McLaren is one of the oldest teams in Formula One and have been in every competitive year since 1966. This fierce and competitive team where formed by Bruce McLaren and has since gone on to be one of the most successful teams in F1 history! However, over the past couple of seasons that once intimidating car has become somewhat dampened with engine changes and no results this team became laughable.
With 8 constructors’ championships and 12 driver championships it is hard to think that this
team is now battling the midfield teams such as Renault and Racing Point to try and achieve
best of the rest status. Being dominant in the 70s, 80s and 90s and gaining a championship in 2008 with Lewis Hamilton, the fall in form became clear throughout the 2010s.
Switching from a Mercedes power unit to a Honda seemed to punish McLaren between 2015-2017. In the 2015 season they finished 9th in the constructors with only 27 points, their worst points finish since 1980. This form continued into the 2016 season but they finished 6th with 76 points and then back down to 30 points in the 2017 season. This run of bad form resulted in McLaren switching to a Renault power unit, because quote Fernando Alonso, the Honda power unit is a ‘GP2 engine’. This move didn’t improve their performance in 2018 however, with them wanting to challenge Red Bull but ending up 357 points behind, it was clear that something needed to change!
This is where things get a little more positive for McLaren and their fans alike! The 2019 season was much more positive, more points finishes, a surprise podium and finishing best of the rest really did lift the team’s spirits and give some inspiration to carry on improving and try to get that little bit closer to the top 3 teams. Sainz’s podium in Brazil was their first
podium since the 2014 Australian Grand Prix where Lewis Hamilton finished 4th but later got to promoted to 3rd, exactly the same story as how Carlos got his spot on that podium. By bringing in young gun Lando Norris the partnership proved to be successful as they finished the 2019 season in 4th place with 145 points, their best points haul since 2014, finishing 54 points in front of 5th place Renault. It is clear to see from last year’s season that both Zac Brown and Andreas Seidl are really making a lasting impact in the team, with not only having a long term driver in Lando Norris, who is a key team player, (recently seen helping the team pack up in Hungary), to the signing of Daniel Ricciardo, a skilled, knowledgeable and experienced driver who can help the team improve next year’s car, but making sure that team has a nice environment to work in and not allowing for toxicity to dampen any moods. The working environment is clearly happy, and this can be seen from the many Unboxed episodes that we can watch on their YouTube, with the guys genuinely having faith in their team, something that McLaren have needed since their dominant days.
The start of the 2020 season has treated McLaren well even when they didn’t think that they
would be up there with the big teams. Lando coming P3 in Austria and then Carlos qualifying P3 the next week shows the improvement that this team have made already. Currently being 3rd in the constructors and having 41 points shows the change since the 2017 season when they finished with only 30 points. I have hope that this McLaren team will continue to improve and show that they are still that competitive team that we saw back in the olden days. I can’t wait for the rest of the season and to see the arrival of Danny Ric, looking forward to more podium celebrations and champagne showers.
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