McLaren is close to achieving their first Constructors’ Championship since the 1998 season at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The Woking squad started off the season as the second-best car to Red Bull, but after making key upgrades they slowly emerged as title contenders. Lando Norris battled with Max Verstappen but a series of errors ultimately cost him a shot at the Drivers’ Championship, with the team switching focus to the Constructors.
The team currently leads Ferrari by 21 points heading into the final race of the season, with Norris and Oscar Piastri needing to outscore the Scuderia if they want to clinch the title.
McLaren purposely delayed key upgrades to their MCL38 in the latter part of the season to avoid any changes to their form, but after fitting them in Mexico they have found extra pace that has enabled their drivers to build on their consistency.
Discussing their form after practice for the Abu Dhabi GP, former F1 driver Anthony Davidson has highlighted a ‘benign’ factor that has enabled McLaren to exploit the best of their car.
McLaren’s ‘benign’ MCL38 has enabled them to lead Constructors’ Championship
McLaren’s rivals have often headed into weekends battling a specific problem with the car, with Red Bull notably needing to make big setup changes in Qatar that resulted in them turning around their fortunes.
Mercedes also has to often battle with problems during a weekend, having been largely puzzled as to why they were so quick in Las Vegas. Davidson has highlighted a key factor that has enabled McLaren to be consistent throughout this 24-race campaign.
“Once again, McLaren comes to another circuit and it hits the ground running. That’s why, for me, it’s leading the Constructors’ Championship. It’s so benign it works pretty much everywhere for both drivers,” said Davidson.
Discussing their long run pace in practice, Davidson added: “Lando pretty much gave the game away that they were running a higher engine mode, which can give you anything from four to six tenths of a second depending on where the others were running theirs.
“If you look down the timing list, Lewis was six tenths away. If they were to be running the engine at the same power unit level, you will get around four-to-six tenths and that puts him right up there.”
McLaren boss would not be surprised if Charles Leclerc does one thing in Abu Dhabi GP
Ferrari faces starting on the backfoot for the race after Charles Leclerc was handed a 10-place grid penalty for fitting a third energy store in his power unit.
Drivers are only allowed to take two of these throughout the season, so a third means they must incur a grid penalty. McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said he would not be surprised if he saw Leclerc recover from the penalty, given their race pace at previous races.
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The team was also slower in the race long runs in FP2, with McLaren setting the pace from Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes.
During the soft tyre runs Sainz set the fourth quickest time while Leclerc sealed P6, so the team could salvage a good starting point and work their way up from there in the race if they want to challenge for the Constructors’ title.
