McLaren clinched its first Constructors’ Championship title since the 1998 season in Abu Dhabi, after a lights-to-flag victory for Lando Norris.
The team came into the race with a 21-point lead over Ferrari and were in a brilliant position to capitalise with a front-row lockout on the grid, while Charles Leclerc was forced to start from the back of the grid with a power unit penalty.
Things quickly turned on their head for McLaren when Oscar Piastri was caught up in an incident with Max Verstappen at the first corner, causing the Australian to drop to the back of the pack. Verstappen is now close to a one-race ban after the incident, having been handed two penalty points on his licence and a 10-second time penalty.
According to Anthony Davidson, Leclerc had an ‘epic’ opening lap, enabling him to get into the top 10 places and set his sights on a podium. This meant a lot of pressure was on Norris to win the race, but the Briton stayed cool and brought the first title back to Woking in 26 years.
Piastri paid tribute to McLaren CEO Zak Brown when speaking on the Chequered Flag podcast, having turned around the teams fortunes following a tough start to the hybrid era in 2014.
Oscar Piastri praises Zak Brown for ‘hard work’ getting McLaren back to the top
Brown was brought in after the 2016 season by McLaren, after a falling out between former CEO Ron Dennis and the late Mansour Ojjeh who part-owned the team.
McLaren was on the back foot after the deal with Honda did not yield competitive results, with Brown tasked with turning around their fortunes.
The team got back to winning ways in 2021 when Daniel Ricciardo won their first race since 2012 at the Italian Grand Prix, and despite having a poor start to the 2023 season the McLaren turned around their fortunes and emerged as a contender at the end of 2023.
Piastri has been impressed by how Brown has been key to the team’s success, having put in place the right people to bring it back to winning ways.
“I’ve been incredibly impressed with Zak and the hard work he’s done in getting the right people and putting them in the right place, and part of that is putting Andrea Stella in the right place. I think its obvious how much he means to this team and critical to its success,” said Piastri.
Oscar Piastri achieves feat only achieved by Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton
Piastri managed to achieve a feat that has only previously been done by Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton, and Max Verstappen at the end of the Abu Dhabi GP.
The Australian competed every single Grand Prix lap in a year, having not retired at any stage during the 2024 season.
READ MORE: Lando Norris sends eight-word reply to Max Verstappen after congratulating McLaren on winning 2024 title
Schumacher achieved this in 2002, while Hamilton did the same in 2019 and Verstappen during his dominant season behind the wheel of the RB19 in 2023.
It capped off another impressive year for Piastri, who will no doubt be a title contender next season alongside Norris.
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