Hybrid sports car W1: McLaren's technological revolution

Additive Manufacturing 3D-Printed Chassis Parts Give Supercars Lightness

2025-07-17 Source: Press release | Translated by AI 2 min Reading Time

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McLaren Automotive has developed the W1, a hybrid sports car inspired by the legendary F1 and P1 models. The special feature: key components such as the front upper wishbone, lower aero wishbone, and front pillar were additively manufactured.

The engine of McLaren's hybrid supercar W1 combines a V8 biturbo with a hybrid drive, delivering 1,275 HP and reaching a top speed of 217 mph. Onboard are additively manufactured ultra-light chassis parts.(Image: McLaren) — The engine of McLaren's hybrid supercar W1 combines a V8 biturbo with a hybrid drive, delivering 1,275 HP and reaching a top speed of 217 mph. Onboard are additively manufactured ultra-light chassis parts.
(Image: McLaren)

The engine of the hybrid supercar W1 from McLaren combines a V8 biturbo with a hybrid drive, delivers 1,275 hp, and reaches a top speed of 217 mph. With a curb weight of 3,100 lbs, the use of ultra-lightweight and durable 3D-printed chassis parts is closely tied to the car's concept. According to the manufacturer, this is based on 50 years of motorsport experience and embodies the spirit behind McLaren and its F1 mentality.

Together with the Californian manufacturer Divergent Technologies (Divergent 3D), the sports car manufacturer has developed an optimized suspension system to integrate it into the carbon fiber monocoque body. For this purpose, key components such as the front upper wishbone, lower aero wishbone, and front pillar were manufactured using 3D printing.

Digital Manufacturing Solution Shortens Design Cycles

The core technology of Divergent is the Divergent Adaptive Production System (DAPS)—a comprehensive digital manufacturing solution that combines AI-driven generative design, laser powder bed fusion, and robotic assembly technology. This platform allows McLaren to produce highly complex parts without the usual tooling costs while significantly reducing design cycles. This enables the manufacturer to develop parts optimized for stiffness, durability, and aerodynamics.

Several parts of the "supercar of the future" were manufactured using 3D printing.(Image: McLaren) — Several parts of the "supercar of the future" were manufactured using 3D printing.
(Image: McLaren)

Specifically, one of these parts is the lower control arm, a critical component as it must meet aerodynamic requirements while being as lightweight as possible. The teams at Divergent have evaluated every gram of material and refined the part's design through extensive work using their software. The goal was to find the perfect balance in terms of weight, as over-optimization could have significant impacts on the vehicle's performance.

Cooper Keller, Chief Programs and Operations Officer at Divergent, summarizes: "The Divergent Structures team truly worked as an extension of McLaren's suspension and chassis teams. It provided the design space, exclusion zones, stiffness requirements, and load cases, then allowed our algorithms to generate the optimized topology."

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