Brundle reveals why McLaren ‘did not get lost’ en route to F1 glory
Former F1 driver Martin Brundle has revealed why McLaren did not “get lost” this year unlike its rivals, en route to title glory.
Lando Norris’ victory in the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix saw McLaren clinch a first constructors’ title since 1998.
McLaren’s rise since the 2023 Austrian Grand Prix has been remarkable, having been nowhere almost 24 months ago.
The Woking-based team does have an exceptional driver pairing in Norris and Oscar Piastri, although Brundle does not put its driver pairing down as the sole reason for its title success.
Brundle has highlighted that both drivers made only a few errors, whilst, crucially, rarely damaged their cars. As a result, more time could be spent by McLaren on developing upgrades.
“It’s easy to argue that McLaren have the equal-best duo in Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and those two drivers have been consistently fast,” Brundle wrote for Sky Sports F1.
“More importantly, they’ve not made many errors and have barely damaged their cars in this, the longest season in F1’s 74-year history with 24 races and six Sprints scattered across the planet.
“That means most of their energy and budget cap has been focused on performance and not repairs.”
Whilst Norris and Piastri ensured McLaren had plenty of time to develop upgrades, with British team took a quality over quantity approach.
McLaren only introduced a few major upgrades across the season, less than its immediate rivals.
The likes of Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes all introduced at least one upgrade which decreased its performance, whereas all of McLaren’s improved the MCL36.
“The team has also been pragmatic and cautious in putting upgrades on the car, ensuring they know exactly what they have, and that it actually works, so as not to get lost as other teams have done,” added Brundle.
“That’s been imperative on these complex cars which are nearing the ceiling of performance in year three of reasonably static technical regulations.”
