McLaren beat their rivals to end a 16-year championship drought and bring some silverware back to Woking after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Lando Norris put on a totally calm display in Abu Dhabi to help his team claim the Constructors’ Championship over Ferrari by just 14 points.
It would have been easy to panic after Oscar Piastri clashed with Max Verstappen, leaving him at the back of the field and of little use to the team.
Although they left points on the table at other rounds in the season, McLaren delivered when it mattered most to complete an excellent turnaround.
Zak Brown led them from the back of the pack to champions in a matter of seasons and led them through one of the toughest periods in Formula 1 history (Covid).
Despite starting the season a fair distance behind Red Bull, they chased them relentlessly and denied them from achieving a third consecutive title double thanks to some exceptional car development.
Helmut Marko claims McLaren made strategy ‘mistakes’ which Red Bull didn’t
Although they delivered when it mattered, things could have been so much more comfortable for McLaren if they had managed to deliver to a higher standard in one area across 2024.
Their strategy cost them better results (and possibly wins) at the Canadian Grand Prix, British Grand Prix and Spanish Grands Prix.
It also gave Max Verstappen a more comfortable cushion to play with and released some pressure in the Drivers’ Championship.
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Speaking to Kleine Zeitung, Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko pointed out that their rivals may have been better off with fewer mistakes than them in the strategy department.
“It was a very difficult year for us, especially with our technical problems,” he said. “At some point, we no longer knew where we had taken a wrong turn and at times we only had the fourth fastest car.
“In this situation, Max [Verstappen] saved us by getting around the car’s weaknesses. The turning point was definitely his incredible performance in the rain in Brazil. Despite the technical problems, we never made any mistakes in terms of strategy, unlike McLaren in some situations.”
Are McLaren the favourite over Red Bull heading into 2025?
Red Bull will have a new driver line-up for 2025 as Liam Lawson joins the team from Visa Cash App Racing Bulls.
He’s there to fill a huge performance void left by Sergio Perez this season which ended up costing them the title that McLaren went on to claim.
While they strengthen in that area, they will also need to be efficient in car development after ending the year with the third fastest car.
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They won’t be able to rely on the Verstappen factor all the time and they’re going to want to achieve a special fifth consecutive Drivers’ title with the Dutchman.
With Adrian Newey now gone their task becomes a little bit harder, but it’s the final year of the technical regulations and they have nothing to lose so expect them to be ambitious.
It means that McLaren are favourites to secure both honours for now with Ferrari close behind. It would be silly to discount Red Bull from the running so early on though.
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