Ferrari has been Formula One’s pre-eminent force. A competitive Ferrari has always helped the health of motorsport’s most prestigious category, with a passionate, worldwide fanbase tuning in.
But every sport needs a fierce rivalry to get the buzz going. Ferrari’s closest historical competitor is McLaren, F1’s second-most-successful outfit in terms of wins and championships.
The eponymous team, founded by Bruce McLaren, has powered the likes of Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, Mika Hakkinen and Lewis Hamilton to titles. More importantly, it is best known as the outfit with which Ayrton Senna, one of F1’s greatest-ever drivers, won his three championships.
A part of F1 folklore
The Ferrari-McLaren battles — Senna vs. Prost, Schumacher vs. Hakkinen, and later Raikkonen/Massa/Alonso vs. Hamilton — are part of F1 folklore.
Dynamic duo: McLaren has one of the grid’s stronger driver pairings in Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. | Photo credit: Getty Images
However, the eight-time constructors’ champion, which also has 12 drivers’ titles, has endured a decade of underperformance since 2013. In 2024, though, things are finally looking up for the British team, as it fights for wins and podiums consistently, raising the fans’ excitement level.
“It is important for F1 to have a competitive McLaren. After Ferrari, it is the team with the most loyal fanbase, and these are the two teams where the fanbase for them is bigger than their drivers,” says Karun Chandhok, India’s second F1 driver, now a TV pundit.
The team’s decline started when it adopted a new car concept in 2013, after fighting for the title in 2012. Its ill-fated switch in 2015 to Honda power units, which were uncompetitive and unreliable, exacerbated the problem. From 2015 to 2018, the team was in the bottom half of the standings. There was also turmoil off the track due to management and ownership changes.
“When they went to the Honda engine, they struggled. There was a cultural clash between McLaren and the Japanese side. There was a lot of blame on the engine front, but they also took their eyes off the chassis. So when they went to Renault [2018-2020], it was a shock and an eye-opener for them that it wasn’t all the [fault of the] Honda engine, but there were deficiencies on the chassis side, which had to be addressed,” says Chandhok.
It was only in 2019 that McLaren started laying down the building blocks for its recovery under former team principal Andreas Seidl. Since then, the team has been bouncing around to be the best of the rest behind Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari. The highlight was the 2021 Italian GP, where Daniel Ricciardo led Lando Norris to a 1-2 finish, McLaren’s first win since 2012.
Closing the gap
Over the last two years, there has been a growing belief that good days are on the horizon, as the Woking-based team has started to close the gap to the top.
After starting the 2022 rules cycle on the back foot, the team missed the initial targets for 2023 and struggled even to score points in the early part of last year. In the background, there was another management shake-up, with Andrea Stella becoming team principal, and changes to the technical structure, including the departure of technical director James Key.
Fortunately, the team has methodically put the pieces together under Stella. McLaren fashioned a sensational turnaround last year, becoming the second-fastest car at some weekends during the season’s second half. The progress has continued this year, with Norris registering his maiden victory in Miami and the team notching up five other podium finishes.
In the recent Canadian GP, Norris finished second and teammate Oscar Piastri came home fifth. A year ago, McLaren would have taken the result gladly, but now, the race will go down as a missed opportunity, showing how far the team has come.
Key men: CEO Zak Brown and team principal Andrea Stella deserve a lot of credit for McLaren’s revival. | Photo credit: Getty Images
Chandhok credits Stella and CEO Zak Brown with getting the team back on track. “He [Stella] is a pragmatic leader. His core belief is about engineering success and being honest about things when they are not working. There is a no-blame culture, and he ensures that people are empowered to speak up and highlight any weakness in the collective system that helps them move forward. He has been a fantastic asset for McLaren,” says Chandhok.
“Zak [Brown] has gone on and found the money, and the team has more than 40 partners to give the financial muscle to invest in the factory and people to grow the team.”
Strong driver pairing
Apart from the technical talent and resources, McLaren also has one of the stronger driver pairings in Norris and Piastri, both of whom made their F1 debut with the team.
In 2021 and 2022, Norris blew away the experienced Ricciardo, showing how well he could adapt to a tricky car. His consistent ability to extract the most from his car has led to him being considered one of the grid’s elite drivers, alongside Max Verstappen, Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.
Piastri, meanwhile, has impressed everyone in only his second year and even won a sprint race last year in Qatar. Though he has areas to work on, like his tyre management in races, the Australian has kept Norris on his toes and has often been quicker over one lap in qualifying.
“Apart from Lewis and Charles in what Ferrari will have next year, this is the best line-up in F1. Oscar is incredibly fast, calm, methodical and a good team player. He and Lando are fast drivers but have similar styles, wanting the same thing from a car. It means that the team can develop the car in the same direction. Lando has good experience now but is also maturing. There is a difference between a guy scoring points and someone fighting for podiums and wins. It takes a different level of maturity, and we are seeing that,” says Chandhok.
At the same time, the engineering group has also made the car more of an all-rounder. “Over the last few years, the car had a lot of drag, making it slow on the straight line. Last year, they also struggled in slow corners. But now, they have widened the envelope of the car’s performance, reducing drag without losing downforce. There is no real weakness, and it is competitive on most tracks,” explains Chandhok.
As the F1 circus prepares for the triple-header in Spain, Austria and Britain, McLaren will hope to be right up there at the sharp end of the grid.
While the team is not far off leader Red Bull, a title fight may not be on the cards this year. But if McLaren can finish runner-up — it trails second-placed Ferrari by just 40 points in the constructors’ standings, and Norris is third, seven points behind Leclerc, among the drivers — it will mark a critical inflection point in its quest to reclaim its glory days.
