Cape Town - The mighty All Blacks, preparing for the Test against England at Twickenham on Saturday, have taken a break from training to visit the McLaren Formula One team at their Surrey headquarters.

McLaren and the All Blacks will forever share close ties due to the fact the F1 team was founded by former New Zealand race-car designer, driver, engineer and inventor, Bruce McLaren.

The All Blacks and England will square-off for the first time in four years this weekend.

Kick-off is at 17:00 SA time.

Unlike the all-conquering back-to-back world champion All Blacks, McLaren have endured lean times of late.

They currently find themselves in a lowly sixth-place in the 2018 F1 constructor's title standings on 62 points, a full 523 points adrift of leaders Mercedes (585).

In the drivers' standings, McLaren are represented by Spain's Fernando Alonso (10th in the standings), and Belgium's Stoffel Vandoorne (16th).

McLaren haven't won the constructor's title since 1998 and the drivers' title since 2008 with current world champion, Lewis Hamilton.

The F1 circus is in Brazil this weekend for the 20th stop on the 21-race calendar.

Sunday's race is due to start at 19:10 SA time.

Bonded by our New Zealand heritage, we offer a very warm McLaren welcome to the @AllBlacks. ?????? pic.twitter.com/f08qHT4MFG

— McLaren (@McLarenF1) November 7, 2018

We're putting the @AllBlacks through their paces with a pitstop challenge! ???? pic.twitter.com/RgM60xGP8h

— McLaren (@McLarenF1) November 7, 2018

Thanks for having us @McLarenF1, can we take it for a spin next time? ??? ??#TeamAllBlacks pic.twitter.com/erLRTGue3D

— All Blacks (@AllBlacks) November 8, 2018