As we approach the 2025 F1 season with 12 days to go, all eyes have been on testing and one team in particular seem to be continuing their strong performance.
From a disappointing season back in 2022 to claiming the constructor’s championship two years later, McLaren have reclaimed their dominance on the grid.
McLaren’s own, Lando Norris, came into contact of the driver’s championship at a reach but couldn’t quite catch up to RedBull’s Max Verstappen, who claimed his fourth championship in a row.
One element that put McLaren ahead of the rest is the team effort and collaboration between Norris and teammate Oscar Piastri.
Head of development at McLaren and Lando Norris’ performance engineer Andrew Jarvis didn’t predict such success.
“No, I certainly didn’t expect us to win the Constructors’ Championship at the start of the season.
“We hoped to be fighting with Red Bull in some races, but not as regularly as we did.
“That was a nice surprise.”
Norris and Piastri regularly featured on the podium, as well as achieving 1-2 finishes in Hungary and Singapore.
2024 marked the beginning of winning achievements for Norris as he delivered a clean victory in Miami after four years of being just out of reach.
Norris won more races than anyone besides Max Verstappen last year.
“There was even a point in the season where we were looking at the Drivers’ Championship, but ultimately, that didn’t happen.
“Still, winning the Constructors’ Championship was great.”
For McLaren, their battle against Ferrari in the constructor’s championship sparked a streak of success as they pushed for papaya on the podium.
Previous champions, RedBull, became a weak team overall as Sergio Perez underperformed for the majority of the season as they prioritised the performance of Verstappen.
As a result of this, Perez has been replaced by seasoned rookie Liam Lawson, who in 2024 took the place of former RedBull driver Daniel Ricciardo at RB Honda RBPT.
From the testing sessions in Bahrain, McLaren have given the impression that they are the team to beat but the genuine results reveal at the first Grand Prix, hosted in Australia.
“On paper, our numbers look good, but we do not know what other teams have done.
“Testing gives some indication, but you don’t really know until Australia when everyone is running low fuel and pushing flat out in qualifying.”
The realistic goal for the team this year is to achieve the constructors title for a second time in a row, but they will still push for either driver to be in a fighting chance of the driver’s championship.
Not forgetting, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton has settled in at Ferrari and such collaboration at this moment is unpredictable when considering the teams previous underwhelming results, however, Hamilton could be what sets them apart from the grid.
Looking strong, McLaren will be sure to dominant on track once again following their previous success.
“Lando is in the best shape he has ever been going into a season.
“We learned a lot last year by fighting at the front—it is very different from racing in the midfield.
“There are strategic lessons, car performance lessons, and driving lessons that we have taken on board. So, we are in a much stronger position.”
Jarvis predicts there will not be any anomalies amongst the top half of the grid this season, suggesting it will be the “same teams as always—RedBull, Ferrari, Mercedes.”
