F1 team founder's grave vandalized

Photo: © IMAGO

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F1 team founder's grave vandalized

Bruce McLaren was the founder of McLaren racing

By Sam Cook.

Thursday 6 November 2025 23:13

McLaren F1 founder Bruce McLaren's grave has been vandalized in his home country of New Zealand.

McLaren founded the iconic team back in 1963, driving his own cars for a number of years (and taking one F1 win) before his untimely death in 1970.

The team founder's life ended in tragic circumstances when he was involved in a crash at the Goodwood Circuit while testing the McLaren M8D, dying at the age of just 32.

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His team has since gone on to become one of the most successful teams in the history of F1, winning 12 drivers' championships and 10 constructors' titles, and the legacy of Bruce McLaren is proudly displayed in McLaren's Woking HQ.

Now, the Bruce McLaren Trust have revealed that his resting place - and the resting place of several of his family members including wife Patricia - has been vandalised.

In an official statement, the trust revealed: "It is with dismay that we need to inform our followers that the graves of Bruce, Patty, Ruth and Pop at Waikumete Cemetery in Auckland have recently been vandalised.

Bruce McLaren's grave hit by vandals

While the news will no doubt leave McLaren fans angered and saddened, the Bruce McLaren Trust have revealed a more positive story to come out of it, with a charitable organisation offering to restore the headstones to their former glory.

"A very kind offer has been made by The Grave Guardians, a voluntary organisation that restores head stones to repair the damage, for which we are extremely grateful," the official statement continued.

"While this work is being undertaken, the stones are wrapped and unable to be viewed."

McLaren and his family's graves are at West Auckland’s Waikumete Cemetery, and Carter Stewart-Dalzell of The Grave Guardians told the above publication that several other headstones in the cemetery had been vandalised too.

"Someone has obviously decided that the graves are just in a sad state and that they know what they're doing, and they have put gel bleach all over about 14 headstones and then they've had a crack at painting them.

"They've destroyed ceramic portraits, they've done significant damage to the stones themselves, and I believe it's the same person because the paint is exactly the same."

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