McLaren was a team reborn in 2019 after years of chronic underperformance and difficulties. How did it happen? Motorsport Week reflects on a flourishing campaign for the papaya guys and girls.
It is difficult now to recall the depths McLaren plumbed in the aftermath of its split from Honda. It was a very rude awakening that prompted internal finger-pointing, a group restructuring, and a realisation that it had to adopt a different attitude if it was to stop the rot. It slumped down the order, on occasion had the second-slowest package, and scored points just twice after the summer break in 2018. Fernando Alonso had seen enough. Daniel Ricciardo was sounded out but politely declined. Even Esteban Ocon was unenthused. It wound up with a driver deemed surplus to requirements by Red Bull and Renault, and another whose Formula 2 rookie season was solid if unspectacular. It had all of the ingredients to be a problematic year. Instead, McLaren has undoubtedly been the surprising revelation of the season, with the green shoots of recovery sprouting far quicker than anyone expected, spearheaded by the reborn Carlos Sainz Jr., his team-mate (slash borderline brother) Lando Norris and the charismatic Andreas Seidl.
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Seidl’s appointment, shortly after James Key finally arrived as Technical Director, was regarded as the final piece of the jigsaw. This is a team almost entirely restructured and reshuffled in recent years, with new recruits complemented by the promotion of existing talent, and a case of getting a house in order. But there was still a dearth at the very top of the F1 team in the aftermath of Eric Boullier’s resignation, and Seidl’s eventual arrival in May gave McLaren the authority figure it craved. Seidl immediately gelled with the McLaren ethos, implemented a forward-thinking vision and pushed through plans for a new wind tunnel, which should be operational by 2021. One of Seidl’s first public declarations was to stress the future was with Sainz Jr. and Norris, as the spectre of Alonso – fresh from a test day – still lingered. It left no doubts as to where the focus would be. Re-aligning with Mercedes from 2021 is also an important step as it rejected Renault’s request for greater collaboration, wanting to remain as independent as possible. The appointment of Seidl also allowed Brown to take a step back and focus on the group as a whole, reducing his presence at grands prix. The cynical view is that McLaren is now clawing its way back towards where it was in the early 2010s, given the self-inflicted nature of its decline, but considering where it was in 2017 its recovery – and the groundwork laid for the 2020s – has been impressive. Four years after Alonso, having slumped in a deckchair after another failure, and Jenson Button jokingly mounted the podium in Brazil, the entire McLaren team got their moment in the sun courtesy of Sainz Jr.’s result.
After the constant unknowns at Toro Rosso, and the short-term nature of his loan Renault deal, Sainz Jr. finally found a home at McLaren. Any aspersions that this was a marriage of convenience were soon dispelled. Sainz Jr. worked hard to assimilate himself within the organisation, which included moving to Weybridge, while the knowledge that he would be spending two years – at least – allowed long-term planning that he had yet to experience or appreciate. There were some outstanding performances throughout the year: eighth on a difficult weekend in Spain, eighth from the back in Austria (an under-rated drive worthy of his departed compatriot) back-to-back fifths in Germany and Hungary, fifth in Japan, and of course the surge from last to third in Brazil. Finishing sixth in the Drivers’ Championship was an outstanding achievement. He did not just out-score Pierre Gasly and Alexander Albon, who had half-seasons in a race-winning car, but racked up more points than the entire Renault outfit.
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Norris stepped up to Formula 1 as the youngest driver in McLaren’s distinguished history and did so with a wise head. McLaren, wary of how it mis-handled the likes of Kevin Magnussen, Sergio Perez and Stoffel Vandoorne, emphasised that Norris would be given time. Early on Norris heeded such advice, playing the percentage game rather than taking any unnecessary risk, wary that reaching the chequered flag was his primary target. Norris spent a bulk of the campaign out-pacing Sainz Jr. in qualifying – no mean feat – and it is not a stretch to say he was one of the midfield’s unluckiest racers. Potential hauls in Canada, Germany, Belgium and Italy went begging due to factors outside of his control, while he nobly played the team game in Monaco, partly sacrificing his own prospects to aid Sainz Jr. Norris was not as consistent as Sainz Jr. – not a surprise, given his inexperience – but the encouraging element was that his peaks were high, and he approached the season with an endearing attitude.
Both drivers impressed but naturally they were facilitated by a stable chassis that was developed well, and a team that became operationally sharper if still far from perfect. Updates brought to the MCL34 yielded the desired results – a huge benefit after its 2018 correlation problems – and ensured that McLaren was regularly towards the front of the midfield group. Wider operating window than some rivals assisted its cause in qualifying while strong starts meant Sainz Jr. and Norris were occasionally able to rattle the cages of the front-runners on lap one. In an ultra-reliable field a few glitches, some down to Renault, robbed McLaren of even more points, while investments have been made in better and more reliable pit equipment after a handful of issues in race trim.
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That McLaren sealed fourth with one race to go – and even scored a podium finish – spoke volumes of its progress through the 2019 campaign. It leapt from 62 points and a net P7 to 145 points and P4. But as senior management have been at pains to stress, this was the first building block in its long-term recovery. McLaren isn’t in F1 to finish fourth. And there are still warnings; it may have been fourth-fastest but it was not necessarily head-and-shoulders above its rivals all the time, as shown by its Mexico malaise off the back of its strong pace in Japan. Renault’s 2019 rut is also a lesson that getting to the front of the midfield does not automatically mean it will stay there in 2020. But, as with several teams, 2021 – and beyond – is where the real change may come.
“I think we need to be realistic,” asserted the pragmatic Seidl in September. “For us let’s say the next target is to make the next step next year. Hopefully we can jump somewhere in terms of performance and lap times between where we are now and the top teams. That would be a great step forward for next year. For ‘21 onwards the new regulations are kicking in, but we need to be realistic. The three top teams are not just there because of having more money, they simply do a better job also, and they will keep doing a better job, so for us it’s important make sure we take the next steps as a team to do simply a better job. If we get everything right on our side, and keep working hard, we hopefully can challenge them at some point.”
McLaren has firmly re-established a level of respect after years of chronic failure and humiliation. The big challenge now is to make the next step.
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