Ex-Formula 1 driver David Coulthard has tipped his former team McLaren as the favourites for success again in this year’s upcoming World Championship.
The Woking-based squad took its first Constructors’ title in 26 years in 2024, after a season in which it dethroned Red Bull as the team with the fastest car.
It was quite the turnaround for the team, who went from recent years of comparative uncompetitive performance and near-closure to the top of the world.
And the Scot, who raced for the team between 1997 and 2004, believes that they have set themselves up to be in prime position to repeat the feat.
Speaking on Channel 4’s coverage of the final race in Abu Dhabi, for which he was analyst, Coulthard said: “The thing that I think has made it so special is [that] they’re ahead of their own schedule.
“They just didn’t start the year thinking they were in contention to win it.
They’ve been invested in this building schedule over a few years, and then got to mid — well, not even mid-season!
“We got a few races in, and suddenly they’re there.
“They’re showing pace. The upgrades are working. The drivers are working beautifully together, and that momentum has carried them to this championship.
“Everything is now set up for them to go into 2025 the favorites with winning drivers.”
The ‘right people’ key to McLaren regeneration
Coulthard pointed-out that a vital need to change-up personnel in the background has been a huge factor in seeing the reversal of fortunes for McLaren.
“It’s the people, and that name of success that McLaren had in the 90s and 80s and all that — they needed to rebuild. They needed to build the confidence and the team,” he said.
“They needed to invest in the right people under this leadership, ultimately, of Zak [Brown], who’s an absolute racer, isn’t he? He goes out and drives McLarens for fun.
“And then Andrea Stella had success with Ferrari. He’s put together an engineering team, two young drivers that have blossomed, and the rest is history.”
Brown has been, without a doubt, a crucial figure in McLaren’s turnaround, having taken over as CEO in 2018 after around 18 months as an executive director.
As ultimately the man in charge of strategic direction across many areas of McLaren, Brown has managed to turn the team into a once-great one – with a string of unsuccessful Team Principals and scarcely-sponsored cars – into World Champions that boast a number of globally-recognised partners adorning the papaya livery.
Another masterstroke has been the appointment of Stella as Team Principal, who took over from Andrea Seidl in 2023.
The Italian, who has been a member of the McLaren family in various guises since 2015, had previously been a race engineer at Ferrari, working with the likes of Michael Schumacher, Kimi Räikkönen and Fernando Alonso.
And perhaps the final piece in the puzzle was the signing of Oscar Piastri to partner Lando Norris, the Australian replacing his countryman Daniel Ricciardo ahead of 2023, who had underperformed during his time with the team.
At the time of the signing, Piastri was part of Alpine’s Academy, and was infamously announced as one of its race drivers for ’23, with Piastri hours later rubbishing the post, saying that he would ‘not be driving’ for them.
At this stage, Alpine had previously finished above McLaren in the Constructors’ Championship, and the dismal start to 2023 seemed to prove Piastri had made the wrong move.
Fast forward to today, and Piastri is now a Grand Prix winner, finishing the year with 292 points, 227 more than Alpine scored as a whole.
If Coulthard’s prediction is correct, then both Piastri and the established Lando Norris could be significantly placed to challenge for their first-ever Drivers’ title this year.
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