship wins and even to the Triple Crown.

Article continues under video

Alongside debuting the new livery, they also posted a video of iconic designs from previous eras, including their iconic red and white McLaren Marlboro to the silver chrome livery from Lewis Hamilton's championship winning year. The video culminated in the updated livery for Monaco, giving a true sense of history and evolution.

But we're nothing if not pedantic. So too are F1 fans. And we have quickly deciphered that it isn't technically McLaren's 1000th race in Monaco. It's their 999th.

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Why the Monaco Grand Prix isn't McLaren's 1000th race

The stats are in and in 2026, McLaren have only started four races in Australia, Japan, Miami and Canada.

That leaves them at 998 races in total throughout their history, making Monaco McLaren's 999th race start. So why are they saying that it's the 1000th?

There are theories that McLaren have forgot to omit the Chinese Grand Prix this year where both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri failed to start the race

Piastri was wheeled off the grid with power unit issues, before Norris himself was unable to start the race due to different issues with their engine.

However, perhaps more overlooked is many statisticians don't include the 2005 United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis, where only six cars on Bridgestone tyres started the race.

McLaren though like the rest of the Michelin runners did take part in the formation lap which can be considered as featuring in a grand prix.