New McLaren Senna GTR shown in production form

With no road regulations or pedestrian safety tests to worry about, McLaren’s aerodynamicists have extracted a further 200kg of potential downforce from the Senna’s body. They’ve gently resculpted its panels, added an enormous front splitter and bolted on a rear diffuser that shames those of Le Mans GTE racers. Add the Senna’s active rear wing and downforce peaks at 1000kg – 400kg more than the P1 GTR's.

To handle these enormous high-speed loads, the Senna GTR uses revised double-wishbone suspension and Pirelli slick tyres. A carbonfibre Monocage III skeleton remains at the car’s core, but the GTR is 10kg lighter than the 1198kg Senna when dry, because it can do away with road-specific kit such as airbags, a handbrake and an exhaust muffler and make use of lightweight materials such as plexiglass.

The Senna GTR is a more track-focused package than the P1 GTR, and its makers say it can lap McLaren’s test circuit quicker than anything else it has built with a roof. The firm says only its F1 cars can clock a quicker time.

McLaren boss Mike Flewitt says the Senna GTR "was designed from the outset to be an extreme track car, but the 2018 McLaren Senna GTR concept suggested how much further we could go and now, free from the constraints of road car legislation and motorsport competition rules, we have pushed the limits of what is technically possible".