McLaren may have won the 2024 Constructors’ Championship – their first since 1998 – but it was not without its complications.
The Woking-based outfit looked to have made a huge stride forward in development when Lando Norris won his maiden Grand Prix in Miami and after Red Bull suffered a dip in performance, McLaren suddenly had the fastest package.
Despite Norris losing out to Max Verstappen in the Drivers’ Championship, both the Brit and teammate Oscar Piastri only failed to score points once as they’re incredible consistency guided McLaren to the constructors’ title by 14 points over Ferrari.
| Position | Constructors’ Standings | Points |
| 1 |
McLaren Racing |
666 |
| 2 |
Scuderia Ferrari |
652 |
| 3 |
Red Bull Racing |
589 |
| 4 |
Mercedes-AMG Petronas |
468 |
| 5 |
Aston Martin F1 Team |
94 |
| 6 |
Alpine F1 Team |
65 |
| 7 |
Haas F1 Team |
58 |
| 8 |
Visa Cash App RB Formula One Team |
46 |
| 9 |
Williams F1 Team |
17 |
| 10 |
Sauber F1 Team |
4 |
Norris enjoyed his best season to date with four wins and eight pole positions as he finished runner-up with 374 points, while Piastri found another gear from his rookie season as he finished fourth with two wins, eight podiums and 292 points.
Despite the Aussie’s success, Martin Brundle says Norris left Piastri ‘behind’ in the McLaren battle as he only beat the Brit eight times across the season. But there was a significant reason for that.
Mark Webber ‘certainly wasn’t happy’ with McLaren’s team orders against Oscar Piastri
As fans saw many times across the season, the McLaren duo were keen to fight each other on track, but sometimes it became too much. Most notably in Monza when Piastri’s overtake on Norris into turn four also allowed Charles Leclerc through which denied a potential one-two finish.
McLaren soon intervened with their ‘papaya rules’, where Piastri was told to step back and aid Norris as he had the best chance of winning the title – which ultimately failed.
READ MORE: McLaren driver Oscar Piastri’s life outside F1 from height to girlfriend
Papaya rules were also immediately seen as controversial with many differing opinions coming from it. Marc Surer thinks McLaren made a mistake not prioritising Norris earlier, while Piastri’s camp were unimpressed by the fact that he was put second behind the Brit.
According to Robert Doornbos, former Red Bull driver Mark Webber – who is Piastri’s manager – ‘certainly wasn’t happy’ with how McLaren treated him as he could ‘match’ Norris in pace, but had to step back as the number two in 2024.
“Decisions of [the] first driver, I did not support that at all how they handled that. I think they handled it wrong to openly support Lando from Hungary actually,” said Doornbos via the GPFans NL YouTube channel.
“Just let it be determined and towards the end of the season you’ll see who is highest because it wasn’t fair to Oscar Piastri who in his second season could actually just match [Norris] and that’s been a mental stab.
“I know Mark Webber. I know him a little bit, so Oscar’s manager. Well, he certainly wasn’t happy with that and I’m sure he would have told you that.”
Can Oscar Piastri fight for the title in 2025?
With everything set back to zero come 2025, Piastri will be eager to stamp his authority at McLaren and fight for the championship.
The Aussie’s pace and aggressive driving has caught everyone’s attention, with the F1 paddock now realising Piastri is ‘really special’ and capable of competing at the front.
Piastri’s engineer Tom Stallard says he must improve in qualifying if he wants to match Norris in 2025, given that the Brit grabbed eight poles across 2024 while the Aussie failed to score any.
McLaren also would have learned a lot from their battles with their rivals on track this season, with Zak Brown telling Norris and Piastri to race Verstappen differently in 2025 to give them the best chance of fighting for the drivers’ title.
Leave feedback about this