zzdcar
Home
/
Reviews
/
Racing
/
Let's Get Down and Dirty With the 2000 McLaren-Mercedes F1 Engine
Let's Get Down and Dirty With the 2000 McLaren-Mercedes F1 Engine-January 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:11:08

We rarely ever get to take a deep, personal dive into the technology that makes a Formula One car such an astounding feat of engineering. But now, thanks to on YouTube, we can all spend a little bit of time this Tuesday drooling over the Mercedes V10 engine that produced 900 horsepower and 18,400 RPM in the 2000 McLaren MP4/15.

Andre from High Performance Academy grabs a pretty incredible interview with Tim White of Garage 59 while out at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed. White was a former F1 engineer and worked specifically with the McLaren-Mercedes car in question. He was there in 2000 when driver David Coulthard brought home a third place overall in the championship—plus a prestigious win in Monaco. Simply put, this is a guy who knows his stuff.

Producing 18,400 RPM and 900 horsepower isn’t especially common for a 3.0-liter engine—but especially not a naturally-aspirated one. There’s obviously a ton of engineering that needs to go into the whole deal to make sure that the car can efficiently perform at high speeds for long periods of time. And now we get a little taste of what that entails:

The video is just over 16 minutes long, so take some time out of your day to share a special moment with a little technology chat. Trust me—you’re not going to regret it.

White talks about how to balance your RPM with the pressure produced in the engine to keep it running smoothly through pneumatically-controlled valve springs rather than the traditional steel spring setup—and how active trumpets on the intake could match RPM and fill out flat spots on the rev range. He discusses the double-paddle clutch and how its implementation reduced the possibilities for driver error on the starting line. There’s a ton of incredible content in this video.

I’m no engineer, but I’m eternally fascinated by the complex way everything in a race car has to function so smoothly, how engineers have to figure out what changes are worth making. And Tim White gives you easily-digestible way to understand why those decisions were made for the 2000 McLaren-Mercedes.

Comments
Welcome to zzdcar comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Racing
The British Wonks At McLaren Will Now Be Led By An American
The British Wonks At McLaren Will Now Be Led By An American
Los Angeles-born motorsport marketer Zak Brown turned down the opportunity to take over some of Bernie Ecclestone’s commercial duties under new Formula One owners Liberty Media to join McLaren instead, reports the . Brown joins the McLaren Technology Group as its new Executive Director—but curiously, not as a replacement for...
Jan 11, 2026
Lewis Hamilton On Pole In Front Of His Teammate For Championship-Deciding F1 Finale
Lewis Hamilton On Pole In Front Of His Teammate For Championship-Deciding F1 Finale
Let the Final Ultimate Mega-Super Battle of the Teammates commence! Lewis Hamilton’s really not letting the Formula One world drivers’ championship go without a fight. Hamilton laid down a pole-winning qualifying lap in Abu Dhabi, 0.303 seconds faster than his teammate and fellow title contender Nico Rosberg. Hamilton’s 1.38.755 was...
Jan 11, 2026
Weekend Motorsports Roundup, Nov. 26-27, 2016
Weekend Motorsports Roundup, Nov. 26-27, 2016
Welcome to the Jalopnik , where we let you know what’s going on in the world of racing, where you can see it, and where you can talk about it all in one convenient place. Where else would you want to spend your weekend? Well, would you look at that—the...
Jan 11, 2026
The World's Most Massive Vehicular Adventure Is Going Somewhere New Next Year
The World's Most Massive Vehicular Adventure Is Going Somewhere New Next Year
2017 will kick off with one of the most massive motorized adventure events of all time: the 39th annual . Next year’s route and favorite competitor lineup has just been announced, and of course the 5,500-mile odyssey is slated to be more badass than ever before. Paraguay will be the...
Jan 11, 2026
Formula One Could Introduce Standing Restarts In 2017
Formula One Could Introduce Standing Restarts In 2017
In a meeting prior to the Formula One season finale in Abu Dhabi, all 11 team principles reportedly agreed to bring standing restarts to the grid for the 2017 race season in hopes that it “spices the show up.” If introduced, that means each restart would look just like the...
Jan 11, 2026
F1 Driver Daniel Ricciardo’s Belly Dancing Will Haunt You In Your Dreams
F1 Driver Daniel Ricciardo’s Belly Dancing Will Haunt You In Your Dreams
Formula One driver Daniel Ricciardo is the kind of person whose antics often make you want to cover your eyes in vicarious embarrassment, but at the same time, you can’t stop watching whatever it is he’s doing. This time around, someone talked him into belly dancing in front of a...
Jan 11, 2026
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.zzdcar.com All Rights Reserved