I doubt Ron Dennis is mingling with the masses enjoying the Goodwood Revival this weekend. Perhaps that's a good thing. Given the performance shortfall in the back of his current F1 car, Dennis might wish to go back fifty years when McLaren changed engines, seemingly at the drop of a spanner.
In a truly impressive tribute to the team's founder, Bruce McLaren, Goodwood has pulled together a range of cars that perfectly highlights the diversity of a top racing driver's career back in the day. They're all there, from the GT40 prototype that Bruce tested and raced for the Ford Motor Company, to the McLaren M14A with which he scored his final podium in 1970, six weeks before the fatal accident not far from where I'm sitting in the Revival media centre.
The two cars that really caught my eye were the 1966 M2B (the first McLaren F1 car) and the 1967 M5A, neither of which I thought existed any more. Not only are they here, but they sound stunning - and very different.
The M2A (painted predominantly white to appease John Frankenheimer and relieve the film director of a bag of dollars when making his epic 'Grand Prix') has a downsized Indy Ford V8, arguably one of the most raucous engines you'll ever hear in an F1 car.
When McLaren quickly realised on the car's debut at Monaco in 1966 that most of the limited horsepower was disappearing out the twin exhausts, he switched to an Italian Serenissima V8. This wasn't much better but it did bring the first-ever championship point for McLaren a few months later at Brands Hatch.
So we move into 1967, the year the Ford-Cosworth made its debut in the Lotus 49. With customer versions of the DFV not available until the following year, Bruce made do with a very neat ballasted F2 McLaren while waiting for BRM to supply a V12 for the McLaren M5A. The striking thing about the M5A (painted red because they couldn't think of anything better) is the neatness of the engine installation - or, at least, it definitely seems that way when compared with the massive American lump dominating the back of the M2B.
Bruce came close to winning the Canadian Grand Prix with the M5A on its debut but the team really got into its stride in 1968 when the DFV finally arrived to power the beautiful M7A, painted in the rich papaya orange/yellow that would become the team's trademark.
That made five different engine types (including the V8 BRM in the F2 car) in less than two years.
You wish, Ron. You wish.