Monaco 1969
racing drivers, it was also the first to partner a whole F1 team – none other than the legendary Scuderia Ferrari. Nonetheless, the stars TAG Heuer has supported since then read like a motor racing hall of fame. Dozens of immortal names have worn the logo, from Jacky Ickx and David Coulthard to Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button today. In between they have backed F1 multi-champions Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, Fernando Alonso, Ayrton Senna, and Mika Häkkinen. The performance you cheer on a Grand Prix circuit doesn’t happen by magic. Behind it lie gruelling weeks and months of practice. Drivers must constantly push themselves to improve on their best. In 1971, on their private test track at Fiorano, the Ferrari team were training hard. The problem was, in those pre-computer days no equipment was accurate enough to record the splitsecond timings they needed to ratchet up their performance. To meet that need, TAG Heuer engineers devised the electronic ‘Le Mans Centigraph’. Thanks to it, Ferrari were able to record timings to a 1/1,000th of a second. Practice makes perfect, and the mouldbreaking technology paid off with F1 World Champion titles for drivers Niki Lauda and Jody Scheckter in 1975, 1977 and
1979, and Constructors titles in 1975-77 and 1979. TAG Heuer’s next leap forward was to build that 1/100th of a second technology into a chronograph. That’s how the ‘Chronosplit’ was born: the world’s first quartz wrist chronograph equipped with a double digital display. Its fusion of glamour and hi-tech appealed so much to Enzo Ferrari, founder of the company, that he ordered a limited edition of 15, embellished with the famous prancing horse logo. The Chronosplit is still a groundbreaking symbol of groundbreaking teamwork. In 1985, the brand joined forces with McLaren in a partnership, and over 26 years, has pushed the boundaries of Formula 1. Since they joined forces, TAG Heuer has provided McLaren drivers with cutting-edge timekeeping technology for their test sessions. So, it is no coincidence that McLaren have notched up over 120 Grand Prix wins, and been victorious in the World Drivers’ Championship nine times. All the winning drivers have earned a place in the F1 Hall of Fame: Senna, Prost, Häkkinen, Hamilton. All of whom have been TAG Heuer brand ambassadors. And if that wasn’t enough, for 11 consecutive seasons from 1992 TAG Heuer was the official
Alain Prost