McLaren has been the benchmark team in 2024 having sealed their first Constructors’ Championship since 1998 in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Lando Norris’ victory at the Yas Marina Circuit sealed the title for McLaren, despite rivals Ferrari scoring a double podium for Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc.
Leclerc pulled off an ‘epic’ opening lap after starting down in P19 due to a power unit-related penalty, while Oscar Piastri was pitched into a spin in the first 100m by Max Verstappen in an incident that now puts him close to a one-race ban in the early parts of 2025.
Despite the setbacks for McLaren, the lights-to-flag win by Norris was just enough to clinch the title by 14 points. It is a remarkable turnaround for McLaren after finding themselves with a slow and unreliable car at the start of the 2023 season.
Discussing their ascent over the last two years on The Race F1 podcast, journalist Scott Mitchell-Malm has revealed one key figurehead within McLaren who was a big contributor to their recent success.
Ex-Red Bull aerodynamicist Peter Prodromou highlighted as key to McLaren’s recent success
Much of the backroom staff in the aerodynamics department changed at the beginning of the 2023 season following the departure of Andreas Seidl.
Andrea Stella was appointed team principal and he immediately made changes, with Peter Prodromou getting promoted and Rob Marshall being poached from Red Bull midway through the 2023 season.
Mitchell-Malm believes Stella’s restructuring within McLaren enabled Prodromou to flourish, effectively bringing them back to winning ways.
“One extra name that I would throw in who was an offshoot of what Andrea Stella has done as team principal is Peter Prodromou, who I think has been unleashed in the Stella-era. This feels like what McLaren was getting a decade ago, it was a massive deal when he went from Red Bull,” said Mitchell-Malm.
“I definitely think the shackles came off when Stelle rejigged the technical leadership. The best way to describe it is Prodromou went from managing to designing again and additional people like Rob Marshall coming in.”
Lando Norris favourite to win 2025 Drivers’ Championship
McLaren’s consistency this year has been unrivalled, while Norris demonstrated what is possible when he took a lights-to-flag victory in Abu Dhabi under pressure from Ferrari.
Nico Rosberg has tipped Norris to win the 2025 Drivers’ title, while fellow pundit on Sky Sports Martin Brundle also thinks the Briton is the favourite next season.
READ MORE: All you need to know about McLaren F1 Team from team principal to engine
F1 has a habit of crowning successive champions then seeing a mixed period, so after years of domination between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton we could see the same from 2025 and with the new regulations in 2026.
Piastri also showed that he was no slouch against Verstappen, so it is likely to be an interesting intra-team dynamic at McLaren next season.
