How McLaren got back to title contention after 12 years of hardship

“That’s a huge milestone.”

Having worked at McLaren for the past nine years, current team principal Andrea Stella knows better than most what a rollercoaster the team has lived through.

While McLaren took the lead of the constructors’ standings somewhat unsurprisingly last weekend at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, this is the first time the Woking-based squad has appeared as a legitimate title contender since the 2012 campaign.

Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button had taken a combined seven victories from 20 races that season – tied with Red Bull for most wins. However, a blend of driver errors and technical failures left them with a total 10 retirements – a stark contrast with other frontrunners at Red Bull, Ferrari and Lotus. The associated points loss was insurmountable.

Despite its undeniable performance, McLaren decided an overhauled car would have more potential in 2013, seeing limited development avenues on the rapid MP4-27. Thus was conceived the MP4-28 under technical chief Paddy Lowe with a revamped nose, monocoque and pullrod front suspension inspired by Ferrari.

This was unsuccessful to say the least. Button and new team-mate Sergio Perez failed to get a single podium finish, with the Mexican lamenting a lack of downforce and stability.

The debacle cost Martin Whitmarsh his position at the head of the team, and Eric Boullier was appointed as racing director by chairman and CEO Ron Dennis ahead of the 2014 campaign.

Lewis Hamilton, McLaren MP4-27

Photo by: Patrik Lundin / Motorsport Images

With Lowe having joined Mercedes, the 2014 MP4-29 was designed under promoted technical director Tim Goss, according to Formula 1’s groundbreaking new regulations.

McLaren enjoyed a certain advantage over most rival teams thanks to the dominant Mercedes turbo hybrid powertrain, but the team could boast little success despite briefly leading the constructors’ championship following a double podium by rookie Kevin Magnussen and Button in Melbourne.

Button then explained that the car was lacking both traction and downforce, consequently unstable in high-speed curves. “On corners with a sharp turn-in we are nowhere,” the Briton deplored.

Meanwhile, McLaren had announced the revival of its legendary engine partnership with Honda for 2015, reminiscent of the team’s halcyon days with Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.

The next three years did not live up to that glorious era. The team struggled to even fight for points due to the Honda unit lacking both power and reliability – with the returning Fernando Alonso infamously branding his powertrain a “GP2 engine” in the Japanese manufacturer’s home race at Suzuka.

Boullier stated at the 2015 Hungarian Grand Prix that Honda was, at that point in time, missing a massive 120bhp compared to Mercedes.

As a consequence, McLaren gave up on the Honda project and switched to Renault engines for the 2018 season, with Boullier claiming in September 2017: “We are ninth in the championship – with a top engine I think we would be fourth right now.”

Fernando Alonso, McLaren

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

This shows McLaren was aware of its chassis having room for improvement – and the Renault powertrain emphasised it even more than the squad may have feared, as it ended up a disappointing sixth in 2018. Boullier resigned midway through the year, replaced by a Stella and Gil de Ferran duo.

As it turned out, the MCL33 – the last car designed under Goss before he left the team – simply wasn’t delivering the same performance on track as in CFD and wind tunnel data.

“Not one single person was at fault, but when you have CEOs and team principals in and out, and racing directors in and out, it is hard to get a path forward,” explained then-new CEO Zak Brown.

“We have done everything from personnel changes to structural changes to get the right people in the right places with the right goals and the right KPIs. So when we go to develop the 2019 car we don’t replicate those same issues and it is a road to recovery.”

A disillusioned Alonso left F1 to race with Toyota in the World Endurance Championship while Stoffel Vandoorne was ousted, the most dominant champion in GP2 history having seemingly never made the most of his potential at McLaren.

Just as promising a youngster, Lando Norris came in alongside Carlos Sainz, and the 2019 MCL34 was a marked improvement under Stella, engineering director Pat Fry and chief engineer Peter Prodromou.

Unlike its predecessor, the MCL34 was fully designed taking into account the Renault power unit. Norris and Sainz were regular points scorers, with the Spaniard achieving McLaren’s first podium finish in more than five years at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

Meanwhile, Andreas Seidl and James Key were hired as team principal and technical director respectively, with the Briton designing the new MCL35 for 2020 – this time an evolution from its precursor.

Having taken his position at the start of May 2019, Seidl established a priority straight away: building a new in-house wind tunnel, as McLaren had been using Toyota’s in Cologne.

Thus began a long process of updating the Woking infrastructure, which also included a new simulator and was going to take place over the next four years – slightly longer than planned due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2020 season was even more successful than the previous campaign, with McLaren reaching third position in the constructors’ standings thanks to consistent top-five finishes from Sainz and Norris, with the Spaniard coming close to a maiden win in Monza.

When Sainz joined Ferrari, he was replaced by Daniel Ricciardo, and Norris became the team leader as the veteran struggled to match his performance. The Briton scored 160 points in 2021 although Ricciardo took McLaren’s first victory in nine years – a shock 1-2 at Monza.

Team management also went through an evolution around this period, with Stella replacing the outgoing Seidl as team principal, while there were many changes in technical leadership to reach the current structure led by Prodromou, Rob Marshall and Neil Houldey.

McLaren suffered somewhat from the new regulations from 2022 onwards, especially at the beginning of 2023 as Norris and new team-mate Oscar Piastri (in for Ricciardo) scored a combined 17 points over the opening eight rounds.

Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren MCL35M, 1st position, takes victory to the delight of his team on the pit wall

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

However, a major upgrade on the floor, sidepods and engine cover changed the squad’s fortunes from the Austrian Grand Prix – when the new parts were mounted on Norris’ car, before Piastri enjoyed them too at the next race.

McLaren has been a consistent frontrunner since then with no fewer than 25 podium finishes, compared to Red Bull’s 30, Ferrari’s 21 and Mercedes’ 11. Given this year’s MCL38 was the first car to be designed using the new wind tunnel, it’s no wonder that the team has been making strides to the point of winning three of the last five grands prix and taking over the lead of the constructors’ standings.

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Yet, despite McLaren outscoring Red Bull by 113 points over the last seven rounds, Stella’s current priority is to steer clear of any complacency ahead of the upcoming grands prix.

“The car, as a matter of fact, is still not fast enough to create some boring races – which, if you want, is not in the interest of Formula 1, but is definitely the way in which we want to go racing,” he said.

“So we have work to do in terms of making the car faster, and we need to remain humble, and we need to keep the feet on the ground, because we see that, in fairness, there’s not much to pick at all between the four top teams.

“When it comes to McLaren, I often hear ‘McLaren best car’. I think this is not in the numbers. I think in the numbers, McLaren is the best car in some kind of circuits like Barcelona, Hungary, Zandvoort for good technical reasons.

“But here, McLaren did not enjoy any advantage over Ferrari, and I think not even over Red Bull. And if we see even in Monza [qualifying], Mercedes was within the [75] milliseconds between P2 and P6, so it’s just very, very balanced.”