Watch F1 Champ Nico Rosberg Thrash the Crap out of a McLaren Senna on the Track
The Senna is wicked fast and a handful to drive, even for a second-generation Formula One world champion.
The McLaren Senna is a true modern wonder, with an all-carbon-fiber body, 789-horsepower twin-turbocharged V8, and a complex 67-piece aerodynamic kit. But how is it to drive? It's brutal, even for one-time Formula One world champion-turned-vlogger Nico Rosberg.
Rosberg took the Senna for a total thrash session out on the driver training track at the French Circuit Paul Ricard, scrambling to maintain control a couple times in tighter turns and having to pause his lap entirely for high clutch temperatures once.
Yet even with the car looking like a total handful with the driver aids off, Rosberg threw down an incredible 59.56 lap time. A previous video notes that the main F1 circuit was under construction, so they were using the driver training track instead. Still, this is how a hypercar needs to be driven!
The driver training track lacked the kind of high-speed turns where the Senna's over 1,753 lbs (around 800-plus kg) of downforce really helps it achieve even faster lap times. Still, you can see how the Senna's active aerodynamics flatten out on straights to give the car a higher top speed, but moves to push the car down as it slows down for turns. Engaging Race Mode squatted the car down 36 mm in front and 27 mm down in the back to increase the effectiveness of those crazy aerodynamic bits as well.
It's mindblowing to watch a supercar get driven as it should, so I'm pretty sure Rosberg just proved that all hypercars must get hooned to their utmost abilities. Please do that, hypercar owners of the world. Thanks in advance.